Hello, Being new to this group, I thought I would ask the folowing question:

We all know there is a major shortage of programmers when it comes to Y2K. I am astounded that with so little time remaining, there are not floods of adds on jobsites or even several listings in local papers. I am a contract programmer, I have visited several web sites that deal with finding careers. What I am really amazed at is that there are VERY FEW positions for Y2K remediation. I have had numerous calls for COBOL positions, nota one for Y2K. I don't get it, has anyone else noticed this, have any insight?

Thanks

-- Tim Quick (tandlq@email.msn.com), March 10, 1999

Answers

Read an article at computerweekly on this subject (sorry can't find the link). The article's concluded that the demand for Y2K programmers is declining. Could that mean the companies have completed their y2k effort or just that they don't intend to do any?

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 10, 1999.

Welcome Tim! We had a thread about this just a few days ago. Check this Link

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 10, 1999.

Tim, Remember, their is a difference between how many programmers (etc) it will take to complete the job, and companies commitment to complete the job. If they are not willing to spend the money to hire sufficient staff then the job just will not get done. Of course they do not *really* think it will put them out of business either.

-- Steve Watson (swatson1@gte.net), March 10, 1999.

Welcome, Tim!

Glad to see you on this thread. Sysman, this guy sits in the cubicle next to mine!

Good man.

Mike

-- Mike Cumbie (mikecumbie@yahoo.com), March 10, 1999.

A cubicle, oh how I loathed those cubicles. I am an ant, stuck in a big ass chair, staring at a screen, with a supervisor who has a bigger ass and total incompetence. I tap on the keys trying to resolve the problem, and it's bigger than any ant hill I ever worked on. I'm a dead ant, dead ant, dead ant.

-- DeatAnt (DeadAnt@deadant.com), March 10, 1999.

Well, any friend of Mike's is a friend of ours! Since you are cubies, allow me to share one of my favorite Dilbertisms...

Of course I don't look busy... I did it right the first time.

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 11, 1999.

Tim,

Here's a possible partial explanation:

As someone pointed out in a book titled "The Mythical Man-Month" (was that one of Yourdon's?), there comes a certain point in almost any programming project where the addition of more programmers will only delay the eventual completion data, because of the overhead of managing additional people, the burden of having the old programmers bring the new (new to the project, that is, regardless of overall experience) programmers up-to-speed on the project, greater error rate by the new programmers, and so on.

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), March 11, 1999.