Delphi and C# Jobs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Trey Weaver
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Trey Weaver

I have written Delphi for years. I am finding it harder and harder to find
jobs. I am considering biting the bullet and start to learn .Net and C#.
But before I invest this time I was wondering how difficult it is to find
work. Is it just the recession or is it Delphi? I don't want to spend
several months working on C# to find out that I still can not find work.

Trey
 
There are jobs but there are more people looking for jobs than there are
positions.

I have been working in Delphi since version 1 and have been unemployed since
March. I applied for a job with the State of Ohio transportation department.
Someone there and told me that they got 1100 applications for the position.

Here in Columbus Ohio there are few Delphi jobs but I have been seeing some
jobs for C#. I got C# standard and the MS C# training books and have been
working with them. I think it will take me at lease a few months.

I have a friend that was a mainframe (COBOL) program for 30 years. He has
been unemployed for over 18 months, he just sold his house.

I have another friend that was a programmer for TI for 15 years. He has been
out of work for over a year.
 
Okay maybe you didn't get the memo:

Corporate America is currently exporting all programming
jobs to India. The process should be complete some time
within the next few years. On a related note: India does
not allow non citizens to work in India.

In the meantime you should be aware that a head hunter
called me and actually pitched me an offer of $35/hr to be
lead architect on a C# project in San Diego CA... In case
you don't know, you could not afford to live in your car
in San Diego on $35/hr...

Frankly, It would be most helpful for you if you were a
native of India and were willing to code for 5 cents a
day. Your only other option is to find a new career.

--Richard

P.S. My next career will be as a comdey writer who
specializes in the sickeningly ironical ;)
 
Is that true, India does not allow non citizens to work in India.
What if anything can we do about it.
grs
 
Richard said:
Okay maybe you didn't get the memo:

Corporate America is currently exporting all programming
jobs to India. The process should be complete some time
within the next few years. On a related note: India does
not allow non citizens to work in India.

In the meantime you should be aware that a head hunter
called me and actually pitched me an offer of $35/hr to be
lead architect on a C# project in San Diego CA... In case
you don't know, you could not afford to live in your car
in San Diego on $35/hr...

Frankly, It would be most helpful for you if you were a
native of India and were willing to code for 5 cents a
day. Your only other option is to find a new career.

--Richard

P.S. My next career will be as a comdey writer who
specializes in the sickeningly ironical ;)



and harder to find


learn .Net and C#.


difficult it is to find


want to spend


not find work.
Click to expand...
i think it's ironical that an aspiring writer says "ironical" ;)

He's right though...the straight-up programming jobs are getting shipped
to India...but in the right market you can find companies doing things
that they are smart enough to realize requires an in-house staff...you
may have to move. If I were you, I would upgrade my skills not just to
new languages, but also business, management, and all that so that you
can become a guy who's job can't be filled by some guy in
Bangalore...project management jobs are out there...of course you may be
managing a project being completed offshore...
 
Last I heard it was true - though it may only be that they
don't hire Americans. There's an article about it today
on wwww.slashdot.org.

What can we do about it:

1) Change careers/leave U.S.
2) Replace the current U.S. Government with a Government
that cares about Americans
3) Tell Pakistan that India said something bad about it's
mother...

--Richard
 
Trey said:
I have written Delphi for years. I am finding it harder and harder to find
jobs. I am considering biting the bullet and start to learn .Net and C#.
But before I invest this time I was wondering how difficult it is to find
work. Is it just the recession or is it Delphi? I don't want to spend
several months working on C# to find out that I still can not find work.
Click to expand...

The situation here in Los Angeles is about as bad. I have a number of
languages under my belt, including many years of C++, yet I can't *pay*
people to look at my resume. There are simply too many people out there
looking for work. The situation is not good, unless you're willing to
work for peanuts perhaps...

I would learn C# and .NET in any case, because the more you know, the
better your chances. Check out www.dice.com and www.monster.com, etc.,
to see the jobs in your area. Compare the number of listings for Delphi,
C#, and other languages/technologies too -- maybe there is something
other than / in addition to C# you should be learning? One thing you've
probably already discovered is that it's a rare job listing that wants
only a single skill. You'd better know several languages well, SQL,
Internet technologies, etc. etc. etc.

But as a bonus, IMHO, you may find C# to be a pleasant language to work
with. I certainly did, and enjoy it far more than I did C, C++, or Java.
As they say, "Try it, you'll like it!" :-)
 
I have to respectfully disagree with all of you. And a lot of this is pure
nonsense. The main reason companies are hiring in India is because there is
a skilled workforce over there that doesn't exist here. America can turn out
education majors like noones business, Sociology/Criminal Justice/ English
all that great stuff. But Computer Science majors. There isn't a school
out there that graduates CS majors at a higher rate the liberal arts. As
far as the $35.00/hr thing goes, if you are interested, I can forward you
some info about two companies that tried recruiting me. One paid $70.00 an
hour in Cleveland Oh, the other paid $110,000 salary in Atlanta. I also had
and offer last march for 72k in Spartanburg SC. I guess at $5.00 an hour,
either of these companies could hire half the population of Punjab.
Speaking of Punjab, a good friend of mine, a Computer Programmer is over in
Gujarat right now. He's working too. And he's making very real money
doing compact framework development. Incidentally, he was born in Miami
just like me and he's too blonde and light skinned to pass as a native.

How in a Country as wealthy and with as many resources as we have, can
programmers possibly be threatened by India or any other country for that
matter. We are a World leader for God's sake. Oracle, Microsoft, Sun,
.....are all based here in the states, and trust me, they all have tons of
people working in each of their domestic offices. Look at the top notch
Database professionals and how many are Indian! Even here in the states.

I've seen and worked with too many people that like to whine about new
technology and bask in their bad habit or the way it 'used to be' and won't
learn new stuff. I know a lot of folks who are in LOVE with their code, no
matter how inefficient it is. They all tend to be quite cocky too (go ask
any technical writer out there about 'programmers' and the cocky attitude
many in our profession give other people. Ask them by and large if
foreigners are the ones with attitudes or if it's us).

I've been programming only five years. There are many much better
programmers than me. But I get too many calls from recruiters, know too
many programmers that are making a killing (low-mid 6 figure salaries) to
believe that we are threatened. If you are really that hard up, write me
privately and I can put you in contact with the recruiters of the two above
mentioned jobs.

Bill
 
No, it's not true. Do you really believe that Microsoft India doesn't have
one American working there? Check out their site. NOTICE that there is no
requirement for any job that you be a native Indian. To prove this, I can
actually have a real live American working in India right now post on this
newsgroup. Post the question and let the MVP's answer it...that's utter
nonsense.
 
Bill:

I sympathize with your friends' plight.. but face it, the cobol market is
shrinking . At Y2K, they were making a killing, but in 98 it was already
dying. You have to acknowledge that someone who can write Java Web
Services, PDA Applications, Build commercial web sites, top notch
DBA's....they aren't going unemployed. Perhaps some areas are hit hard, but
if here in Augusta GA you can get hired immediately...... We had layoffs
about 6 months ago. The two programmers that were laid off were both hired
in the next 3 weeks. And trust me, Augusta GA isn't the technological mecca
of the world (I think I'm supposed to say 'Praise be to Allah' after using
Mecca in a sentence but I'm going to let it slip today).

Am I right?
 
Hello

You shouldn't mock other people's religions, I suppose you don't want anyone
to mock yours. Anyways in case you are not mocking and you really believe
that, I correct your information; a Muslim is supposed to say 'Praise be to
Allah' frequently but not necessarily after using Mecca in a sentence.

Best Regards

Sherif
 
Or just stay American and have fun working with great people from other
countries. Much better than 'can't find a job because some 18 year old
Indian Kid with 10 times my skill took it from me" type.
 
I wasn't Mocking anything. My friend, notice the whole tone of my posts. I
think America is great BECAUSE if foreigners, 3/4 of my family wasn't born
here. Perhaps I sounded mocking Sherify, but I wasn't. I've posted before
with the greeting salam malakim out of respect. I've heard from more than a
few people that this is inappropriate for a Christian. Instead of Saying
'Amen', I've used the phrase "Praise be to Allah" <prior to 2001 for
instance> and I was corrected that it was blasphemy for me to use it.


Sherif, honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was disrespect Islam or
anything of the sort. I used the Mecca reference to point out that there
are other valid foreign perspectives. I totally see why you may have
thought I was mocking....but my friend I wasn't. To that end, I humbly
apologize.

Cheers,

Bill
 
Richard:

I officially offer you $1,000 dollars for each Exported Job Corporate
American SEnds from here on to India. I'll meet you at the port. While we
export cars, guns, software, all you need to do is show me the Job
Container. We'll do a count, hell, we can even use your accounting firm of
choice, and for each Job we can count in the container, heading over to
India, I'll give you $1,000. Now, if you can't track it moving to India,
then you can't claim we export it. We can track Software, TV's guns etc.
So show me one physical Job in a container that is heading to India, and
I'll give you $1,000.

I guess you were probably too busy learning the virtues of weak data typing
, goto statements and organized laber to read David Ricardo or Adam Smith or
F.A. Hayek or Milton Freidman or anyone else with a clue in Economics.

Too bad we can't export Variant Data Types ....
 
Importing labor?

William Ryan said:
Richard:

I officially offer you $1,000 dollars for each Exported Job Corporate
American SEnds from here on to India. I'll meet you at the port. While we
export cars, guns, software, all you need to do is show me the Job
Container. We'll do a count, hell, we can even use your accounting firm of
choice, and for each Job we can count in the container, heading over to
India, I'll give you $1,000. Now, if you can't track it moving to India,
then you can't claim we export it. We can track Software, TV's guns etc.
So show me one physical Job in a container that is heading to India, and
I'll give you $1,000.

I guess you were probably too busy learning the virtues of weak data typing
, goto statements and organized laber to read David Ricardo or Adam Smith or
F.A. Hayek or Milton Freidman or anyone else with a clue in Economics.

Too bad we can't export Variant Data Types ....
Click to expand...
 
Corporate America is currently exporting all programming
jobs to India. The process should be complete some time
within the next few years. On a related note: India does
not allow non citizens to work in India.
Click to expand...

Well, once they start to realize that this isn't really gonna work for
all projects, they'll crawl back..... we have had some experience with
outsourcing to India and other places, and many big corporations
thought they could make a buck or two by slashing jobs here locally -
well, most of them are either out of business, or have stepped back
and are doing most of their IT work in Switzerland again.....

No offense to anyone, but there are a lot of subtle challenges that
most people don't think about, when you try to outsource stuff to a
foreign country / foreign culture - and those subtleties can end up
costing you more, in the long run, to deal with (or to fix) than doing
it it right, right there, locally, with your folks who know the
language, the culture, the surroundings.

Marc
 
Marc:

That's an excellent point! Another reason some companies expanded a presence
abroad is that there are big markets over there, and language problems and
the like are alleviated by having people over there. Many foreign companies
<ahem> 'export' jobs over here too. Every time things get tight, downsizing
happens. Ok , this time they downsized and hired some foreigners whereas
last time they just hired temps. Then they realize this isn't working as
well as expected and things shift.
 
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