Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths To : comp.programming,comp.software-eng From : Chris Sonnack Date : Tue Aug 16 2005 03:43 pm Duane Bozarth writes: >> I was answering a want ad in the paper, if that matters. > > were they running ads if they weren't hiring (other than > left-hand/right-hand scenario which is certainly possible)?? Very large, international company. They had many offices in the Los Angeles area--openings may not have existed in MY geographic area. Or perhaps the ad had been running a while and they'd filled their expected quota recently (conceivably earlier that day). Or they had openings in areas I wasn't really applying for. Thinking back on this (25 years ago!), it may well have been that what they meant was they didn't have openings in the particular area that I showed strong skills in (but did have other openings). And I did, in fact, join a much smaller group of service techs handling less typical product lines. There were a LOT of copier techs (over 100). I worked on fax machines, teleterminals and offset printing press plate makers. There were less than a dozen of us (which was cool: my territory extended from Ventura to Redlands to San Diego and occasionally even into Nevada and Arizona. One time I even had to take a small plane to an account up in No. California (Santa Teresa, maybe?). Several hours in a small plane (which I loved), but with a hangover (which I hated). You want an experience, taxi around a major international airport in a small plane...you feel like a bug! 747s are HUGE! Ah, the memories of being a field tech. Some of my accounts used to make fake trouble calls so I could visit their Christmas parties. Was a very, very fun time! That job took me inside atomic power plants, movie and tv studios, and--to my geeky mind, best of all-- inside nearly every telco switching center in LA (I was a bit of a phone phreak at the time :-). -- |_ CJSonnack _____________| How's my programming? | |_ http://www.Sonnack.com/ ___________________| Call: 1-800-DEV-NULL | |_____________________________________________|_______________________| .