Re: Amazon.com
Walt Mankowski wrote: On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 10:03:54AM -0800, Michael R. Wolf wrote: *nix culture is stong, too. Living so close to two of the Un-namable Evils, it is no wonder there is a surplus of unix geeks. Sorry. Newby. MS and who? Activestate? :) They're up here in Vancouver, not Seattle, and as everyone knows there are no Un-namable Evils in Canada. :-) John -- use Perl; program fulfillment
Re: Amazon.com
Michael == Michael R Wolf [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: *nix culture is stong, too. Living so close to two of the Un-namable Evils, it is no wonder there is a surplus of unix geeks. Michael Sorry. Newby. MS and who? Stonehenge? :) -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/ Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!
Amazon.com
I am a newbie on this list (Perl 5+ or so years) (didn't know it existed until about 10 minutes ago) and had posted this on the beginners list: I have noticed over the last year or so that Amazon.com likes to spam the jobs.perl.org list periodically, sometimes repetitively with the same job posting, and I am curious, has *anyone* in the Perl community actually been contacted by them? Anyone outside of the Seattle area? Right now I am fairly content in my position, but like so many others am looking to move up (or in my case out) to a different position, and while there have been some financial reasons to doubt Amazon.com, the web moving forward is going to become stronger, and having a name like Amazon.com on your resume surely can't hurt, especially if you get to live in a better city While I am no Larry Wall, Tim Bunce, etc. etc. etc. I feel my experience, education, etc. would warrant at least an e-mail, and how many Perl/Unix/database/Web experts with several years of experience, are there in the Seattle area (I am not in the Seattle area, and while I think (hope) my skills are getting advanced, I don't consider myself an expert)? And if there are that many, why the multiple postings for the same job? What are the experiences with this?? Sorry if there has been recent discussion on this topic, a brief (extremely brief) glance at the archives didn't indicate such... your thoughts?? Just as an aside I found employment as a Perl programmer in mid-July 2001 after about 10 months unemployed. My goal was to make it to a new city (Chicago, LA, Denver, etc.) still trying on that one :-) http://danconia.org
Re: Amazon.com
On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Wiggins d'Anconia wrote: snip While I am no Larry Wall, Tim Bunce, etc. etc. etc. I feel my experience, education, etc. would warrant at least an e-mail, and how many Perl/Unix/database/Web experts with several years of experience, are there in the Seattle area (I am not in the Seattle area, and while I think (hope) my skills are getting advanced, I don't consider myself an expert)? And if there are that many, why the multiple postings for the same job? snip The Pacific Northwest is stuffed full of Perl programmers. The cultural atmosphere is very compatible with the concept of a programming language that is based on the same principles as human languages (as opposed to, mathamatical or contrived languages). Also, Perlisms such as DWIM and TMTOWTDI come naturally to us. Maybe it is because of our Sasquatch ancestry. *nix culture is stong, too. Living so close to two of the Un-namable Evils, it is no wonder there is a surplus of unix geeks. Also there are unemployment rates in the NW that are among the highest in the nation. So it's probably not the best time to be looking to move to Seattle for work. Therefore, it's no wonder that being willing to relocate doesn't warrant an email response. As to the reason for multiple postings for the same job, I would imagine they have either a lot of turnover, or else a disconnect between HR and IT that prevents successfully filling positions. It is common in the corporate swe^H^H^H workplace. -- Paris Sinclair
Re: Amazon.com
Paris Sinclair wrote: On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Wiggins d'Anconia wrote: snip While I am no Larry Wall, Tim Bunce, etc. etc. etc. I feel my experience, education, etc. would warrant at least an e-mail, and how many Perl/Unix/database/Web experts with several years of experience, are there in the Seattle area (I am not in the Seattle area, and while I think (hope) my skills are getting advanced, I don't consider myself an expert)? And if there are that many, why the multiple postings for the same job? snip The Pacific Northwest is stuffed full of Perl programmers. The cultural atmosphere is very compatible with the concept of a programming language that is based on the same principles as human languages (as opposed to, mathamatical or contrived languages). Also, Perlisms such as DWIM and TMTOWTDI come naturally to us. Maybe it is because of our Sasquatch ancestry. That I believe. Naturally, which is why I am hoping to move somewhere similar, which is naturally why I am having a difficult time of it, I see a circle forming here... *nix culture is stong, too. Living so close to two of the Un-namable Evils, it is no wonder there is a surplus of unix geeks. True. I actually had a recruiter in Indianapolis ask me after looking at my resume (realizing Windows was not on it) if Unix was dead and that Linux was just for hobbiests (mid 2002), for some reason I never heard back from him (nor contacted him)...hmm... I guess that would be the calm in the eye of the storm, it would seem the further from that area the less concentration of their 'wares you would expect, but don't get Also there are unemployment rates in the NW that are among the highest in the nation. So it's probably not the best time to be looking to move to Seattle for work. Therefore, it's no wonder that being willing to relocate doesn't warrant an email response. As to the reason for multiple postings for the same job, I would imagine they have either a lot of turnover, or else a disconnect between HR and IT that prevents successfully filling positions. It is common in the corporate swe^H^H^H workplace. Right, and while I am not targetting the NW in particular (the areas I am, exhibit similar issues), but this still doesn't explain that no mention of it being a local listing only was made, nor does it explain multiple postings with multiple openings in the listing being needed, especially just over a month apart? *Naturally as a programmer I expect order and logic where likely none exists, and the disconnect seems the most likely cause*, but with such a wealth of localized talent and high unemployment rates, even with high-turnover filling the position would not be difficult, besides if you received a flood of resumes for one listing, whittled your way through it, chose a candidate and then had to fill the position again would you go back to the original list rather than re-posting, but I suppose that would be to much to ask of an Internet company :-). Back to the high turnover, this doesn't seem logical either, given the state of the market and the two factors that were already mentioned, high unemployment and a concentration of talent, where are they going so quickly? Finally, if the position does have a high turnover within a given community of developers, wouldn't you want to look outside the community to someone who is trying to get into it? They are less likely to be frustrated/disappointed/eager to move on, etc. as most people once they have achieved a goal like that will tend to stick with something longer. Just some random thoughts, http://danconia.org
Re: Amazon.com
On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Wiggins d'Anconia wrote: From my experience the high unemployment seems to mostly mean that the people hiring gets PILES of (often pretty bad) resumes. I wouldn't want to be the HR person trying to sort through them. It's not much easier (if at all) to find really good people than it was a few years ago; in particular not for a specific location. - ask -- ask bjoern hansen, http://www.askbjoernhansen.com/ !try; do();
Re: Amazon.com
On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Wiggins d'Anconia wrote: I have noticed over the last year or so that Amazon.com likes to spam the jobs.perl.org list periodically, sometimes repetitively with the same job posting, and I am curious, has *anyone* in the Perl community actually been contacted by them? Anyone outside of the Seattle area? I responded to this post a few weeks ago, and I just returned from being out of the country for a week to find a couple voice mails from Amazon.com in response to my resume, and I'm in San Diego. We'll see if anything pans out...
Re: Amazon.com
Paris == Paris Sinclair [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Paris Maybe it is because of our Sasquatch ancestry. But Sasquatch is a hoax! [1] [1] http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~rfthomas/papers/wallace.html [2] [2] I met Ray Wallace many years ago. -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/ Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!
