Re: programming job market in bay area in US

> From: Ben Pfaff <blp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Why are you going through agencies?

Because for the past several years, virtually all the advertised jobs
have been through agencies/recruiters instead of direct from the actual
employer. If I respond to such a job ad, the agency/recruiter diverts
me to their general garbage-can of discarded resumes. So I don't really
have any choice except to go through agencies/recruiters.

> There are tons of jobs that you can apply for directly. Start from
> craigslist.

Is this the correct URL for what I want?
http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/

Assuming so, let's look at some ads:

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/70303046.html
Reply to: job-70303046@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(How can I tell whether this ad is direct from employer as you claim or
via an agency as I believe?)
Excellent skills and professional experience in VC++, Win32 API, MFC
I've used MicroSoft "Visual C++" only in connection with C and C++
classes at a community college. I've never used the Win32 API. (All my
software for the classes was supposed to be ANSI standard code, not
MicroSoft-specific crap.) I never heard of MFC before, but looked on
Google just now and it seems to mean "Microsoft Foundation Class
Library". I have no idea how it relates to the Standard Template
Library that we learned in the C++ class, although I suspect it's very
different.
Microsoft.NET, ASP, and Visual basic 3-5 years of experience as part
I browsed a book about VisualBasic/.NET, and verified that a simple
HelloWorld.NET program from the book actually works on the DeAnza
campus installation. I've heard of ASP before, something like Active
Server Pages, similar to CGI and JSP in purpose AFAIR, but I have no
idea what language they are for (except in this context they are
apparently C++). My only VB experience is one beginning class. VB is
basically the same as HyperCard except it's by MicroSoft instead of
Apple, and the way it stores scripts is differently parameterized.
** Should I consider myself sufficiently qualified for this job that I
should spend the effort to apply for it and bug the advertiser for a
response?

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/70272094.html
1. Be capable of providing UI design AND implementation
Yes, I've done that many times, using HTML/CGI or Swing/Java or
HyperTalk/HyperCard or Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp.
2. Understand usability concepts and be able to validate designs
through usability testing
All my designs were for myself. I've never had the luxury of actual
customers to provide me feedback about my design.
3. Have good understanding of common usability heuristics
A heuristic is a method by which a computer program guesses how to
solve a difficult problem. I have no idea how the word relates to
usability of software.
4. Have a strong sense of design patterns normally associated with UI
implementations
The primary design patterns I'm aware of which related to UI are:
- Hierarchial arrangement of GUI components, and layout managers.
- Event listeners for components where such are relevant.
5. Be able to work with outside consultants and experts for human
factors issues
I have no idea whether I could do that or not since I've never been in
a situation where such was relevant.
7. Understand that quality starts with good design
This can be carried too far. For research projects, where at the outset
we really don't know what techniques will work, I prefer to do just the
general idea of the design at the start, then start building tools
bottom-up to see how they perform, then at some point we finally know
enough about what tools work that we can finish the overall design.
8. Speak C/C++ at the dinner table,
Crap, no!! C/C++ is a stupid way to do things. Lisp and Java are much
better, where you can directly express what you want to do at a
conceptual level instead of hassling over memory management all the
time.
9. Have a track record of shipping great products
Never had any job that involved shipping any product whatsoever.
This would be my first such job, if I got hired.
** Should I consider myself sufficiently qualified for this job that I
should spend the effort to apply for it and bug the advertiser for a
response?

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/70106462.html
Reply to: job-70106462@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(How can I tell whether this ad is direct from employer as you claim or
via an agency as I believe?)
Java Web start
That doesn't make grammatical sense. I have experience with both Java
and the Web (HTML/CGI).
Design and developing of front-end using HTML, javascript and JSP.
I've never had regular access to anything that could do javascript over
the net, so I've never had a chance to learn javascript. I've made lots
of Web pages using text-only HTML, but the only time I got to develop
anything for more general HTML was when I took a class last Summer
where we learned how to put images in Web pages in various ways, and we
learned how to use Cascading Style Sheets. My only experience with JSP
is when I installed J2EE on my laptop and deployed one of the sample
programs (convert dollar/yen/euro) from a tutorial. It worked, but when
I changed the source code and recompiled, deploytool refused to let me
update the EJB to include the changed code, and there's nobody I can
ask for help figuring out what's wrong and how to fix it. It takes four
hours with deploytool to configure and deploy a whole new application,
so doing that every time I make one change in the code is *not* a
reasonable option.
Expert level knowledge/understanding of servlets.
I'm just getting stated on servlets, haven't yet figured out which part
of the EJB is the servlet and which is other stuff.
Data Modeling using XML.
I read about XML in that VB/.NET book, including both ways of
validating a specialization of XML syntax/semantics. I've never had any
use for it, and it hasn't yet come up in any class I took, except that
ANT has a file in that format that I had to edit to build a new
application.
Object oriented design and development.
I've been forced to use OOD even where it's not appropriate, when
writing Java software. But I've also used it productively where
appropriate.
Experience in storage networking industry is big plus.
I'm not quite sure what that is supposed to mean.
Overall 5+ years of hands on experience is needed.
I have 22+ years computer-programming experience.
** Should I consider myself sufficiently qualified for this job that I
should spend the effort to apply for it and bug the advertiser for a
response?

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/69582520.html
Reply to: jobs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(That's definitely a consulting agency, not direct ad from employer.)
3+ years Windows Development experience
I have only a few months experience as part of the classes I've been
taking.
Senior Candidate: Extensive experience with Visual Studio, ASP.Net,
C#, XML, Object Oriented Programming, SQL Server, and VSS
I've never used any of those except OOP. I have no idea what VSS means.
Junior Candidate: Familiarity with ASP.Net, C#, and OOP; experienced
with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
I'm experienced in text-only HTML, and a little bit of CSS. Except for
OOP, I have no experience in any of those others.
We expect a minimum of 2 years of solid J2EE work experience.
I have just a couple weeks experience.
-Experience with Hibernate, EJBs, DAOs, and JDBC.
I've made serious use of JDBC for a database that had multiple tables
linked by primary/foreign keys. My only experience with EJB is
installing a sample J2EE program from the tutorial. I have no idea what
the other terms mean.
-Experience with Servlets, JSPs, JSTL, and EL.
My only experience with Servlets and JSPs is the sample program from
the tutorial. I have no idea what JSTL and EL mean.
-Has used XDoclet and ANT on at least one project.
I used ANT to compile the files for the sample progarm. I have no idea
what XDoclet means.
-Knowledge and understanding of OOA/D and OOP principles.
I don't know what Object-Oriented A??? means.
-J2EE Application server experience, preferably with JBoss.
I've never had access to JBoss and probably never will.
-Solid database design and SQL experience.
I used SQL via jdbc/odbc/MicroSoftACCESS for that multi-table program
-Experience with relational databases such as SQL Server 2000 and/or
Oracle.
I've never had access to either of those systems.
-Experience with multi-threaded applications.
So-far I haven't had any need to do any multi-threading beyond the
separate main and GUI-event threads in Java GUI applications and the
separate Read-Eval-Print queue and event handlers in Macintosh Allegro
Common Lisp.
-Experience with SWING.
Yes, if you mean swing as in Java GUI. Except for the paint/repaint
method, everything is done via event listeners, and you have your
choice whether to sub-class the Jframe etc., with the
application-specific event listeners inherent in that sub-class, or
just instantiate Jframe etc. directly and install the
application-specific event listeners directly. But with paint/repaint
you *must* sub-class the Jpanel or whatever is being painted-upon,
because the API class doesn't have any way to install paint listeners
from the outside. I'm thinking of fixing this by writing my own generic
PaintEventJpanel or somesuch which keeps an explicit list of procedures
to call whenever (re)paint is needed, allowing you to add or delete or
rearrange such paint methods at any time.
-Experience with JUnit.
Never heard of it. From the name, it sounds like a java API class.
-Experience with XML, XHTML, DHTML, Javascript.
I"ve never used any of those.
-Experience with Linux/Unix.
I have user-level experience with each, plus a tiny bit of admin
experience on my Linux laptop.
-Experience with Eclipse IDE.
I've never had any access to that.
-Experience with CVS.
ConVert to String (a function in SAIL, a version of Algol)? Nah, I have
no idea what that means.
** Should I consider myself sufficiently qualified for this job that I
should spend the effort to apply for it and bug the advertiser for a
response?

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/69195840.html
Reply to: janice.summers@xxxxxxxxxx
(Their Web site appears to be a software technology company, rather
than an agency/recruiter, so you're correct on this ad.)
8+ years hands on OO design, programming and integration experience
I have 22 years experience programming, but only a few months OO
design, and no integration whatsoever.
Expert on J2EE and Java application development including concurrency
and multi-threading
Nope.
5 years of development experience with Java, J2EE, JMS, RMI
Only a few months Java, just started J2EE, don't yet know what JMS
means, RMI is the same as RPC except in details of implementation, but
I haven't had any experience.
5 years C++ Exposure to multiple GUI platforms (Xwindows Motif, MFC,
etc.)
I've **never** had any access to C++ in a GUI context. I have no idea
how to write any GUI application except via HTML/CGI or in Macintosh
Allegro Common Lisp or Java or VB or HyperCard.
Strong skills using HTML, Java applets, JSP and servlets, Java/Swing,
This job ad seems to repeating itself.
ActiveX controls. Knowledge and experience with RDBMSs (Oracle or MS
SQL Server).
Ditto.
** Should I consider myself sufficiently qualified for this job that I
should spend the effort to apply for it and bug the advertiser for a
response?

http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/69184963.html
Reply to: rita.mujral@xxxxxxx
(Definitely a professional staffing agency, apparently a subsidiary of
Robert Half agency (formerly Snelling), which I've already contacted
and which has been totally unhelpful when I've applied for the jobs
they were handling.)
We are looking for a candidate who is proficient with HTML, DHTML,
Javascript, and PHP. The candidate has to be extremely good with these
I have lots of experience in text-only HTML, no experience at al with
DHTML or Javascript, and I've been unable to get PHP to work at all.
Can somebody please look at my PHP attempt and tell me what's wrong so
that I can get past that roadblock and start actually using it?

> don't get discouraged easily. My wife applied for jobs for six
> months or more before she found the job she wanted.

I've already spent seven years *FULL*TIME* looking for a job, to the
point where I got emotionally burned out. During that time I
accumulated appx. nine megabytes of disk files listing my job contacts.
Please some over sometime and look through all nine megabytes and tell
me in each case why I didn't get the job I applied for.

Your wife was lucky she got a job after only half a year instead of
having to work full time for seven years without pay and with only
total frustration the whole time. Actually you're lucky that didn't
happen to her, because I don't believe you would have been able to deal
with her frustration because you seem to think half a year is a really
long time to look for a job. By the way, how many megabytes of disk
space does it take to hold her notes during her job search?
.