Friday, 30. May 2008, 10:07:50
Per il lettore italiano, questo post può essere istruttivo:
http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/piyo/archive/2008/05/27/cercasi-tuttologo.aspxE anche questo:
http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/piyo/archive/2008/05/23/come-farsi-assumere-da-amazon.aspx----------------------
Today I was reading a job offer. Besides the fact they declared 35 years as maximum age (I don't really understand why it makes sense and why this is even allowed), the request was for a "Web 2.0 facilitator", meaning somebody who goes to companies management (aka the customers) to tell/teach them about how to implement "Web 2.0 technologies" and why that is cool. I would have applied for the job if I wasn't too old and if I knew what "Web 2.0 technologies" are, no mention the fact that I don't know why a company should move to "Web 2.0" when they haven't got "Web 1.0" yet. I guess the idea is quite simple. Marketing people work on slogans to create the "hype" about some "exotic/new/cool/must to have" gadget. Company management, that usually don't have a clue about technology, read those glamour magazines about successful business, which are full of fake articles and think you can't live the future without the above new gadget. Some companies are then trickled to invest ridiculous money in developing the Second Life company "stand" (or whatever else, just a realistic example), when the "hype" for Second Life is already fading away. After some time there will be other people wondering why the company invested so much money for so little or non-existent gain and then the Web itself will be proven useless and ultimately a fraud.
It seems simple but in real life you can't tell anybody, because they don't want to listen. Why? Because in the IT business, despite the implosion of the "new economy bubble", there are still way too many people who make big money on selling crap and act like the prophets of a "new age". On BOTH sides, even the customers WANT to be involved in that kind of nonsense, that somehow gives importance to the management roles (regardless the wasted money).
Somehow this can be also transferred on the consumer level. How many "gadgets" have been introduced during years, like the "tablet PC" or the announced "touch screen" in Windows 7? But if you look at things closer, we are doing the same things as 10 years ago, after having spent lots of money in buying new hardware and new software that included almost no actual innovation.
On the fun side, I don't know your countries but here in Italy there is an interesting trend about job offers. Besides the fact that they are for "consulting / temporary" contracts, so the company pays you way less than regular employment, you are also requested to be experienced/skilled in many and completely different areas, like system admin on Unix server and creative graphics, with Java programming in between. In this way you hire just one person, without having any obligation from a regular contract (like extra time, vacations, taxes), paying less (because you can fire any moment) and making him/her work in the place of 3 or 4 other people. The resulting production/service sucks? Who cares, it sucks everywhere.
