This is an interesting conundrum. Some recommendations: 1) Keep the MBAs out of it.
2) Freshers with a high aptitude for math and a strong affinity to order and consistency are the kinds of personnel you need for this particular task. 3) Don't advertise the rarity. This is not a positive to anyone wanting to work for you. What you are saying is that the technology is so exclusive that the ability to re-use the skills is non-existent. Twincling's message board is prevalent with the sort of "what's hot now, what do I read to learn hot and will hot be hot in 2012" questions that imply that people getting into the workforce want to learn something immediately recognizable and applicable to multiple employers. 4) What you should advertise is the fundamental re-applicability of the craft that is programming. Not the library/integration kind, but proper programming - working close to the metal, understanding complex data structures and optimization tricks in a world where such things actually matter. Cite some other lines of business where such experience would be re-applicable. Driver development, kernel architecture, distributed hash tables, file-systems, micro-formats... the list is endless. 5) Keep looking. Be relentless. Don't be constrained by region. There are some gems out there - you'll just have to scour the web to find them. We have tons of talent in India - but only those who are willing and have the right aptitude can succeed. The willing part comes from within the candidate. The aptitude part is something only you can judge. All of the above assumes that you are a patient and enthusiastic teacher to the candidate. If you just expect them to magically find their way then you are looking for someone really rare. A self-starter. Goodluck. Cheers, Zubin. On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 12:29 AM, knk <[email protected]> wrote: > I work in an MNC (operating in Hyderabad) and on a proprietary hierarchical > database running off a Unix server. Over the past few months, I feel the > need to recruit a new person to help me with the increasing work load, and I > find myself in a fix. > > The technology being rare, I find very few people in the market to be > hired. (I just know of another company in India - off Bangalore working on > this rare database). This forces me to think that I will have to organically > grow someone. I tried a few people who are 2+ years of experience on Unix, > and found that they are reluctant to learn this rare technology. I tried to > hire from the freshers but I am not satisfied with the level of Unix > knowledge (I am just looking at basic OS concepts, good shell scripting and > vi editor here) they have. However, I did find one who was good, but was > surprised when he tells me in the interview that he is not happy to learn > this rare, object oriented, hierarchical database. I have also found very > few freshers showing interest in the domain that we operate (Capital Markets > and Performance measurement of Funds). I am wondering if I should take a > fresh MBA and invest on training of Unix and this database. > > Any suggestions who I should fill this position with and how do I go about > to find someone who will fit my requirement. > > -- > knk > (I know this mail perhaps does not fit to be posted in this forum, but I am > hoping to get comments from others who have had a similar problem) >
