[Linux-aus] job database

[Leon Brooks]

On Sunday 16 February 2003 09:30 am, Brent Wallis wrote:
> They can get away with this because there are
> many out there who, after a successfull desktop install, will claim they
> are Linux "Guru's". All it takes is one bad system and another 10
> potentials are turned away from the idea of Linux full stop.

SLPWA (http://www.slpwa.asn.au/) was formed in part to combat this.

Speaking off the cuff (ie, informally as just me rather than ex cathedra as a 
Committee member for either LA or SLPWA), I think SLPWA would be delighted if 
similar organisations sprang up in other states to add momentum and validity 
to the process.

<speech>
At the moment, SLPWA/LinuxConsultants' database is pretty much self-serve, but 
if anyone is serious about this project and shows it, adding 
level-of-validation fields and the like (links to company records, for 
example) would not be difficult.

Jeremy Malcolm, President of Vice for SLPWA, donated the software and contents 
at LinuxConsultants to SLPWA for the express purpose of having a ready-made 
minimum-adminstration rendezvous system available and working, so I feel 
fairly safe in assuming that having it hosted by LA, or at least associated 
with the site, for the same ends would be a welcome move, and that Jeremy 
and/or others would be happy to port the data from LA and other systems to 
suit it.

The big problem, and the reason why Thwte, for example, can charge such stiff 
fees for SSL certs, is credibility. Credibility doesn't grow on trees, it 
involves committment and eventually a *lot* of work.

We need people like Mark Gaynor, PLUG member (and now Secretary) and de-facto 
LA member, who was not long ago made redundant by Channel 7, who are bright 
and motivated enough to intelligently work through registrations, validating 
as much as they can and updating the site accordingly, and being real human 
contact people who can answer questions satisfactorily.

Although their patrons are in this case at the bleeding edge of technology, 
the methods often used by recruiting houses are pretty much stone age: 
snail-mail, telephone and face-to-face meetings. They have an old-boy network 
that we can't match, now or in the next 10 years, and a process which they 
use in exactly the same way for waitresses, advertising account managers, 
mining engineers, and geeks.

What we have that they don't is an understanding of how things work from the 
technical end of things, and a `young-boy network' of people in the field. We 
should be using that, getting as many people as possible to urge others to 
register, and those that feel secure about doing so (or are switching jobs 
anyway) to tell their bosses and HR departments about us.

But before we can do so, we need to be organised and have at least one deeply 
committed person in there with stuff afoot and probably getting paid 
something approaching a real wage for it.

The buck is sitting on your desk. Ride it, don't pass it on.
</speech>

I've BCC'ed a couple of people whom I haven't seen on this list but might be 
interested in a part of such an enterprise.

Cheers; Leon

-- 
http://cyberknights.com.au/     Modern tools; traditional dedication
http://plug.linux.org.au/       Committee Member, Perth Linux User Group
http://slpwa.asn.au/            Committee Member, Linux Professionals WA
http://linux.org.au/            Committee Member, Linux Australia