POLICE WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPER

[David Schwartz]

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 at 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 at 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
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>>> 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
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> 
> -- 
> Keith Smith
> ---------------------------------------------------
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