[Info-vax] Opportunity for VSI?

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/17/18 8:19 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/17/2018 11:00 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 12/17/18 10:07 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>> Simon Clubley  <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> In the case of Fortran, how much of the Fortran development is done by
>>>> dedicated programmers, and how much is done by people (say researchers
>>>> and cheap/free labour otherwise known as students) who do the 
>>>> development
>>>> as part of a larger research project ?
>>>
>>> Many years ago, we had fortran programmers who would sit down with an
>>> engineer and the two of them would work together to produce code.
>>>
>>> But now in the New Age, engineers all write their own code.  So yes,
>>> although we have a couple dedicated programmers, we have only a couple
>>> of them compared with a couple thousand engineers writing fortran and
>>> matlab.  And those couple dedicated programmers spend their time fixing
>>> stuff that engineers broke.
>>>
>>> My belief is that productivity has gone down as a result, and certainly
>>> code efficiency has gone down, but management does not see this.
>>>
>>>> In the case of Fortran especially, the latter type of usage is not 
>>>> going
>>>> to show up on the job boards as "Help! Fortran programmer wanted!".
>>>
>>> It might be mentioned in the job description, but then again it might 
>>> not
>>> be.
>>
>> And, to demo even more how this method is of very little value,
>> how many jobs list Fortran and Pascal in the vacancy announcement
>> because it's just boilerplate and the guy in HR who actually wrote
>> the announcement hasn't a clue what is really needed or even what
>> a programmer is.  (Yes, I can point out ads listing COBOL, Fortran
>> and other languages where the actual work is installing PC's and
>> printers.)
> 
> Usually HR use the skill list they receive.

Not always.  Often they get a request to hire a replacement
for position ZX14356 and they look in the files and pull the
job description from there.  Other organizations (like the
government) have job categories with generic descriptions.

> 
> Mistakes happens.

More than you would believe.

> 
> But not obvious why mistakes should special target any
> particular languages.

They don't.

> 
> But the again a theory that Cobol is much in demand but not
> show up in jobs ads because the HR departments systematically
> replace requirements for Cobol skills with requirements for
> skills in other languages is tin foil hat theory.
> 

No, you are trying to come up with an explanation that supports your
theory.  I am merely trying to point out that Google searches and
bogus job sites are not sources for valid data.

There are lies, damn lies and statistics.

bill