[JOB] Sr. Python Developer, Northern VA

[Anton Vredegoor]

skip at pobox.com wrote:

> I think the steady increase in the number of active listings over the
>  past couple years bodes well for the job prospects of Python 
> programmers as a whole.  There are currently 99 job postings on the 
> job board dating back to mid-December.  A year ago there were about 
> 60, a year before that, about 40.

Agreed. There's now probably even room on the job market for those who
don't belong to the select elite of early adopters. We might even root
out the professionalist attitude and address the problem of tying people
to their resumes.

> A number of those companies seem to be fairly enlightened about the 
> use of open source software (search for "open").  You can't expect 
> the world to completely change overnight.

If I never speak up there's little chance my ideas will get noticed.
But there's probably some better format possible for my message.

> Most companies probably still funnel external job postings through 
> their HR departments.  As a result, a certain amount of boilerplate 
> text and corporate puffery is bound to turn up in many postings. Be 
> thankful they at least found the job board or comp.lang.python and 
> aren't just trying to recruit through traditional channels.

Actually, I like people posting their jobs on an unmoderated forum. How
else would it be possible to try and get applicants and employers to
compare their ideas? I mean, not everyone is able to visit expensive
high-profile hiring fests like pycon.

> You'd probably never see job postings for the Space Telescope Science
>  Institute or The World Wide Workshop for Children's Media Technology
>  and Learning if they only appeared in the Washington Post or New
> York Times.

Sure. But my whole problem is that while I'd be immensely useful in a 
space telescope science institute or a genome database research 
institute or in an artists educational institute or in a psychological 
statistics institute or in a computer science or mathematics institute 
etc. there is no way people can see that, because they're thinking in 
resumes, job experience and formal education instead of in just asking 
themselves what needs to be done and can he do it. You know, like duck 
typing :-) From what I get around the 'net I gather the problem is a bit 
less pronounced in the US though.

A.