From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,49080e6fcab71cd X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: mmandel@mail.gwtc.net (marc mandel) Subject: Re: ADA experienced software engineer - great employment opp... Date: 2000/07/12 Message-ID: <396c8e63.8005125@news.gwtc.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 645518453 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <8kfdk9$met$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <396B8532.49380005@lmco.com> <2A763C24B6CCB82B.62A0D3FAA050C23A.56CD7B9F34A87413@lp.airnews.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Complaints-To: support@usenetserver.com Organization: WebUseNet Corp http://www.usenetserver.com - Home of the fastest NNTP servers on the Net. MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 11:51:07 EDT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-07-12T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: On 12 Jul 2000 02:45:18 GMT, rlove@antispam.neosoft.com (Robert B. Love ) wrote: >Well, besides the issue of domain knowledge that a software engineer >may lack, my current employer finds another disturbing trend. That >CS grads don't want to do avionics programming. They want to do whatever >is cool and in at the moment. Web/E-commerce or game programming. Java. >We've traditionally found that EE's who program are better at this. >This certainly is NOT an iron clad rule, just something that's been >observed enough that some managers are weary of hiring CS grads for >Avionics type work. Robert (and others), Then perhaps you can tell me what I am doing wrong... I _am_ very interested in avionics / real-time / distributed computing / defense industry type work. I went to a job fair in Santa Clara this last March and saw 200+ booths that had 'Pre-IPO" and "Web/E-commerce" banners. These booths were swamped with people, although I had no interest in them. I concentrated on the defense companies (Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Aerospace, Boeing, etc.) The initial responses that I got was positive, although there has been almost no follow-up interest. The representative at one of the above companies recognized my resume by name ("Hi, Marc. We're still looking at you."), although I have heard very little since then. The only news that I have gotten is that there is a opening in which the hiring manager is considering new grads. That was six weeks ago. I stopped at another booth where I happened to mention that I have a SECRET security clearance and was given a very warm response. I have not heard _anything_ from that company, although I have contacted them repeatedly. My first class in structured programming was Ada. Unlike most of my peers, I liked the language. Unfortunately, that has been a few years and only one of my other courses made any use of that the language and that also has been a few years. I am currently finishing my master's degree in computer science. I have one more graduate-level computer science class to finish. I have been trying to find employment now, since it is rather difficult to support myself while I'm taking only one class without a full-time job. (I recently completed a resident 5 month course that was required for my military career.) I'm guessing that my biggest problem is that I have no full-time software development experience in the area that I want to work. Databases are an area in which I am willing to start, although I have no interest in doing exclusively database work for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I do have computer work experience (5 years technical support) and I did 2 years part-time software development while working on my master's degree. It was database related using Visual FoxPro. I also have been a commissioned officer in the Army National Guard (Field Artillery) for the past 10 years. I think that says something about my ability / responsibility / maturity. Is there something that I am doing wrong? Is there something else that I should be doing? I would really appreciate some candid answers. Regards, Marc Mandel