[JOB] Sr. Python Developer, Northern VA

[Steven D. Arnold]

Neosynapse is seeking a senior software developer located in or
willing to relocate to the Northern VA area to join a project
building one of the largest grid computing data platforms in the
world. Skill and experience required for this engagement include:

* at least 7 years experience in professional software development;
* at least 3 years of Python software development experience;
* proven experience with design, implementation, debugging and
documentation of large projects;
* past experience with the development of networking client and
server software;
* experience using SQL databases in the development of software
applications;
* excellent written and oral communication skills, including the
ability to clearly explain design choices and discuss alternatives
with colleagues and managers.

The following skills are desirable but not mandatory:
* experience using SAN file systems;
* experience with general web software development;
* experience writing applications that leverage Oracle databases;
* experience writing and integrating C modules with Python;
* experience with Ruby or Ruby on Rails.

You must be able to function independently as you will work from home
a significant amount of time on this project. Limited travel to PA,
NJ, and CO will be required. The initial phase of this project will
last 6 months, with follow-on work planned for approximately 3 years.

If interested and qualified for this position, please submit your
detailed resume, contact and rate requirements to (e-mail address removed)
with the subject line PY-5. Principals only.

 

[Anton Vredegoor]

Neosynapse is seeking a senior software developer located in or

Subtract ten points from your credibility for writing senior here.

willing to relocate to the Northern VA area to join a project
building one of the largest grid computing data platforms in the
world. Skill and experience required for this engagement include:

Another 10 points minus for claiming to be the "largest" (biggest,
industry leader etc.). Are you looking for a developer or is this just
an ad for your company?

* at least 7 years experience in professional software development;

Minus 20 points for using the term professional. Open source is cool.

* at least 3 years of Python software development experience;

OK. You can ask for that. As long as you're not blind when someone shows
you some code. I mean some people can't see code until it's connected to
some 'job'.

* proven experience with design, implementation, debugging and
documentation of large projects;

Hmm. Why, may I ask? Can you even code? Who are you anyway?

* past experience with the development of networking client and
server software;

You really seem to know what you want, eh?

* experience using SQL databases in the development of software
applications;

Experience, experience, experience. Why don't you just re-hire the one
you just fired because he wouldn't say yes to your absurd demands? I
mean after he made a honest guesstimate of the time frame necessary for
the job and you pinned him down to the minute?

* excellent written and oral communication skills, including the
ability to clearly explain design choices and discuss alternatives
with colleagues and managers.
Yeah.

The following skills are desirable but not mandatory:
* experience using SAN file systems;
* experience with general web software development;
* experience writing applications that leverage Oracle databases;
* experience writing and integrating C modules with Python;
* experience with Ruby or Ruby on Rails.

* endure stupid boss messing with the creative process.

You must be able to function independently as you will work from home
a significant amount of time on this project. Limited travel to PA,
NJ, and CO will be required. The initial phase of this project will
last 6 months, with follow-on work planned for approximately 3 years.

Says you. It could be anything from 3 months to ten years, depending on
how often you change your mind.

If interested and qualified for this position, please submit your
detailed resume, contact and rate requirements to (e-mail address removed)
with the subject line PY-5. Principals only.

Go away with that resume **** Why do you think you have a right to my
personal info when you're not giving any? By the way, I'm in Europe,
there's more than just US you know.

A.

/rant

 

[Steve Holden]

Steven D. Arnold wrote:
[...]
/rant

Feel better now?

regards
Steve

 

[Anton Vredegoor]

Feel better now?

Yes! But *now* I'm afraid it will have negative consequences for my
future employability. However if it will lead to adjusting the kind of
submissions at http://www.python.org/community/jobs/
it was probably worth it.

A.

'thanks for asking'

 

[skip]

Anton> Yes! But *now* I'm afraid it will have negative consequences for
Anton> my future employability. However if it will lead to adjusting the
Anton> kind of submissions at http://www.python.org/community/jobs/ it
Anton> was probably worth it.

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.
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. 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. 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.

Skip

 

[Anton Vredegoor]

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.

 

[Michael Bentley]

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.

Perhaps it is different where you live, but here you can put on your
resume relevant things that aren't paying jobs. Otherwise nobody
would ever get their first job, right?

 

[Anton Vredegoor]

Perhaps it is different where you live, but here you can put on your
resume relevant things that aren't paying jobs. Otherwise nobody
would ever get their first job, right?

Sure you can. But around here if one has been unemployed for a while
it's nearly impossible to get hired ever again. It doesn't matter how
many years programming Python one puts on the resume. Unpaid activities
are just not *visible*. So HRM people keep asking questions like 'But
what have you been doing?' In the end I just started my own company, and
while I'm not always employed as a freelancer I can at least now say I'm
running my own business.

The basic problem however is that it's just not anyones business whether
one has been walking through the country making pictures or doing some
desk job. All that should matter is can he do the job and is he
motivated. Asking a person who he *is* (resume) is not Pythonic!

Especially if one never reads the output.

A.

 

[Steve Holden]

Anton Vredegoor wrote:
[...] I mean, not everyone is able to visit expensive

high-profile hiring fests like pycon.

What! I resent that remark. PyCon was started precisely because I felt a
low-cost event would better encourage community involvement. If PyCon is
beyond your means that you clearly aren't looking to be hired as a
programmer ;-)

Seriously, I know that not everyone can afford to travel away for a
week's conference, but I've had reports that people *from the UK* have
found it cheaper to attend PyCon than the three-day Python UK event held
in concert with the ACCU (though that track is no longer purely Python
anyway, so things are changing).

... 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.

With an attitude like the one you exhibit in your post I seriously doubt
that. "You've got to speculate to accumulate". If you don't have a dream
your dream can never come true. If you dream of being a paid programmer
then it's up to you to make it happen. There's no use standing around
saying "the world is all wrong so no-one will ever hire me".

See it from the employer's side. Their first problem after advertising a
vacancy is to get the numbers requiring interview down to manageable
proportions. This involves looking for reasons to reject applications.
If you can't make it on your resume/CV then try something more
attention-grabbing. Just don't sit there and whine

regards
Steve

 

[Michael Bentley]

So HRM people keep asking questions like 'But
what have you been doing?' In the end I just started my own
company, and
while I'm not always employed as a freelancer I can at least now
say I'm
running my own business.

Yeah, I've decided to stay out of the statutory employee role myself
-- and my resume looks fine.

Or at least it looks good up until the time I made that decision ;-)

I'm doing just fine with freelance work. I work when I want and I
don't have to deal with people who think they can judge my ability to
accomplish a goal by asking "how much X do you have?" (where X is
some skill, language, toolkit, whatever) That "how much X do you
have" question always made me grit my teeth.

obtw, thanks for my new signature

-Michael

 

[Paul Rubin]

What! I resent that remark. PyCon was started precisely because I felt
a low-cost event would better encourage community involvement. If
PyCon is beyond your means that you clearly aren't looking to be hired
as a programmer ;-)

It's less expensive than typical industry conferences but it's about
3x as expensive as CodeCon was, comparing at-the-door charges. Plus
there's travel and possibly lodging expenses if you're not local to
the venue. Plus there's extra charges for the tutorials, if you want
to attend those. All in all, at least this past one was something
that I couldn't seriously consider going to.

 

[John J. Lee]

Sure you can. But around here if one has been unemployed for a while
it's nearly impossible to get hired ever again. It doesn't matter how
many years programming Python one puts on the resume. Unpaid
activities are just not *visible*. So HRM people keep asking questions
like 'But what have you been doing?' In the end I just started my own
company, and while I'm not always employed as a freelancer I can at
least now say I'm running my own business.

You may not realise it if you haven't been applying for work since you
did that, but I'm sure you've done a lot for your "employability" (I
hate that word, it implies that it's a one-sided business, clearly
false) by working as a freelancer.

Your original rant seemed rather one-sided, though.

The basic problem however is that it's just not anyones business
whether one has been walking through the country making pictures or
doing some desk job. All that should matter is can he do the job and
is he motivated. Asking a person who he *is* (resume) is not Pythonic!

I sympathise but conventional wisdom (which surely has a lot of truth
in it) is that employers are not faced with the problem of minimising
false negatives (failing to hire when they should have hired). They
are faced with the problem of minimising false positives (hiring when
they should not have hired). That's a gross simplification of course,
but I'm sure you appreciate the point -- if you're hiring employees,
being fairly risk-averse is probably quite rational.

I've often thought that randomness is a good thing here though,
globally -- a world of perfectly rational selfish employers would fail
to employ legions of highly productive people. Luckily incompetence
in hiring steps in often enough to save the day, in this best of all
possible worlds <0.75 wink>

(no hiring incompetence at the employer I'm just about to move to, it
goes without saying


John

 

[Anton Vredegoor]

You may not realise it if you haven't been applying for work since you
did that, but I'm sure you've done a lot for your "employability" (I
hate that word, it implies that it's a one-sided business, clearly
false) by working as a freelancer.

Since I'm freelancing my leverage has been a lot better and it has
resulted in a few short term regular job contracts. Unfortunately
there's also the new problem that when people learn that they can also
employ me as a freelancer they might prefer that, since it gives them
less risk, but then they don't want to pay me a freelance tariff :-(

Your original rant seemed rather one-sided, though.

Yes, I tried to let it slip that it was a rant. At least it has got some
discussion going.

I sympathise but conventional wisdom (which surely has a lot of truth
in it) is that employers are not faced with the problem of minimising
false negatives (failing to hire when they should have hired). They
are faced with the problem of minimising false positives (hiring when
they should not have hired). That's a gross simplification of course,
but I'm sure you appreciate the point -- if you're hiring employees,
being fairly risk-averse is probably quite rational.

So when we really mean business, you're back to static typing?

I've often thought that randomness is a good thing here though,
globally -- a world of perfectly rational selfish employers would fail
to employ legions of highly productive people. Luckily incompetence
in hiring steps in often enough to save the day, in this best of all
possible worlds <0.75 wink>

For me it's easy: I just can't stand handing over my resume anymore
(that's because of severe psychological damage caused by the Dutch
social security system), so whatever happens, I'm forced to find
rational employers. And with rational I mean a dynamically typing
employer! I'm the kind of employee object that when it gets typechecked
it raises a ResumeError.

(no hiring incompetence at the employer I'm just about to move to, it
goes without saying

Well, on my next leisurely stroll along the river side, I will
consciously enjoy the freedom of currently having no job instead of the
usual "I'm lucky I have no kids to worry about", just to humor you!

A.

 

[Chuck Rhode]

John J. Lee wrote this on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:16:13 +0000. My reply is
below.

I sympathise but conventional wisdom (which surely has a lot of
truth in it) is that employers are not faced with the problem of
minimising false negatives (failing to hire when they should have
hired). They are faced with the problem of minimising false
positives (hiring when they should not have hired). That's a gross
simplification of course, but I'm sure you appreciate the point --
if you're hiring employees, being fairly risk-averse is probably
quite rational.

.... so what's this we hear of employers' (in the US) being so starved
for talent that they're willing to bring in young men from overseas
with 3.5 kids and 1.5 wives?

 

[John J. Lee]

John J. Lee wrote this on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:16:13 +0000. My reply is
below.


... so what's this we hear of employers' (in the US) being so starved
for talent that they're willing to bring in young men from overseas
with 3.5 kids and 1.5 wives?

I honestly don't follow the connection between my statements about the
way things are and the ethical (?) position you appear to be pushing.
Please don't take offence when I ask you not to bother to elaborate,
though.


John

 

[John J. Lee]

John J. Lee wrote: [...]

but I'm sure you appreciate the point -- if you're hiring employees,
being fairly risk-averse is probably quite rational.

So when we really mean business, you're back to static typing?

I'm not wedded to dynamic typing, as it happens. Of course, if I
were, I would have to take it as a metaphor for all of life ;-)

[...]

Well, on my next leisurely stroll along the river side, I will
consciously enjoy the freedom of currently having no job instead of
the usual "I'm lucky I have no kids to worry about", just to humor you!

Bastard


John