I am currently employed and have been job hunting for the past year. I have been a programmer for the past 14 years. I have experience in COBOL, RPGII, SPEEDII, EASEL, APPX, C, Visual C++ and several database languages. I have worked on mainframe computers, midrange computers, and PC's in a client server environment, and I have also done some work with embedded systems. I have been recently looking to help out in the Y2K arena. However, much to my suprise, I am not getting any responses for Y2K jobs. In fact most of the headhunters that I speak with act like Y2K jobs are not a hot item right now. This seems rather bizarre to me. Any insights?

-- LookingForY2Kjob (kosemet@msn.com), March 08, 1999

Answers

Looking for Y2Kjob,

I am a headhunter, aka, a recruiter. I have been a recruiter for many mmons, and I am pretty good. In 98, I did 485,000 dollars worth of business. That means fees paid to my company due to my work on behalf of my clients was 485,000. I say this to establish that I know what I am talking about. Further, my territory is the DC metro area, one of the IT hubs in America. In all of 1998 and so far this year, I have done ZERO Y2K work. Why?? Because I choose not to. Yes, some of my clients need y2k programmers, but I decide what I want to do, not my clients. I cherry pick the jobs they have available. And frankly, y2k remediation does not excite me. I do SQL Server DBA's, C++, Oracle geeks, Powerbuilder, NT engineers, etc. Everything BUT y2k. In fact, quite a few companies relegate y2k to a low priority in comparison to a new client server rollout or some other thing that may or maynot work.

Another thing of interest to all of you: I am starting to see the migration of managers from their soon to be out of business, not going to make it companies to Richard, can you find me a company with "stability"?? I had a VP, making 150,000 call and say that same thing. Hired two people through me in the last 9 months, and now he wants to leave??? Said, "I want to make sure I am still marketable". HAHHAHAHAHAH Say I, the cynical recruiter. Send me all your resumes if you want. I know of a large bank in Fairfax County, VA that needs beucoup COBOL programmers, and SYS Admin types. They will not make it. One of the small, electric co-ops in Northern VA?? I set their y2k effort back by two months by recruiting their only y2k programmer (RPGIII) they had working on y2k. Why did the programmer leave??? Did not want to do y2k!!! Said "there is no future in it"

Sorry I ramble, but I am closing a candidate on the other line. Peoplesoft developer. 100K. Go figure.

Semper Fidelis, Richard

-- Richard,USMC (rkb65@hotmail.com), March 08, 1999.

why no Y2k jobs?

http://home.earthlink.net/~beand/y2k_solo.htm

-- db (db@db.com), March 08, 1999.

There are no Y2K jobs because there is no REAL Y2K problem, just a manufactured crisis to enable the government to clamp on the people to the point of tyranny. Look for Y2K in the 2002 printing, revised edition of that great classic, "Popular Delusions and Mass Hysteria" - state-sponsored, of course.

Rock on, flameheads.

-- a (a@a.a), March 08, 1999.

Richards comments echo what neighbors in the computer business have told me. One neighbor workds for a large organization, I'll just say it's over 1,000 employees locally. He hasn't predicted whether they will or will not "make it" and I wouldn't put him on the spot with that question, but, like Richard said, this neighbor made every effort to avoid the y2k team because there was no future in it.

If the y2k team succeeded, then they would go back to their regular jobs if someone else had not inherited their territory. If they didn't succeed, then they would be mercilessly scapegoated by management, the press and the public. (Some organizations would go out of business. This particular organization would definitely rise from the ashes regardless of how bad y2k is.) Very few employees were dumb enough to volunteer for the y2k team. Most of the work is being handled by contractors. Lotsa luck!

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 08, 1999.

Christ!..And they wonder why they are referred to as headhunters. Kosemet, the only good way to find a job is by networking. Put the headhunters out of business. Anyway 100k in DC is subsistance living.

MoVe Immediate

-- MVI (MVI@MVI.com), March 08, 1999.

looker,

go to headhunter.com On the search engine type in y2K. Last time I did this it showed over 2000 Y2K jobs. I would like to make one thing clear. In my experience there will be work on Y2K projects for many years since the programmers are only "patching" critical systems.

-- Watcher (anon@anon.com), March 08, 1999.

What you see in the y2k software remediation world now is a mixture of lunacy (de Jager), coupled with management DGI's that don't want to spend the money, combined with management GI's that understand the systemic nature of the problem and therefore feel the effort was a failure from the beginning.

With only 9 months to go, it's pretty much over for most companies. They didn't make it, or even if they did, many of their suppliers didn't. Y2K has already sunk its teeth into western society, but the effects will not be felt until months and years from now. Y2K is not a hurricane that hits on 1/1/00; it's a crisis period followed by a 10 year depression, like Yourdon says. And that's only if things don't even more poorly.

-- a (a@a.a), March 08, 1999.

"neighbor made every effort to avoid the y2k team because there was no future in it

Perhaps that should be rephrased to say "without a Y2K team, there is likely NO future for that company."

Any company that sits back and understaffs Y2K remediation is so shortsighted they're going to get what they deserve. Remediation is boring, no question. But not everything in life is exciting folks. Sometimes work means doing things you don't want to do in order to survive and to earn your paycheck.

There may be several reasons why demand for Y2K programmers is diminishing. Many are now shifting to testing and no longer need as much programming assistance for the final phases. Others realize it's too late to add new resources to the project (without actually making the deadlines worse); they've simply re-assigned ALL internal technical staff to fix it while every other project gets put on the back burner.

On the other hand, expect alot of Y2K work after the cross over date as tons of glitches pop up and companies struggle to clean them up while trying to move on to the projects that have been sitting on that back burner. Y2K clean-up could take years.

When Cap Gemini reports that less than 50% of everything being remediated is being tested due to time constraints, that spells trouble. Trust me. I've been a project manager in a software development firm for the last 10 years. Coding changes without proper testing is going to leave those companies with a hugh mess to clean up IF they survive.

-- David (David@BankPacman.com), March 08, 1999.

Flint posted last week about someone's (Hamasaki's?) failed prophecy of a programmer shortage/wage squeeze. I offered that it might be because Fortune 500 companies and two or three governments are the only ones doing significant remediation work. The lady who testified on behalf of the State Department in front of Bennett's subcommittee on March 4 supported my theory when she testifed that many entire countries are doing nothing or close to nothing in response to this problem. The work is simply not being done, hence, no skyrocketing demand for programmers. I would not have foreseen the complete failure to address the problem. Indeed, I did not begin preparations until January as I fully expected to hear report after report of tested solutions, but, alas, nothing but revised schedules and new "deadlines" and "mission critical" word games.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 08, 1999.

I just got off of the phone with a friend of mine that works with the county. He says they have mega problems with their systems. Some things work, some don't work and some work on a part time basis. He said the IT guys are getting drilled. They have a new 37million-dollar mainframe that was supposed to be y2k compliant. Everyone is beating their heads against the wall.(I am sure they'll get it fixed in time) Flint where is that damn bulletproof vest! Tman

-- Tman (Tman@IBAgeek.com), March 09, 1999.

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0308/fcw-peolabor-3-8-99.html

[snip]

Panel: Changes can lure IT labor

BY BRAD BASS (brad_bass@fcw.com) AND L. SCOTT TILLETT (scott_tillett@fcw.com)

The federal government can attract much-needed information technology professionals by posting more job opportunities electronically and by offering tuition to students in exchange for a work commitment, according to preliminary recommendations by an interagency task force.

These and other recommendations were unveiled by members of the task force last week at the Virtual Government '99 conference in Washington, D.C. The group is seeking comments on its recommendations from federal employees and industry and will present its final recommendations to the CIO Council next month.

The recommendations deal with what many federal managers view as one of their toughest challenges in the years ahead: how to convince prospective IT workers to enter government and stay. With the demand for workers outstripping supply, the problem has become particularly urgent -- in and out of government.

[snip]

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 09, 1999.

"Anyway 100k in DC is subsistance living. "

What planet are you on?

-- you crack me up (100K@anywhereis.good), March 09, 1999.

over here the y2k projects are already staffed up or finishing, of course many companies will simply fix on failure (good luck to 'em)

its too late (for y2k) baby

the contract market over here has collapsed all of a sudden, the permie situation is still buoyant

-- dick of the dale (jcooney@figroup.co.uk), March 09, 1999.