This is called the Macro-city effect. As face to face communications becomes less prevalent.. it is easier for professionals to find a plot of land somewhere and live far away from the city. As long as they are with 2 or 3 hours of a major airport... they can hop on to a flight when they need a real face to face.
Kinda cool. The challenge will be land prices in the future.. both for agriculture and residential use.
What I find funny is may actually work with a CD-RW setup... no hot swap or hardware but you may be able to with Windows server software RAID... JBOD the CD-RWs... lol
I find it really odd that these days.. if it is a prefered method to pay without money.. someone is on crack! You cannot live on what may be worth something. Live on cash! Show me the money (as some movie figure states). I am not trying to generalize and open a kettle of fish.
Really.. it's just the economy correcting itself. As I am wont to mantra these days: "I may only do so much with what is given to me." To that I am going to add "Give me stocks and I cannot feed myself so I will do less."
You cannot totally blame the workforce. As has been shown to an extent.. Human Resources are typically tasked to find the best person for the position at the best price. Sometimes they are given vague requirements or someone says 'All of the Above'... the problem then becomes that HR tries to fill the absolute and is not allowed to engage someone to help filter the 'all of the above' to something more relevant and realistic.
Those that can best match have the ears of the CIOs. Mind you.. some HR departments don't care that they are wasting people's time and their time.
Yeah... I can't say it as a generalization but it's what I see out there. My contacts state that the best way to find a job is to continue building your networks of contacts... that should be a given. It's very hard to find good people and people who recommend good people. There are some companies which are recognizing this oversight now. It is by no means the big push though. I doubt we'll see that. Quite frankly I have considered working for $35K a year because the net income around $50K is about $5K more... so.. the balance between job expectation vs return is more enticing given the stress. I am by no means complaining about what I am making.. I am more so stating that the businesses have abused people long enough and they will go away at any opportunity. It's an economics fact. People are willing to give up income to consider better day to day living.
It's a very astute observation. All the good IT people I've known over the last 10 years.. and I mean experienced people who know what to do and were suited for it are burnt out.
They are looking for lower paying jobs with less stress and are considering life factors like the parent says.
The problem is all the HR folks are asking for Gods at Junior wages... something a small family cannot live on. It's a tough world and eventually things will get sorted out.
I may add also that the sorting out means lower paying jobs.. which has reduced and continues to erode the North American economies. Yes.. you businessmen have you dividends and your earnings.. at the cost of the buying public who will no longer buy your products. You're welcome.. be prepared to suck vacuum in the next few years.
Uhh.. in my experience of almost 10 years in IT, I have almost never seen a comprehensive training system for users at any company.. some apps yes.. but really it does not take much to bring basic functionality to folks with applications. They just need to know how to do their job: read/write e-mails, read/write documents, read/write excel spreadsheets, contacts, appoints, and the presentation software.. that's one thing I am not sure linux is up to yet...
Yeah.. as a server jockey it ain't fun.. but then I look at my manager.. making decent money.. having to put up with demanding executives with unrealistic time frames and demands... I can understand why he is disinterested in my career.. my needs.. he's resigned to just doing his job.. getting the freaking work done any way possible. I understand this now after 3 or 4 years of wondering why no one listens... it's cause and effect.. someone somewhere is here for a little time and wants their piece of the world to shine.. enter the shining monkey (the manager) and his shining monkey team (the IT folks).
Don't delude yourself that another job would be any different. What it comes down to is that jobs in North America suck when it comes to considering quality of life. Other countries have it better in personal respects.. but wealth is less of a concern there. Which makes you wonder why more billionaires than ever are coming out of North America... someone has it right!
Lol... whats scary is I can relate totally to this... although I would throw in some Family Guy/Futurama
Scene: Drunken Clam with Peter and Brian at the bar watching TV Peter (Hand on beer): "Holy crap Brian, there's an election!" Brian (Sipping martini): "Yeah, doesn't democracy turn your crank?" TV - Commercial with monster trucks & bikini babes: "Monday Monday Monday.. vote your mind.. see Bush-zilla go against Scary Kerry!" Peter: "Holy crap Brian, there's monster trucks coming to town!" Brian: "Yeah, I vote for the babe in the red." Everyone: "Get out and vote... or miss awesome democratic action.. Monday Monday Monday."
Scene: Fry and Leela in the Hall of Heads - Presidents section. Fry: "Look Leela! It's former President Bush Jr. and former presidential candidate Kerry." Leela: "Weren't those guys the odd couple from your century... destroying countries for oil and imposing Western civility on everyone?" Fry (blank look): "Riiight... something like that." Bush Jr. Head: "I stand by my decision to defend and pummel their asses!" Kerry Head: "I stand by him and say I would have made similar but different decisions that saves lives but costs money!" Everyone: "Vote your conscience! Vote for Candidate Blarg from Ceti-Alpha Six!"
My opinion (it's pessimistic but I am grounded): It seems that both Canada and the US are poised on the crest of a wave. The change will begin and those who are there to capture the opportunities are going to get them. At this point there are sprinklings of 'good' opportunities. Some CIOs are recognizing that the outsourcing and contracting may not be the grand fix-it they once thought. Those CIOs are starting to position themselves to look good by selectively hiring technically sound 'good-fit' people. It's a hard process to go through. It makes the hiring process of the past look like a walk in the park.
For yourself.. do not take the jump easily unless you know you have a great opportunity. Prepare yourself like you would for anything else. Take some courses on resume updating/interviewing. Talk to headhunters. A lot of them these days are acting as the pre-pre-selectors for 'best-fit' employees. Expect to contract-to-hire for some jobs. Bring your certifications up to date to make yourself seem the most marketable.. but also let them know about your experience through your CV and/or resume.
There are some hot areas.. but like I said.. they are very picky. Canada's big cities are seeing the most action. US: Texas, California, and some other select states (haven't done the research).
Position yourself carefully. Have enough money to live off of set aside for at least 6 months if not a year and expect to live with the basics. Yes.. it's gruesome.. but you'll thank yourself. Some people test these waters by trying to live by the bare minimums while they 'have' a job. Cut your 'income' by half for month.. see if you can still pay the bills and live. How about cutting it by 2/3rds... does that work? These tests will let you know how long you can support yourself based on your savings.
Be cautious.. but be true to yourself... the truest joy in life is finding something you enjoy doing and doing it... the money helps.
Bang on.. and then the Directors and Managers will begin to realize that.. oh.. all that IP and knowledge transfer they thought was going to happen didn't.. and now no one knows what to do. Ripe for the time when something goes down and a head will role. I love it.
Yes.. I've been considering a lot of options... I even told my wife that we should keep an eye on things. I am almost at the cusp of paying off those student loans I took to get myself into this business.. it's weird.. you may never get to see the return on your investment in yourself. Guess I shouldn't be too pessimistic eh?
to give you an idea.. at a senior tech level, I am in the position to have excelled at what I do.. 3 years running.. yet seen less than cost of living increases (less than 2.5%) over all of these years.. and most of them down at 1.5%. So either someone is making money on their support contract and sucking it away from salary increases... or it's as bad as I thought. Bear in mind this is my view of the world... my view may not be your view.. can I have your view if it's better??? LOL
Yes.. pure CS (development, engineering, etc) is going to do well.. but those areas which I am in (support, administration) have been commodotized by directors and managers. They seem to think that they can have their cake and eat it too. I am not so sure. Good tech people are hard to come by. Eventually they will move on because their are frustrated or burned out. When this affects your customers.. heads will roll.. but that is usually some low-level manager.
I am in Calgary. Here we have the Oil & Gas... but that doesn't mean it's great for all tech in all areas. Vancouver has the development just because it is a large urban center.. it has to grow and will typically grow. The rest of Canada is a little sketchy. There are definitely selective pockets of growth. I tend to measure growth by the overall growth in an area/country. There is nothing wrong with coming back right now if you can get the specific job... and save your money!:)
Tech in Canada has been non-existent for almost 4 years now (read: tech-bust and 9/11). I only see activity in Texas and some of the other larger states. I honestly think we're in a holding pattern until the Canadian and American economies go through a recession (another 5 to 10 years). Save your pennies folks.. or get into something else. The funny thing is that there has been so much shrinkage that most of the technically sound folks out there are holding on as best they can.. yet the companies want to move forward.
Personally, the pressure has been on for 3 years and I am burning out... are you? That doesn't bode well for the tech industry again.
No one values the tech support enough so no one pays enough and those techs who are good get frustrated when the 'manager'(read person who sucked up to a superior) harasses to them about call logs/volume.
I like the fact that my wife's business pays for broadband... gives me the arguement to say, the business wants money for providing the connectivity to your business. Lol!! This would work for roommates.
Next thing people are going to criticize them for overdoing the "genetic" thing when they release Spiderman 3.. Dr. Connors (sp?) 'accidentaly' causes a mutation in himself by tring to splice crocodile DNA into his body with radiation to grow his lost arm back..
It's a story of a story..:) they have license to make money off of you!
Hello.. did anyone bother to mention the difference between a basic RAID chipset, a RAID card, and a RAID card with XOR engine?
My somewhat bitter and basic description:
RAID Chipset - cheap RAID controller chip and the sacrifice is that it uses system processor power to work the RAID calculations.
RAID card - a little more expensive, however, has a basic RAID controller chip which offloads some of the processor requirement.
RAID card with XOR engine - a full blown chip that controls and processes the RAID calculations. More expensive but with the best performance without sacrificing CPU processing.
Most job postings I see these days look like this:
Experience: 2 to 3 years Requirements: Cisco, VPN, Wireless, Security, DNS, DHCP, HTML, Java, E-mail, Windows 2003, Windows 2000, Linux, Unix, Sun, Oracle, App(a), App(b), App(c). Must be able to manage time effectively, god at the technologies listed, etc.
Salary: $30,000 to $45,000
Ok.. this is a small exageration.. but the point I make is that a lot of companies seem to think that they can hire someone with a very broad/very experienced for smaller amounts of money.
Perhaps this is the market... but I have a tendancy to believe this has to do with Human Resources trying to meet some managers expectations. Wouldn't you be just a little incredulous at seeing those requirements... where would you find the time to do all those things if you are but one person??
Valid points. Though credit shouldn't be a mystery and your rating should be something you are aware of. When it comes to mortgages though... a missed payment may be a big issue. It is something worth confirming with the bank and your creditors.
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This is called the Macro-city effect. As face to face communications becomes less prevalent.. it is easier for professionals to find a plot of land somewhere and live far away from the city. As long as they are with 2 or 3 hours of a major airport... they can hop on to a flight when they need a real face to face.
Kinda cool. The challenge will be land prices in the future.. both for agriculture and residential use.
What I find funny is may actually work with a CD-RW setup... no hot swap or hardware but you may be able to with Windows server software RAID... JBOD the CD-RWs... lol
I find it really odd that these days.. if it is a prefered method to pay without money.. someone is on crack! You cannot live on what may be worth something. Live on cash! Show me the money (as some movie figure states). I am not trying to generalize and open a kettle of fish.
Really.. it's just the economy correcting itself. As I am wont to mantra these days: "I may only do so much with what is given to me." To that I am going to add "Give me stocks and I cannot feed myself so I will do less."
You cannot totally blame the workforce. As has been shown to an extent.. Human Resources are typically tasked to find the best person for the position at the best price. Sometimes they are given vague requirements or someone says 'All of the Above'... the problem then becomes that HR tries to fill the absolute and is not allowed to engage someone to help filter the 'all of the above' to something more relevant and realistic.
Those that can best match have the ears of the CIOs. Mind you.. some HR departments don't care that they are wasting people's time and their time.
Yeah... I can't say it as a generalization but it's what I see out there. My contacts state that the best way to find a job is to continue building your networks of contacts... that should be a given. It's very hard to find good people and people who recommend good people. There are some companies which are recognizing this oversight now. It is by no means the big push though. I doubt we'll see that. Quite frankly I have considered working for $35K a year because the net income around $50K is about $5K more... so.. the balance between job expectation vs return is more enticing given the stress. I am by no means complaining about what I am making.. I am more so stating that the businesses have abused people long enough and they will go away at any opportunity. It's an economics fact. People are willing to give up income to consider better day to day living.
It's a very astute observation. All the good IT people I've known over the last 10 years.. and I mean experienced people who know what to do and were suited for it are burnt out.
They are looking for lower paying jobs with less stress and are considering life factors like the parent says.
The problem is all the HR folks are asking for Gods at Junior wages... something a small family cannot live on. It's a tough world and eventually things will get sorted out.
I may add also that the sorting out means lower paying jobs.. which has reduced and continues to erode the North American economies. Yes.. you businessmen have you dividends and your earnings.. at the cost of the buying public who will no longer buy your products. You're welcome.. be prepared to suck vacuum in the next few years.
Uhh.. in my experience of almost 10 years in IT, I have almost never seen a comprehensive training system for users at any company.. some apps yes.. but really it does not take much to bring basic functionality to folks with applications. They just need to know how to do their job: read/write e-mails, read/write documents, read/write excel spreadsheets, contacts, appoints, and the presentation software.. that's one thing I am not sure linux is up to yet...
Yeah.. as a server jockey it ain't fun.. but then I look at my manager.. making decent money.. having to put up with demanding executives with unrealistic time frames and demands... I can understand why he is disinterested in my career.. my needs.. he's resigned to just doing his job.. getting the freaking work done any way possible.
I understand this now after 3 or 4 years of wondering why no one listens... it's cause and effect.. someone somewhere is here for a little time and wants their piece of the world to shine.. enter the shining monkey (the manager) and his shining monkey team (the IT folks).
Don't delude yourself that another job would be any different. What it comes down to is that jobs in North America suck when it comes to considering quality of life. Other countries have it better in personal respects.. but wealth is less of a concern there. Which makes you wonder why more billionaires than ever are coming out of North America... someone has it right!
Lol... whats scary is I can relate totally to this... although I would throw in some Family Guy/Futurama
Scene: Drunken Clam with Peter and Brian at the bar watching TV
Peter (Hand on beer): "Holy crap Brian, there's an election!"
Brian (Sipping martini): "Yeah, doesn't democracy turn your crank?"
TV - Commercial with monster trucks & bikini babes: "Monday Monday Monday.. vote your mind.. see Bush-zilla go against Scary Kerry!"
Peter: "Holy crap Brian, there's monster trucks coming to town!"
Brian: "Yeah, I vote for the babe in the red."
Everyone: "Get out and vote... or miss awesome democratic action.. Monday Monday Monday."
Scene: Fry and Leela in the Hall of Heads - Presidents section.
Fry: "Look Leela! It's former President Bush Jr. and former presidential candidate Kerry."
Leela: "Weren't those guys the odd couple from your century... destroying countries for oil and imposing Western civility on everyone?"
Fry (blank look): "Riiight... something like that."
Bush Jr. Head: "I stand by my decision to defend and pummel their asses!"
Kerry Head: "I stand by him and say I would have made similar but different decisions that saves lives but costs money!"
Everyone: "Vote your conscience! Vote for Candidate Blarg from Ceti-Alpha Six!"
And what about the level 0.. would that not be the ultimate hax0r machine without a real definition.. a custom jobby?
My opinion (it's pessimistic but I am grounded):
It seems that both Canada and the US are poised on the crest of a wave. The change will begin and those who are there to capture the opportunities are going to get them. At this point there are sprinklings of 'good' opportunities. Some CIOs are recognizing that the outsourcing and contracting may not be the grand fix-it they once thought. Those CIOs are starting to position themselves to look good by selectively hiring technically sound 'good-fit' people. It's a hard process to go through. It makes the hiring process of the past look like a walk in the park.
For yourself.. do not take the jump easily unless you know you have a great opportunity. Prepare yourself like you would for anything else. Take some courses on resume updating/interviewing. Talk to headhunters. A lot of them these days are acting as the pre-pre-selectors for 'best-fit' employees. Expect to contract-to-hire for some jobs. Bring your certifications up to date to make yourself seem the most marketable.. but also let them know about your experience through your CV and/or resume.
There are some hot areas.. but like I said.. they are very picky. Canada's big cities are seeing the most action. US: Texas, California, and some other select states (haven't done the research).
Position yourself carefully. Have enough money to live off of set aside for at least 6 months if not a year and expect to live with the basics. Yes.. it's gruesome.. but you'll thank yourself. Some people test these waters by trying to live by the bare minimums while they 'have' a job. Cut your 'income' by half for month.. see if you can still pay the bills and live. How about cutting it by 2/3rds... does that work? These tests will let you know how long you can support yourself based on your savings.
Be cautious.. but be true to yourself... the truest joy in life is finding something you enjoy doing and doing it... the money helps.
Bang on.. and then the Directors and Managers will begin to realize that.. oh.. all that IP and knowledge transfer they thought was going to happen didn't.. and now no one knows what to do. Ripe for the time when something goes down and a head will role. I love it.
Yes.. I've been considering a lot of options... I even told my wife that we should keep an eye on things. I am almost at the cusp of paying off those student loans I took to get myself into this business.. it's weird.. you may never get to see the return on your investment in yourself. Guess I shouldn't be too pessimistic eh?
to give you an idea.. at a senior tech level, I am in the position to have excelled at what I do.. 3 years running.. yet seen less than cost of living increases (less than 2.5%) over all of these years.. and most of them down at 1.5%. So either someone is making money on their support contract and sucking it away from salary increases... or it's as bad as I thought. Bear in mind this is my view of the world... my view may not be your view.. can I have your view if it's better??? LOL
Yes.. pure CS (development, engineering, etc) is going to do well.. but those areas which I am in (support, administration) have been commodotized by directors and managers. They seem to think that they can have their cake and eat it too. I am not so sure. Good tech people are hard to come by. Eventually they will move on because their are frustrated or burned out. When this affects your customers.. heads will roll.. but that is usually some low-level manager.
I am in Calgary. Here we have the Oil & Gas... but that doesn't mean it's great for all tech in all areas. :)
Vancouver has the development just because it is a large urban center.. it has to grow and will typically grow. The rest of Canada is a little sketchy. There are definitely selective pockets of growth. I tend to measure growth by the overall growth in an area/country. There is nothing wrong with coming back right now if you can get the specific job... and save your money!
Tech in Canada has been non-existent for almost 4 years now (read: tech-bust and 9/11). I only see activity in Texas and some of the other larger states. I honestly think we're in a holding pattern until the Canadian and American economies go through a recession (another 5 to 10 years). Save your pennies folks.. or get into something else. The funny thing is that there has been so much shrinkage that most of the technically sound folks out there are holding on as best they can.. yet the companies want to move forward.
Personally, the pressure has been on for 3 years and I am burning out... are you? That doesn't bode well for the tech industry again.
No one values the tech support enough so no one pays enough and those techs who are good get frustrated when the 'manager'(read person who sucked up to a superior) harasses to them about call logs/volume.
I like the fact that my wife's business pays for broadband... gives me the arguement to say, the business wants money for providing the connectivity to your business. Lol!! This would work for roommates.
They cannot argue that.
That.. plus the fact from the comics it is Dr. Connors defining issue.. getting his arm back.
Next thing people are going to criticize them for overdoing the "genetic" thing when they release Spiderman 3.. Dr. Connors (sp?) 'accidentaly' causes a mutation in himself by tring to splice crocodile DNA into his body with radiation to grow his lost arm back..
:) they have license to make money off of you!
It's a story of a story..
I wouldn't be worrying about getting hydrogen but be more worried about expelling CO2 & N.
Hello.. did anyone bother to mention the difference between a basic RAID chipset, a RAID card, and a RAID card with XOR engine?
My somewhat bitter and basic description:
RAID Chipset - cheap RAID controller chip and the sacrifice is that it uses system processor power to work the RAID calculations.
RAID card - a little more expensive, however, has a basic RAID controller chip which offloads some of the processor requirement.
RAID card with XOR engine - a full blown chip that controls and processes the RAID calculations. More expensive but with the best performance without sacrificing CPU processing.
Most job postings I see these days look like this:
Experience: 2 to 3 years
Requirements: Cisco, VPN, Wireless, Security, DNS, DHCP, HTML, Java, E-mail, Windows 2003, Windows 2000, Linux, Unix, Sun, Oracle, App(a), App(b), App(c). Must be able to manage time effectively, god at the technologies listed, etc.
Salary: $30,000 to $45,000
Ok.. this is a small exageration.. but the point I make is that a lot of companies seem to think that they can hire someone with a very broad/very experienced for smaller amounts of money.
Perhaps this is the market... but I have a tendancy to believe this has to do with Human Resources trying to meet some managers expectations. Wouldn't you be just a little incredulous at seeing those requirements... where would you find the time to do all those things if you are but one person??
Valid points. Though credit shouldn't be a mystery and your rating should be something you are aware of. When it comes to mortgages though... a missed payment may be a big issue. It is something worth confirming with the bank and your creditors.