Mail Box - Letter to the Editor

Software Magazine, Oct, 1997

Been There, Done That

I am writing to thank Josh Greenbaum for his column in the June issue ("Outsourcing Intelligence," pg. 12).

I am the director of implementation and technical services in a small software company that provides a quality software product. One of my original tasks was to implement ISO 9000 standards, and I duly became a member of ASQC. For the next three years I researched and read each and every edition of the ASQC magazine, trying to find out how to implement what I estimated to be a three man-year effort with my limited staff, while still producing a quality product for my continually growing customer base.

Last year I came to the conclusion that I was not much interested in the Baldridge Award, dropped my subscription and membership with ASQC, and started to concentrate more on furnishing my customers a quality product that solved their problems. Greenbaum's article is the first time I have seen sentiment similar to mine in, any of the professional publications. By the way, my customer base is still growing and so is the company.

Gerry McGowan GMCGOWAN@ICAS.SPEAR.NAVY.MIL

Hiring for the '90s

I just finished reading "Help Wanted -- Badly" (Client/Server supplement, July Special Issue, pg. 74). I found it to be another whining, apocalyptic epistle written entirely from the business/recruiter perspective. This type of article almost never contains any input from the other side of the relationship -- namely, the recruit.

Recruiters (and their masters) have only themselves to blame for this situation. They suffer from the following afflictions that impair their ability to locate talent:

1. A fixation on technical skills.

This is a serious problem. There are thousands of people out there who, like me, have a wealth of experience in environments that are not currently in vogue, such as Paradox for Windows or FoxPro for Windows or Delphi. We are ramping up our skills as rapidly as possible. However, recruiters seem to believe that skills in these out-of-vogue technologies are not transferable to in-vogue technologies, such as Visual Basic.

2. An unrealistic expectation that recruits will not only be a "Jack (or Jill) of All Trades," but a "Master of All Trades" as well.

Think I am kidding? Here's a portion of a posting I pulled off of the Internet today: "Candidate consultant must have working knowledge of Windows programming, Visual Basic, Delphi, MS Access, and Crystal Report/Crystal Intb. Windows NT experience, Informix, Oracle, or Unix environment is desired."

The chances of finding anyone who is proficient in all these areas is probably lower than the probability of getting struck by lightning while caring Chinese food on a Dutch submarine.

3. An unwillingness to embrace telecommuting.

There are thousands of highly-skilled workers who have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be "high-tech migrant workers." Yet, there are thousands of positions going unfilled because companies/recruiters are not willing to give more than lip-service to the idea of telecommuting. In an era of the Interact and personal Web sites, there is no reason why remote development can't work for everyone.

There is no disputing that A serious shortage exists. There should also be no disputing That the situation is made worse by the unrealistic expectations of corporations and their recruiters. These folks need to get their thinking into the late 1990s.

Michael J. Austin MAUSTIN@HEVANET.COM

Misplaced Loyalty

Thanks for stating the problem so clearly ("It's About People, Part I," August issue, pg. 14). As an SAP systems administrator and team leader, I've had to struggle with keeping myself and my staff happy and focused on our assignments. Recently, I tried to go to bat for some of my staff who were honestly being paid under-market. After four months of discussion, one left.

In the meantime, management didn't catch on that I had similar concerns. I was a bit more fortunate from the salary end, but that's when things started to change.

I was "forced" out of management back to full time technical (tells you what the higher-ups think about technical managers). All conferences were canceled and training options reduced to a narrow selection (and SAP technical classes are nothing to write home about). By the way, my boss is at Oracle training this week.

What docs this all mean? My peers are leaving. Those on H-1 Visas are counting the days. My loyalty/idealism is waning. I'm now looking for that mystical company where client/server is more than a ticket to ride.

Grant Fern GRANT_FERN@PY.CYANAMID.COM