[OFF-TOPIC] Re: MediaOne dns problems

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

Charles C. Bennett, Jr writes:
| No, it merely means that I've failed to communicate clearly ;-).

Hmmm ... I think I've done that a few times.

| Let's start by stating that the obvious - you don't speak for MIT and
| I don't speak for VA Linux Systems.

Yeah; I suspected as much.  (I did see a disclaimer a few  years  ago
that  I liked, to the effect that "I try to speak for ..., but nobody
listens to me.)

| Three weeks into the six month gig the hiring manager comes to my desk
| and says "I hear you're a crack Java jock, I want you to drop the
| sysadmin stuff and work on this design and coding project."
...his interaction.
| If you were me, would you ask for more money to do the Java work
| knowing that The Man would have to pay 40% more if he placed an ad
| looking for a Java jock?

Actually, I'd charge more for the sysadmin work, on the  ground  that
it's  a  thankless job that nobody wants to do.  "Hazard pay" y'know.
But maybe that's why I don't get many of that kind of  job.   I  have
noticed  the opposite process:  I'm hired to do some programming, the
boss discovers that I know a lot  about  unix  and  network  sysadmin
stuff, and tries to pull me off the programming to get things working
better.  If it gets too bad, I hit them up for more money.

But it's an interesting scenario, which I'd guess others  have  seen.
Anyone else have comments on this?

Just yesterday, I found myself talking to a prospective employer  who
needs  help  working  on porting stuff from an old (unix) platform to
Solaris, linux and NT. I found myself explaining why I'd want more to
work  on  NT.   My argument was that job satisfaction is part of what
motivates me, and in this case this means getting the software to run
reliably  on  the new platforms.  In the case of NT, I know enough to
understand and explain why software can't be  made  to  run  reliably
there.   So  there's a lot more frustration of a job poorly done with
NT, and it takes an  extra  bribe  to  get  me  to  work  in  such  a
low-quality environment.

| Would it be different if this weren't a contact gig and was a
| "captive" job with bennies?

Nah. The only difference these days is that on contract jobs, you get
paid extra when the boss pressures you to work 80 hours per week.

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