[Info-vax] VMS Software, Inc. Acquires All OpenVMS Support Business from Hewlett Packard Enterprise

[Scott Dorsey]

Dave Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>This is a two edged problem.  You need new people.  You can hire them, 
>and train them, but if they just leave as soon as they get a better 
>offer, you've wasted all the time, and the money you paid them.  Keep in 
>mind, while in training, they do not produce any revenue.  If not for 
>the eventual need, you're better off not hiring and training.
>
>Not sure how to address the problem, or if it is possible to do so.

This one is easy.  You just pay your employees better than the other guys.

The thing about programmers, and this is something Fred Brooks touches on
briefly but not in enough detail, is that excellent programmers are hundreds
and sometimes even thousands of times more efficient than merely good
programmers.  But they really don't get paid that much more in the real world.
Therefore hiring the best programmers is a good investment and a substantial
cost saving measure.  The hard part is to identify them.

>Sort of goes back to what they learn in school before entering the jab 
>market, huh?

If they learned to think and they learned problem decomposition skills and
teamwork skills, we can turn them into a good programmer.  That part is easy.
It's going from there that is the problem.

>Makes me wonder how legal it might be to have some clause, that if you 
>train someone, they have to give you some agreed upon amount of time, 
>or, they pay back some amount for the training.

Doesn't every company do that?  Certainly it was in my first few jobs.
Currently I think my employment contract says that if I leave the job I
can't take another job in the same industry for two years.
--scott

-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."