Developers vs. Administrators

[MasterRacker]

I haven’t been very active in the forums lately as my energy has been directed toward re-employing myself. I thought I would throw out a couple of observations though and see what other members are seeing in the marketplace.

I’m near Minneapolis/St. Paul. My background is back-end support of Servers, LAN, phone, desktops, intranet etc., in a small to mid-size environment, not enterprise class server clusters/farms, etc.

We all know that pretty much everything is in a database now so it’s natural that I’m seeing a number of postings for DBAs and those are mostly for large systems. I’m not seeing much for support/operations types of positions except at the large enterprise level or entry level help desk.

One of my guesses here is that since the technology is maturing, smaller companies are finding it easier to outsource support or just plain don’t need the manpower since I know from experience over the years that Windows systems are much less labor intensive to support than they once were. My extrapolation is that even when the economy picks up, the support side of things will continue to lag or may even contract.

The other main thing I’m seeing is that most of the job postings, even excluding the DBAs, want programming/development experience, either OO or Web or both. This would seem to contradict what the trade mags have been saying about outsourcing killing the programmer market. Obviously there is a lot of programming being sent overseas, but there seems to still be a demand locally for in-house developers. My guess here is that what’s being outsourced is the heavy duty coding portion of large commercial systems, while in-house custom systems are still being done in-house in a lot of places.

I seems to me that the long term market, at least in this region, is trending toward developers, which means I would need to update my old and moldy programming skills. Development, of course, is a natural for consulting in the future if someone wants to go that way so it’s not all bad.

What are others seeing? Am I missing something is this the way it’s going presently?



Jeff
If your mind is too open your brains will fall out...

 

[dilettante]

I think you are correct about basic machine support and simple operations diminishing. The market is now well aware that advances since the early '90s have made it possible to do this work with people on a lower payscale. Larger organizations will still need people with the skills to do more sophisticated infrastructure administration, but most desktop support will continue to drop in perceived "value."

Right now "DBA" is mostly a label that non-IT people seem to be holding onto as if it is something they understand. At the moment people see a "DBA" as something magical, and worth more than a developer or a network or platform administrator. Most of the so-called DBAs I work with are actually very weak in almost all skill areas, and often perform many tasks we'd have assigned to low-paid computer operators in the mainframe days. The need to do software upgrades, database tuning, and problem resolution generally result in a panicked call to a pet contractor who actually knows his stuff (in relative terms anyway).

One of the things you may be seeing in job postings is a reflection of the fact that many tasks that were once thought of as "development" are now seen as basic skills. A "computer guy" of any stripe who doesn't have some experience with MS Access development, VB, Delphi, and some web development just isn't a "computer guy" today. Usually you'll only see a distinction made for C/C++ or Java, which are commonly viewed as tools used by professional programmers rather than spare-timers.

Remember, it isn't so much about what can or can't be done with various development tools. It seems to be more an issue of which tools lead to some sort of basic results after various levels of training or knowledge.

So you'll still see jobs asking for web develoment or Access/VB types of things along with other more primary job responsibilities (recycling empty Dell boxes, taking help desk calls, changing backup tapes). The professional programming jobs are the ones going offshore.

Right now that "bright spot" for domestic hiring might well be the computer security arena. The magic glow is still hot on this job classification.

 

[chiph]

Hmmm.

I see it as an attempt to get one guy who knows everything (jack of all trades) and is probably willing to work for peanuts.

It may be that the company can only afford to fill one position, and doesn't need a strong DBA, but only someone who knows how to do some of the basics and some programming on the side. Or they could be hoping to hit the lottery and get a wizard.

If the latter, then I think they're probably being short-sighted, as someone of wizard-class probably won't stick around once things pick up.

Master-Racker -
I would say that polishing up your development skills wouldn't hurt. Especially in the area of management reporting (MS-Access, Crystal Reports, Business Objects, MS-Office integration, etc).

My guess here is that what’s being outsourced is the heavy duty coding portion of large commercial systems, while in-house custom systems are still being done in-house in a lot of places.

I agree. The jobs that are going overseas are usually from the larger firms that have staff that can manage a remote dev team. Your small-to-mid sized firms don't have the connections, don't trust off-shoring (want someone local to yell at ), or don't want to deal with it. The type of jobs that are going are those where the programmer has to only think "inside the box" and doesn't require a lot of creative effort.

Chip H.

 

[SPguru]

I believe it truly depends on what your specialty is. I am an IBM SP admin, having worked for Fortune 500 companies, consulting companies, and Government contractors. I specialize in AIX and the SP and Regatta and there are plenty of opportunities available. In one large city with a population of 2 million (after being hired by another company)I was contacted about an SP admin job because although they had applicants for the position, nobody they had apply had the most critical skill - SP. They were willing to pay a premium for me, but I was newly hired in the first week at my new job and didn't feel it was right to leave that soon.

Another area that is "hot" right now - besied security - is WebSphere. Since I have 4 years of WebSphere and DB2 experience I have many offers for WS jobs. The WS jobs are for WebSphere admins not WebSphere development.

Of course a small to mid-size company will mainly want a generalist as you describe that seems logical because they want the most for their money and cannot afford to hire 5 people for 5 positions that a large firm would hire 5/5. Of course, I hire/contract with large/very large companies, but came from a small company where I got my start. The small company had four people who were all interchangeable, except for 1 full-time contract RPG programmer. Still today, they have 5 people at the small company and all are still interchangeable except for the 1 full-time programmer.

So yes, small/medium will hire a generalist but large hire specialists.

 

[MasterRacker]

I'm seeing a lot of postings for C++, Java and the like as well, but I can't really argue with Dilettante's slightly different spin on offshore programming.

I'm not seeing a lot of advertised jobs for security. I know it's supposed to be a hot, up and coming area, but it seems to me that security will be mostly done through ISP/ASP's. I don't see anyone but very large firms having in-house security people.

Of course, with the way benefit costs are rising among other things, it's not surprising that companies want to do more and more with contractors. Here's a concept for a science fiction novel: A future America where the entire economy is 130,000,000 independent contractors all working for each other....


Jeff
If your mind is too open your brains will fall out...

 

[dilettante]

I won't try to keep beating a dead horse, but if the press says "security" is hot it seems funny there aren't any security jobs.

If there are lots of AIX and WebSphere administration jobs, where is the development being done? Hard to believe these platforms are all running packaged software, but I suppose that could account for a chunk of it.

I'd love to see a list of real, typical duties performed by these platform administrators. My experience with Oracle administrators has been enlightening, and I predict payscales to begin dropping like a stone in that arena over the next two years as adjustments are made.

 

[CajunCenturion]

For my experience in searching for jobs, I haven't found many jobs for IT security, but I have seen lots of IT jobs which require a security clearance. As we all know, these are not the same, but maybe the press, especially the NY Times, has a hard time telling them apart.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[dogbert2]

Cajun,

Clearances are hard to come by (giving the issues of 9/11 and terrorism), so NAC (Nat'l Agency Check) and
SSBI (single scope background investigation) simply take
longer.

Having held Top Secret + Crypto + Sigmas (Crit. Nuclear Weapons Design Information), I always though that gov't I.T. positions were way cool, but I haven't missed working in the gov't at all (i'm too much of a 'outside the box thinker, who usually doesn't play well with ego inflated managers in the gov't sector). I left gov't svc/contractor work in 3Q 1990, btw.

I enjoyed playing with Uncle Sam's expensive toys, but these days, the private sector has at least as good, if not better I.T. gear than the feds do, and there isn't as much political bullsh*t to deal with (something you MUST learn to do, if you want to stay employed in the gov't sector)

My 2 cents worth...

 

[SPguru]

Dunno, but I turned down 2 offers, accepted the one I am at, had the proposition in the major metro area of 2 million pop. (which could not find an SP person) and had had one offer I turned down continually after me for 2 months! And also had another call after working at the new job for a month about another position that was offered to me, but turned it down.

Most security jobs are at large firms or consultants, Ma & Pa Kettle don't need and cannot afford full-time security experts. And at large corporations, security is broken down into assurance, compliance, etc. Security at small/med size companies would probably be handled by the net/sys admin, or their generalist or whomever they have in the IT dept.

 

[jwenting]

Security is indeed 'hot', but the people who decide on what it is and who should do it usually decide it's the function of the existing staff (DBA does database security, developers secure their applications, network admin his network) instead of getting someone who specialises in it (except the largest corporations who will usually get at least a security manager (another suit who does nothing except write impressive looking reports for the CEO) to hover over it all).