Re: programming job market in bay area in US

> You should be sending your resume to every company you can find
> hiring for anything even remotely resembling your skill set.

Continuing my previous response, more from CraigsList, working
backwards, no actual software jobs since Friday:
http://www.craigslist.org/sby/sof/80778494.html
Los Gatos, about an hour from here each way by bus.
>> General & Technical Requirements:
>> 1) BS/MS/PhD in CS /Electronics/Elect or equivalent.

I have no such degree or experience. All my education and experience is
in math or computers, except for some hobby electronics when I was a
teenager.

>> 2) At least 3-5 years of enterprise-class software user interface

The only such experience I have is in a recent Distributed Java class,
where I had to install J2EE on my laptop because De Anza College
wouldn't install it on their lab computer. I found that it takes 4-6
hours to run deploytool to configure and deploy a new J2EE application,
whereupon the web client works but the appication client doesn't work,
and if I modify the code and recompile it and try to use deploytool to
incorporate my chagnes into the EAR file it claims all files are
already up to date and refuses to update anything, so I'm forced to
spend another 4-6 hours configuring a whole new J2EE application just
to test one new line of code.

>> development experience using JSP/XML/Struts/JAX technologies.

JSP is easy. Just edit the file and give the command to refresh the
browser and the J2EE server automatically recompiles the JSP into a
servlet and there you are after only 2 minutes wait each time you
change one line of source and want to test it.

XML is easy. I learned Java XML/SAX parser and wrote my first
SAX-event-driven application all in about 6 hours. Now that I know the
technology I should be able to do anything similar in two hours or so.

After that I browsed the tutorial for Java XML/DOM parsing, and if I
don't intend to make a GUI tree diagram the actual parsing is
relatively trivial and I might try rewrite my SAX program to use DOM
instead just to show how easy it is, if anybody cares, or if I get the
inclination someday. DOM is what LISP has been doing since 1964, and
I've been doing since 1973 when I got turned on to LISP, so it's no big
deal.

I've never had access to Struts. Looking at:
http://struts.apache.org/
I see it's a product of Apache, basically a framework for dealing with
the stuff I already did in J2EE.

>> 3) Experience developing enterprise applications using Java/J2EE. J2EE
>> knowledge should include Java, JSP, Servlets, Portlets, EJB, JNDI,
>> JCA, MDB, JMS, and JDBC.

Java - Fluent.
JSP - Trivial.
Servlets - Done. Because of problems with J2EE server, whereby
deploytool refuses to update anything, and the whole machine grinds to
a snails pace whenever J2EE server is running, I wrote my own adapter
for servlets whereby they can be run under my test rig for development
(one minute per development cycle under test rig) then under J2EE for
final testing. With 2 seconds per unit-test cycle under BeanShell, I
can develop software rapidly and correctly.
Portlets - Never heard of them.
EJB - Royal pain because of bugs in deploytool and incredible slowness.
JNDI - Needed for EJB.
JCA - Never heard of it.
MDB - Never heard of it.
JMS - Java Message Service - Never programmed it directly, only
indirectly when using CloudScape.
JDBC - Yes, able to write interface tools for CloudScape/Derby and
MicroSoft ACCESS, the two RDBS I've had access to via JDBC.

>> 4) Solid understanding of XML-based standards and specifications: XML,
>> DTD, XML Schema, XML DB, XSLT, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI.

XML- Very simple and flexible syntax, much more verbose and
user-edit-unfriendly than s-expressions.
DTD - The base way to specify restrictions on XML syntax by specifying
which container names are allowed and what kind of data is allowed in
each kind container.
XML Schema - XML syntax for same kind of restrictions on XML syntax.
XML DB -- http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/01/09/xmldb_api.html
Basically analagous for XML to what JDBC/ODBC is for SQL databases.
It sounds worthwhile and simple to pick up, but I never saw it before
XSLT - It's a system whereby a drone program can translate from one XML
format to another without needing to understand what the data actually
means, just make a syntax transformation, basically an XML version of
LISP macros.
SOAP -- http://www.w3schools.com/soap/default.asp
"SOAP is a simple XML-based protocol to let applications exchange
information over HTTP." I've never had occasion to use it.
WSDL -- Web Services Description Language -- I don't know what "endpoint"
means in the jargonese description.
UDDI -- http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UDDI.htm
"Universal Description, Discovery and Integration. A
Web-based distributed directory that enables businesses to list
themselves on the Internet and discover each other, similar to a
traditional phone book's yellow and white pages."
That sounds like a useful system. I've never had access to any such.
Is there a public server for this available online so that I might
play with it?

>> 5) Experience in object-oriented analysis and design. Expertise in
>> UML, Object Modeling, and RDBMS data modeling, as well a thorough
>> knowledge of design patterns.

Hey, this sounds like boilerplate from other job ads I've already
commented on and applied for. I'll avoid duplicating my comments.

>> 6) Hands-on experience with one or more of the following products: IBM
>> WebSphere, IBM WebSphere Business Integration, IBM MQSeries, Microsoft
>> BizTalk, BEA WebLogic Integration and WebMethods.

I've never even seen such a system much less touched it myself.

>> 7) Excellent relational database knowledge of one or more of the
>> following: Oracle, SQL Server or DB2.

Only CloudScape and MicroSoft ACCESS so-far.

>> 8) Desirable Experience/Background in Supply Chain Planning (SCP) or
>> Management (SCM) applications development, RFID based solution
>> development and/or integration knowledge is a plus.

No experience whatsoever, never even heared of this jargon before
except in discussions of military/space contracts.

>> 9) Strong written and oral communication skills

I have no idea. Nobody ever reads the large volume of my writings and
gives me a balanced overall evaluation of my skills.

So since the job is remotely resembling my skill set, should I apply
for the job? Yes or no.
.

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