I got into what should have been a very small programming adjustment to a fairly large site to just expose an Excel sheet. Very common type of stuff. Agent got me FTP access and sample file. Grabbed what appeared to be the creatives on other pages and put the page together. Tested on my server no problem.
Push code onto the FTP given and I can’t find the file I just uploaded by hitting the web site?
Upon further checking found that none of the directories or filenames that I see from FTP correspond to any of the url directories or file names from hitting the website with a browser. As part of FTP exploration find cold fusion references, some archaic authentication server reference, lots of jumbled up code going back to the mid 1990’s.
I have the agent ask if there is some other FTP access to the site (mentioning what I found above). His comment “We’re paying you, figure it out!”
How do you qualify clients?
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Clients
I was looking forward to working with an agency in town. However, there was a delay in the go signal for a new project. I don’t know about you, but no news has been bad news for me.
The guy says all future projects will go through RFP. Remember, we aren’t talking big dollars here. So that means eLance and the like where Asian programmers bid a dollar an hour for work, not having any idea what you are trying to do, but taking your money gladly.
I thought everyone did this 10 years ago and got killed. Yes, the big guys still do this, but they have a full management presence in Asia. They aren’t hiring out with a classified ad. They are working with their own employees who happen to live in Asia.
I can’t compete at a few bucks an hour on any kind of work. It’s really not clear the agency is big enough to withstand a few really bad outsourced projects. If they are still around in 2 years maybe I can work with them then. I know I will still be plugging away.
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Outsourcing
I know of company that is getting a big project soon. Current pm staff is swamped, so they decided to look for a ‘technical’ pm. I didn’t think it would be unusual for a pm to know something about programming or database queries and the like.
They got hundreds of responses to the job posting, but not one qualified by having any technical skills! The job description was pretty explicit about the expected skill set required for the position.
Why would this happen?
Are pm’s so caught up in the latest from PMSI (?sp) that they are ignoring the auxiliary skills needed for the job? How far does that go? Is using Excel a stretch?
Or are all the current technical pm’s with the skill set satisfied with the current employment. Again, unlikely.
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Job Hunt, Project Management
Talked with a big shop in town. Met with a founder and a vp. Got along great.
Job was mid-level, so had to talk to sw director and an architect.
Director went over a standard question list for all developers. Great.
Architect interjected random questions. Most of them did not have an answer, were trick questions, or otherwise pretty off tangent.
And the coup-de-grace: Gee, I graduated about the same time you did. We must be the same age.
Gee, if I known you guys were jerks I would have taken my tape recorder.
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Interviewing, Job Hunt
Talking to a number of companies that are looking for software people. I guess the first thing to notice is: there are quite a few postings out there these days. Take a glance at craigslist for your area, guaranteed at least a hundred jobs per day.
Secondly, talking to a small shop in town they are turning down work below a certain $N,000. Talking further, the bigger shops in town are turning down work for less than $N0,000.
It really feels like the press has been so caught up with the stupidness of banks lending money to people that could never pay. The result is they are ignoring the apparent large scale demand for services, at least for technical people.
Third hit point was a survey run by a pretty good outfit that should only have gone to hiring managers. The number one question was “how are you dealing with the shortage of technical pool?”.
I guess things are still in pretty good shape (for s/w companies anyway).
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Economics, Industry, Job Hunt