[FRIAM] A million tech jobs unfilled

[Steven A Smith]

Stephen and I share a bad joke that "we are unemployable", and that 
includes to one another.  There are few tasks in my projects which I 
could delegate that Stephen's skill set and style would be suitable 
for.   And vice-versa.  We CAN support one anothers' work in many ways, 
from intellectual/technological synergy/brainstorming to headhunting and 
mentoring of junior staff.   But neither of us is likely to *pay* for 
that kind of help.  Fortunately we are able to work mostly on an 
unspoken barter relation.

That said, my Odometer just turned over 60(,000,000?) and feel my 
version of "age discrimination".  But it is deeper than 
"discrimination", I literally *can't do* the things I did 10 or 20 or 
especially 30 years ago.  For the most part, I "know too much", I have 
too MUCH breadth and my flexibility is more of a liability than an 
asset, except when I LACK flexibility in a key domain and THAT is the 
liability.  I have a dozen programming languages and several paradigms 
in my quiver, but for a given project I either need "yet another" or 
need to hone one of those much finer than I am likely to.    For 
virtually every skill I am "pretty good with" there are scores of 
under-50's with "very good" skills.   I'm rarely the best one to do 
*anything* I need doing.  I only do them myself to avoid the overhead of 
hiring it out!

Fortunately, with my children full adults, my house almost paid for or 
maybe "too big anyway" and limited appetite for high speed, frequent 
world travel (gimme a slow boat, a laptop, a technical project and an 
epic poem to write anytime), or expensive toys, I don't need the kind of 
income I *thought* I did 20 years ago.   I can piece it together.  I 
suspect MOST of FriamOver60 is in their own version of this boat, either 
truly comfortably retired, or ready for a lot of creative slacking.   I 
may make a business card for myself with that title: "Creative Slacker".

My children and nieces/nephew are smack in their early/middle career and 
are all watching their peers suffer, and try to suffer themselves from 
this "recession" but I remind them  "YOU only need ONE job"  one of them 
is a self-actualizd entreprenuer.  I would wish that on all of them.  
NOT a JOB.  Oh well.

<down off soapbox>

On 3/4/17 3:59 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
> Agreed.
>
> For many of us on (in?) Friam age discrimination is another issue.  I 
> have received emails from recruiters and even principals that say that 
> they've seen my profile on LinkedIn and that I am a perfect match for 
> a position they have.  They ask for my full resume (I have a CV) and, 
> more often than not I don't hear back.  I have dates on the CV because 
> I don't want to work where I'm not wanted.  In fact, lately when I get 
> such a contact my reply begins, "First of all, you should know that 
> I'm 73...". This avoids wasting time.  I have talked to a number of 
> recruiters about these issues. Most agree that the problem is not that 
> they don't think I'll be there long since neither will the 28 
> year-olds. There is also a cultural problem. A few years ago I got a 
> contract position in Albuquerque (remunerative) and I worked with 
> several millennial or genXY software engineers. I got along well with 
> them in general but one of the young women was constantly saying, 
> "What the f*** is this s***?". That didn't really bother me but it 
> seemed odd.  Actually, I'm somewhat ambivalent about this since, as my 
> wife says, "Frank, if you get a job, you'll have to work.". I don't 
> mind work but commuting etc...
>
> In the meantime, Hywel and are are enjoying learning de Rahm 
> cohomology, etc with applications to gauge fields, gravity, etc.
>
> Frank
>
> Frank Wimberly
> Phone (505) 670-9918
>
> On Mar 4, 2017 3:36 PM, "Marcus Daniels" <marcus at snoutfarm.com 
> <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
>
>     *Owen writes:*
>
>     **
>
>     *“*When I was hired breadth of knowledge, and ability to adapt was
>     key. Now it's sorta a form of impatience. I suppose it is because
>     technology has matured so much that you *can* search for more
>     specific skills?”
>
>     IMO that impatience is a lack of interest in the work itself.
>
>     How do we (middle managers or HR) delegate this problem away, so
>     we have a simple pattern matching procedure instead of having to
>     think and know things about the problem domain.    A good reason
>     to not hire someone is because they are shallow and dumb, not
>     because they don’t have some narrow skill they could pick up in a
>     week.
>
>     Marcus
>
>
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