On 10/17/06, 0x0000 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
--- John C <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
>
> Wondering though... In Columbus, how's the job market for technical
> people? Do recruiters call much for jobs there or do you have to go
> directly to the BIG TWO?
Speaking to that from *outside* the valley area, I deal with recruiters
pretty much constantly, and I have not seen or heard of any contract
positions coming up in that area - L3 and Lockheed are the big guns in
Georgia, and they're both in Atlanta -
Lockheed being whiny little bitches about hiring, generally speaking -
running their own "exclusive recruiting" business, offering low rates,
demanding mad credentials but allowing for little or no experience, and
just generally not tapping my segment of the market - I have contacted
them several times about positions they have posted nationally and
never got so much as an email in response - the consensus amongst the
contractos I know is that they don't hire for even a tiny fraction of
requirements they post claiming they are trying to fill.
L3 is not quite as bad, but they're a bit of a fiscal roller coaster -
they don't seem to know themselves if their own projects will be funded
over the next week, let alone 3 months... at least they use outside
agencies to recruit for them.
I know Ft Benning has had some involvement in some high-tech defense
and defense research projects, but again - no word about it on the
national contract market that I've seen - I only know about it from
personal contacts in the area and the published reports about the
projects.
There is a high-tech firm in Columbus - I forget the name of it, and I
haven't heard anything about it in a couple years, but they were making
dirigibles, I believe. Pretty neat stuff, but they never seem to have
advertised for people, and I never received a response to the email I
sent them enquiring about employment early on when they were announced.
I figured my avionics and networking background would be useful to
them, but either a) they're not as high tech as they seem and don't "do
email", b) they figured the couldn't afford me [may or may not be true
- they're a startup, but I'm pretty flexible with startups cause I like
being a part of them], c) know me and don't want me [not the case to
the best of my knowledge], or d) something I don't know about. In any
case, they didn't respond, and I haven't heard any more about them in
some time. Perhaps they just thought I lacked "persistence" cause I
didn't email them a second time...
As far as teh BIG TWO - I assume you're talking about TSYS and AFLAC?
I have never known them to be particularly "high tech" - they do have
big IT budgets, and I did run into some of their IT guys who were ...
*ahem* leveraging, shall we say, their multiple dial-out lines to in
pusuit of tech-related goals in a game called "Tradewars 2000" back in
the 1980s, but their tech has trailed somewhat behind the "cutting
edge" since before I got into software development in the late 80s.
In know TSYS was offering rates in the mid-80k range for consultants in
1999 because they apparently had massive COBOL systems that there were
concerned bout re: the y2k problems, but otherwise I have found that
they typically don't advertise for IT contractors much, and don't pay
much (from a national wage scale perspective) to those people they do
hire (direct).
AFLAC (from my perspective) is very much a "closed shop". You have to
know someone to get on there, as best I can tell. I have also heard
some stories about the "corporate culture" there that could stand your
hair on end (assuming you're not into all that, which I'm not - at
least, not for any money anyone has ever offered me)...
Columbus does not as low a "cost of living" as many of the Chamber of
Commerce types would have you believe, either - not as high as, say
California or New England, but definitely significanly higher than,
say, the mid-west (where I am now). So the combined low wages, high
cost of living, and the entrenched "old boy network" (clicishness)
combine to make it a very un-attractive place to work and live, imo.
The medical industry, the telecomms industry, and even the consolidated
government in Columbus have typically been slightly ahead of the
curve, but they don't seem to have much use for contractors that I've
seen.
Mostly, I just don't work there because the employers tend to be either
oppressive, cheap-skates, or oppresive cheap-skates. I also don't
like the weather there, although I do still call Phenix City "home"
(some days).
All that said, I have to consider that my views are perhaps a bit
skewed because I spent my teenage years and early twenties in the area
in the late 1970s (NOT something I have many fond memories of) and the
last time I was there was in the 2001/2002 timeframe. I don't know
specifically what it was like economically in that region, but I know
that nationwide, every contract engineer I know went out of work for at
least 9 months - so I was looking for work there in Columbus for a
minute. Very, very poor market. TSYS (their HR people) couldn't even
read my resume, let alone understand it - she trashed the formatting
and never called me back. AFLAC wouldn't talk to me.
No one else was hiring, that I could find, except one of the ISPs and
they just acted pissed off when offered to work for them for a little
less than half of what I was working for in AZ or IL in 2001. I don't
know what her problem was, but I'm just as glad I didn't get that,
since I was drawing more in un-employment at the time than they
appeared to be willing to offer, and the next offer I got (in WI) was
well above what I offered to work for LDL for. I'm still a bit
embarassed about that, but I did have a sentimentality excuse, since I
was one of Lightspeed's first customers when they opened up in
Columbus. Apparently they arenot sentitmental like that, though. Oh
well.
So overall I guess I'm just a little bit jaded when it comes to the job
market in Columbus. I may, at some point, retire to the area and open
up a business there, but if I do, I probably won't be paying very much
for help, either
Another pet idea of mine: tit for tat. I'll probably ashcan the resume
of any applicant who doesn't have green hair, body piercings, or
tattoos. It won't be stated, of course, it will be another of those
"unspecified rules and regulations" that "we all must observe in order
to get by".
If the fukkers in "business" down there can discriminate *against* such
people (they do, of course - if you don't know it, try dying your hair
something besides blond or brunette, or getting your eyebrow pierced) -
then I suppose there's nothing particularly illegal about
discriminating against good-ole-boys, rednecks, people who wear ties,
or debutants.
I figure I'll probably open a bank account at whatever the first bank
is to hire tellers with nose rings. I'm not unreasonable, you
understand - if you want to work for me, and you haven't got any body
modifications, we will allow a day or two to dye your hair, get some
ripped jeans and a leather jacket, and generally get your act
together... permanent mods aren't required, but you'll stand a better
chance of promotion if you get some good ink.
I mean, who *would* go to a job interview wearing jeans? I'm that it
will be someone who knows enough about what they're doing to know not
only that they can get away with it, but that it's a good idea if you
don't want to get caught up and put through the wringer by
just-another-posuer-mega-corp - someone who's tired of it and would
rather not have the job than go thru another week of idiotic bullshit
perpetrated by brain-dead management types with aspirations to petty
dictatorship and totalitarian society.
... anyway - not to get too deep into the tactics of The Enemy, but ...
well, you get the idea... :-/
0x0000
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