Subj : Re: programming job market in bay area in US To : comp.programming From : Joe Wright Date : Mon Aug 15 2005 10:32 pm Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote: >>From: Christer Ericson >> >>>I do that. But it's very rare that I find a job ad where if I remove >>>70% of the parts I don't qualify the remaining 30% are good. > > >>"Are good?" Do you really need a job as badly as you >>are suggesting? Whether the job is any good or not >>should be completely irrelevant to anyone claiming they >>need a job badly. > > > How could you possibly misunderstand what I wrote so completely? The > word "good" in that context means "parts (experience/skill > requirements) where I qualify". Please get that thought in your mind, > then re-read what I wrote, then tell me how I could have conveyed it > any more clearly. > > It's very rare that the portion of *requirements* for a job which I > satisfy is greater than or equal to 30%. Usually I satisfy > only 10% or 20% of the *requirements*, and it would be grossly > stupid of me to pretend to be qualified for the job. > > If there's 70% of the *requirements* where I absolutely don't qualify > in the slightest, and the remaining 30% I only sorta qualify if I very > liberally mis-interpret the requirements, and there's actually 0% of > the requirements I really satisfy, that's a typical case. > > Yes, I need a job really badly, but it has to be a job I think I can > do. If it's Lisp or Java programming, then even if I don't really > satisfy the requirements of experience, in many cases I believe I can > do the job anyway, so I might fudge the match between my experience and > the *requirements* somewhat to sneak in the door. But if the entire job > is embedded time-critical military systems, I have absolutely no > experience in anything remotely like that (except that I wrote a DM2500 > terminal emulator in a MOS 6502 micro-computer once, using a line-map > strategy that allowed insert/delete line commands to be executed > immediately even though the refresh from the re-arranged lines might > linger on for a long time afterward). > > >>why are you excluding relocation? > > > First of all, I have no luggage, no money to buy luggage, no money to > pay for anything, not even food, relying on local food bank for almost > all my food. I don't believe any company would pay in advance for > purchasing luggage and all other relocation expenses before I begin my > first day of work. Also I have no money to travel beyond the local > public-transit system for an interview. > > Second, my children were abducted from me by Social Services for no > valid reason other than that I don't have money to pay a lawyer to > argue my case to get my children back. As soon as I get a paying job I > need to spend virtually all my income to hire a lawyer to get my > children back, which I won't be able to do if I'm three thousand miles > away from the courthouse where my lawyer and I must appear. > > Also if I am ever again allowed to visit my children, I can afford it > only if I'm in the local area with public transit to get me to/from the > visits. > > Also I suffer hypothermia if the temperature is colder than about > 76-77F, which it often is in some of the places where jobs are > available. Even here in California in the Winter I go into hypothermic > shock sometimes when the temperature is cooler than 77F and I haven't > had much to eat for several hours so my blood sugar is collapsing and I > haven't had enough sleep so my metabolism collapses. In NYC or other > EastCoast places where jobs are available I'd be dead in a minute in > the kind of extreme cold they have. Even Eugene Oregon was much too > cold for me when I went to graduate school there, and that was before I > developed the metabolism-collapsing condition that would have been > fatal for me there. > > >>why are you (seemingly) only looking at software jobs? > > > I'm actually looking at anything, but writing software, organizing > information, teaching/tutoring how to write software, teaching/tutoring > other stuff I know, are the only skills I have that are good enough > that it'd be worth money to pay me, and it's illegal for me to teach in > California because I don't have a teaching credential, and nobody can > afford to actually pay me for tutoring, so that pretty much leaves > software and information organization as the only things I would > reasonbly expect somebody to pay me to do. My only significant paid > experience is writing software. 2.3 years ago Focus for Work (a > division of Catholic Charities) put me through a workshop at De Anza > college which was supposed to find other kinds of work I can do besides > writing software, but the end result of the workshop was that there's > absolutely nothing except writing software that I'm qualified to do, so > after that result FFW convinced the California Department of > Rehabilitation to put me through classes to learn new computer > programming languages that I didn't previously know, namely Visual > Basic, C++, and Java, and I had to take three C classes before I had > the prerequisites to take the C++ or Java classes, so the whole process > took two years. I was going to also learn Perl but the only time it's > available this Summer is late at night when it'd be a rush to catch the > very last bus home with no time after class to work in the computer > lab, so I decided I'd rather teach myself Perl if it's ever needed for > a job. > > But if you know of some other kind of job with current openings, that I > qualify for, please suggest it. > > >>What's wrong with any "help needed" jobs (selling burgers, working at >>Office Max, etc)? > > > I have a flattened spinal disk, and also other back problems, whereby > after I stand at a job (such as washing dishes here at home) after > about ten minutes I'm suffering serious pain and have to lie down for a > while. Also I'm very sensitive to cooking odors, sneezing a lot and > coughing up and needing to spit out lots of phlem every minute or so. I > don't think all that spitting out phlem would be acceptable while I'm > flipping burgers, do you? > > What kind work is available at Office Max? I never heard of that > company, but on your cue I looked in the phone book and found they have > offices/stores/whatever on El Camino in Santa Clara (on #22 bus line) > and on Rengstorff in Mountain View (I'd have to check maps.yahoo.com to > see how far they are from Middlefield where the #32 bus runs). > > Update: They're 1 mile morth of Montecito, 0.3 mile north of Wyandotte, > which places them right about at the overpass over Bayshore Freeway > (US-101). So I'd have to take my bike on the #32 bus, or transfer to > #40 bus when it's raining and I can't take my bike. > > >>rank all available jobs on how well they match your skills and >>interests. > > > Well there's not a single job that I qualify for, so they all rank at > zero, and I have no idea how to pick the top N of them. > > http://jobsearch.monster.com/interstitial_js.asp > ( ) Yes, sign me up! > (*) Not today, thanks > ( ) I already have a My Monster account > Next! > The word "Next!" is just plain text, not Next!. Under > that is a gap then a copyright notice, then another gap, then a bunch > of buttons for other WebPages. There's no submit button for those radio > buttons! > > >>The site is working perfectly fine, with more than 1000 hits on >>"software" in the San Jose area; no registration required. > > > So tell me what actions I'm supposed to take to navigate from where I > was with those radio buttons with no submit button to whereever you > found the 1000+ jobs are listed. When you began posting here Robert Maas, I thought you were trolling. Maybe you are. If the above post fairly represents your perception of your own reality then I am worried about you and will try to help. But if you are rationalizing the convenient little box you find yourself in for the last few months, so be it. Food Stamps and Medicaid are there for you as you need them. A number of people who post here are 'local' to you. Ben Pfaff and Eric Sosman for example. If I were you, I'd try to convince Eric that I was good programmer. If he believes it, he can help you get a job. Ben is a young man working on a Phd in CS at Stanford. Although not from California I'll betcha Ben has more 'contacts' in SV than you. Buy him a beer. Don't give up hope. Depression is life-threatening. -- Joe Wright "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." --- Albert Einstein --- .