Re: employment with ada

[DPH <rally2xs@compuserve.com>]

On Mon, 05 May 2003 18:41:38 GMT, "P S Norby" <psnorby@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "DPH" <rally2xs@compuserve.com>
>Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
>Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 11:03 AM
>Subject: Re: employment with ada
>
>
>
>> 2) If they hire someone and train them in Ada, and designate them to
>> program in Ada, all too often that person thinks to himself, "I'm
>> learning a dead langauge, with nowhere to go if this project fails or
>> completes" and the next thing you know, that person is in an exit
>> interview, looking for a job that will provide "marketable skills."
>>
>
>Given that JSF is the biggest DoD contract ever, and will last several
>decades ('til 2050, according to someone on the "Nova" program on PBS about
>the competition between Boeing & LMCO), one would think that that would be
>enough prestige and security (if there is such a thing these days) to
>overcome some programmers' doubts about language.
>
>And given that LMCO receives several hundred (or thousand?) resumes for each
>posted position, you would think there would be more than enough who are
>willing to do the job in Ada.  (and how about screening out the non-willing
>_before_ hiring/training them?)

Any given Ada-speaking-only SW Engineer could and should be concerned
about:

1) Getting laid off in spite of the hot project - "stuff" can happen.

2) Wanting the freedom to decide they don't want to work at the same
place their whole career, and maybe live in some other state besides
Texas or Georgia or wherever.

3) Maybe wanting to not get underpaid because the employer knows you
don't have much of an option to go anywhere else because this, at 10
years later, is the only Ada island, or maybe one of the 3 remaining
Ada islands (and the other 2 are in places where it goes down to 38
below zero in the winter) in the country.

4) Maybe just plain getting tired of Ada programming but not being
able to leave with the narrow skillset.

Dave Head