2000 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 t 2c6 he 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 --- . 0