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dsoltesz writes "This coming week is the Government's first Virtual IT Job Fair. A number of agencies are participating, including NASA, the Smithsonian, and the National Gallery of Art. While government jobs aren't exactly the highest paying in the nation, IT positions do rate in a special pay category (see tables 999A-F depending on where you want to work). The online job fair lasts from April 22 to 26, and hopes to fill 230 positions. Here's a quick list of IT Series 2210 specialties, or if you want a little light reading, try the 155 page, 1.7 MB detailed spec."
It qualifies because there are plenty of us in the /. crowd (I would think) who are sitting here unemployed despite having applied to hundreds of IT related positions across the country in the last 6 months and not found something despite 3-5 years of experience, a college degree, and more than half a brain.
Funny and I thought Perl == Paid employment recently located
Nice troll.
Plenty of people have jobs
Plenty of people are living hand-to-mouth, have no savings, own nothing and are two paychecks away from being broke.
Plenty of people are underemployed, have nothing to do most of the day, and are tormented by management on purpose to get them to quit.
Plenty of people try to work hard and do a good job and get fired anyway.
Plenty of people have to choose between child care and medical insurance.
Plenty of people have to spend their retirement account on food.
Plenty of people have no meaningful contribution to their jobs.
Plenty of people spend the majority of their work day in unproductive meetings.
Plenty of people have to allow the company to control every moment of their workday, and attempt to control every moment of their off-time.
Plenty of people lose those jobs when management decides to reorganize the paradigms.
Plenty of people can't afford a house, ever.
Plenty of people can't afford to raise a family.
Plenty of people have watched their unemployment run out and the phone never rings.
Plenty of people have to lie in order to get hired.
Plenty of people have given up on ever finding another job, anywhere.
Yes, of course. All those thousands of people. It's all them. It's NEVER the fault of the incompetent people doing the hiring. It's never the fault of the businesses. They can do no wrong. They are blameless in their pursuit of profits.
Always better to blame anyone who complains than to fix the problem.
Like your degree or experience entitles you to live a life of luxury.
No. But my degree AND experience entitles me to a fair evaluation for a job.
Businesses have a responsibility to hold up their end of the social contract.
Right now there are millions of kids in school who are being told "get good grades, work hard, get an education and when you graduate you'll get a good job." I know that because it's what *I* was told.
It is a lie.
Good jobs mean people are productive and happy.
Real good jobs become CAREERS.
They can put down roots in a community, send their kids to school, pay taxes and build a home. They have something they can DEPEND ON.
Many people together doing this creates neighborhoods where kids develop friendships with other kids, community programs start, and people work together to build a nice life for themselves and their neighbors.
Sounds great, right? I haven't seen a community like this since the early 1980s, over 20 years ago. The only communities like this today are extremely affluent ones where the residents are almost never affected by mass random layoffs.
Take that same community about two years in and lay off 20% of the people. Homes are sold. Friendships lost. The neighborhood is diminished. People move away, or lose their homes completely. Those who remain fear for their jobs.
New people move in. Then the second wave hits. 30% this time. Half the neighborhood is gone. Everyone is confused. Nobody knows anyone. People work harder, and longer hours, thinking they might be next. The kids don't get to spend much time with their parents any more. People become gloomy and depressed. Community events are cancelled for non-participation. People spend a lot of time at home. People complain of fatigue.
More new people move in. Half the first group has already moved away because they couldn't find work. 10% more are laid off. Wages are cut elsewhere. People start to complain. Businesses fail because people either have no money or won't spend it. More people leave. Pretty soon you have an entire group of houses (no longer a neighborhood) where nobody knows anyone else. Kids aren't allowed outside any more. The neighborhood has died.
Everywhere I've lived since 1987 has been this way. That's what's wrong, and it is 100% the fault of businesses that don't keep up their end of the bargain. People have no incentive to do right if they cannot depend on the rewards.
Pretty soon, people will realize that nothing they do matters, and stop trying. Then we are really going to have problems. Banks, for example, will soon realize that having a job is no guarantee that someone can pay a mortgage. (This is already a fact, but banks, like all corporate businesses, are sometimes a little slow)
All a person has is their education and experience, and businesses have made both worthless. It took the hundreds of businesses I applied to only a few months to make my eight years experience utterly worthless.
"Put your education last and lie about your experience" is the accepted way to get hired now. Matter of fact, it is not much of a stretch to say it is the only way to get hired in a lot of cases.
Well, hired until management decides to lay off another 4000.