Why? Because as a developer, i.e. someone who had to do and oversee it all, and someone who did it for small companies, I never became an expert on things like Oracle, or Peoplesoft or even Java (although I think I could be as good as most in a few months on that one) and there just aren’t that many jobs out there for someone who is not an expert in some narrow field and who actually likes to create things as opposed to just fix them…no offense to those who fix things, it’s just not me. :) (Eric Raymond said in Cathedral and Bazaar that only about 5% of IT jobs are development) Besides that I hate MS. Always have and probably always will. (It still blows my mind that after all this time Windows still can’t multi-task worth a crap) And that really cuts the job market down.

It’s sad really. If you give me some kind of vague idea of a problem and just a few resources, in somewhere from months to years, depending on the size of the problem, I can present you with a complete solution; product, documentation, marketing, manufacturing, support, distribution…everything. Hardware, software, packaging, mfg. process, outsourced mfg, custom wood, metal, and plastic, buttons, knobs, all manner of interface devices, personnel, budget, VC presentations, shows from top to bottom, sales, installation, testing, certification, export to other countries…I think I’ve done it all. But the jobs just aren’t there or they aren’t such that I can play anymore. I am now middle aged. I have a family and my wife wasn’t married to a ketchup king before me. So I need a job that won’t go away because we couldn’t get the next round of funding and I don’t want to live in Cal.

Well, I wrote more than I had planned. Thanks for letting me vent a little. I have a memo to write on banking regulation now.

Mark

P.S. Really nice to see the ProLife link.