I'm with you David and I think most people want a challenge. You make a
couple assumptions about this position. The reality is it is probably
really challenging while probably being rewarding. I've met one of the
people on this team and if he is any indication of who makes up the team
or the team culture, I would say it is probably a really good place to
work. They are working on WordPress and enhancing it to provide data
city wide. I imagine there is no old PHP web apps in the mix. And
there might be.
As for benefits, hold on to your hat because I have a couple things to
say.
11 holidays would be great. I take off 6 and usually use them to learn
something new or to enhance my infrastructure, do taxes, accounting...
etc.
I have no real sick leave. While I take some vacation I usually use it
the same way I use my holidays...
Being self-employed I am required by law to have ObamaCare. It is
$975/month for my wife and I with a $6250 per person / per year
deductible. I make too much to receive assistance. So my wife and I
have a non-ObamaCare policy that covers the minimum at a lesser rate and
I pay the penalty at the end of the year.
The big one. RETIREMENT. I can not retire any time soon. I have no
real retirement savings. I am planning to start next year. I figure I
will work until I am 70. And I will need to have some really good years
to be able to set aside enough to have a minimal lifestyle. I will
probably do something to bring in some money until the day I die. And
this is dependant on Social Security being viable. Without Social
Security I cannot retire.
I have two friends that took a different route. One spent 30 years as a
police officer with the city of Phoenix. It was his first and only job.
He was a motor officer and spent a lot of time in court which was all
overtime. The AZ Public Safety Retirement System pays 50% at 20 years
and 75% at 30 years. I'll bet his retirement is $75,000 a year. Retired
in his early 50's and has medical benefits to go along with that.
A guy I was in the Marine Corps with retired from the Corps and then
became a cop. He retired last year from law enforcement. He is in his
late 50's and I'll bet between his two pensions he is grossing $5000 a
month.
Technology is not easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep up.
We have seen a lot of changes in a relatively short time. In 1983 I was
learning programming using punch cards. There was no commercial
Internet.... No PHP, no MySql, No HTML.., No CSS... etc. And there was
no Linux. Now we are adjusting to mobile devises. What next?
Before the Internet I was a FoxPro programmer. I really enjoyed that.
FoxPro is dead. In 1999 I started on the road to recreate myself. My
skills were about to become obsolete. You talk about Delphi. I'm sure
at one point that was a hot skill, and now maybe not so much. You
mention recreating yourself as a Java developer. That will take lots of
time and effort.
So why not make above average wages with really nice benefits?
David, I would suggest you go out on your own. Find something you are
deeply passionate about, that you are good at, and that can drive your
economic engine, and go for it. W2 is probably not for you.
On 2015-10-14 20:46, David Schwartz wrote:
> When it comes to looking for work, I’m far more interested in
> technical challenges than holidays, vacation, sick days, or
> retirement.
>
> Most job descriptions today all sound the same. Half is benefits, the
> other half is boilerplate BS about how great a work environment they
> have, all the fancy schmancy stuff they use, and many subtle ways they
> try to avoid saying the job mainly deals with maintaining old code vs.
> developing new code.
>
> I have not seen a single job req in … well, years … that says anything
> about the employer’s commitment to extending your skill set (unless
> it’s a job like a barista at Starbucks and they’re touting their
> college reimbursement plan). What’s their policy around sending folks
> to technical conferences? Buying technical books? Taking online
> courses?
>
> The more direct answer is pretty obvious: you cannot even interview
> for the job unless you have more checks next to the tools in their
> toolstack than most other candidates.
>
> I’ve been looking at learning Java to get into that arena, but every
> java shop I’ve talked with is still using Java 6, with some “testing”
> of new stuff in Java 7.
>
> My expertise is Delphi (Object Pascal) and the vast majority of work
> (as little as there is) pretty much all involves maintaining code
> written in Delphi 6, which was released in 2002. I’m just finishing up
> on a short-term project that was started in February to migrate an app
> from D6 to D2007.
>
> You hear about all of these fancy frameworks and dev environments and
> technologies, and while employers mention names in their job ads, when
> you peel back the surface, you find out they’re using ancient
> libraries and tools with no plans to move forward.
>
> This is a php gig. There’s no mention of any tools, or even if they’re
> still using php 4 of something newer.
>
> It’s sad that these guys can’t seem to attract any viable applicants.
> But if they’re looking for geeks, they might try describing the work
> in more technical details, and lay out a reason why someone would want
> to work for them for TECHNICAL reasons.
>
> And as far as the “go to the Apple store and pick out a computer”
> goes, everybody seems to have a MacBook Pro these days (including me -
> a fully-loaded MBP from mid-2014).
>
> As an aside, I’ve been getting calls from recruiters lately for gigs
> out of town. They dangle a mediocre hourly rate in your face, tell you
> it’s “W2 all-inclusive” and that it’s up to you to fork over the dough
> to travel to their city, get a hotel, and cover 100% of your expenses
> until you start getting paid in a month. I can only imagine that there
> are people gullible enough (or rich enough) to accept these terms.
>
> I suggest that we all need to start asking the kinds of questions of
> employers that we’re most interested in knowing about prospective
> jobs, rather than simply reading these virtually meaningless job
> descriptions, chuckling to ourselves, and moving on.
>
> Hey, this could be one of the most technically challenging roles in
> the entire Phoenix area right now!
>
> But if it’s like most others, it’s mostly maintenance of old code with
> a 6-month backlog of bugs that nobody wants to fix; swallowing a lot
> of political BS; a lot of resistance from upper management as far as
> any kind of rework, clean-up, and optimization; and if they decide
> you’re not too much of a danger to their status quo, they may give you
> some new stuff to work on that isn’t already over-specified by kids
> with MBAs who act as “analysts” to try to figure out what their users
> want.
>
> Actually, those holidays, vacations, and sick days are looking a lot
> better now!
>
> -David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz
>
>
>
>> On Oct 14, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Keith Smith <techlists@phpcoderusa.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> My Pleasure Shawn!!
>>
>> I've talked with Shawn several times about this position. This is a
>> great opportunity for someone. At the PLUG meeting he said they would
>> consider anyone who can program.
>>
>> In visiting the job posting and benefits page, I think it said:
>> - $69,505.00 - $97,280.00 Annually
>> - 11 paid holidays
>> - 12 days of vacation entry level and I suspect it that amount
>> increases with longevity.
>> - 12 paid sick days a year
>> - State retirement - after 30 years you could take home 1/2 your
>> salary for the rest of your life. ** this is huge
>> - and more
>>
>> At a prior meeting one of the people from this department said upon
>> hire they take you to the Apple store and YOU pick out what computer
>> YOU want.
>>
>> Job Posting : http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=97
>>
>> Benefits : http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=98
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-10-14 08:36, Shawn Badger wrote:
>>> Thanks for posting this Keith. I don't make it to the mailing list
>>> very often any more.
>>> Just as a reminder the position closes this Friday so please power
>>> the
>>> application site to get your name in.
>>> On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 12:55 PM, Keith Smith
>>> <techlists@phpcoderusa.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> Last night at the meeting several people said they were looking to
>>>> hire. One of the positions is with the Chandler police department.
>>>> They need a PHP programmer to do WordPress programming.
>>>> Looks to be a great opportunity.
>>>> http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=97 [1]
>>>> Keith
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss [2]
>>> Links:
>>> ------
>>> [1] http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=97
>>> [2] http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>
>> --
>> Keith Smith
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>
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