[plug] Re: Looking for a Web Monkey (Still)

[Paul Antoine]

Trevor Phillips wrote:
> After interviewing a few candidates who didn't quite have the required
> skills we need, we're still looking for a Web Guru at Murdoch Uni. Is
> it just me, or is it a lot tougher to find decent programmers looking
> for work in Perth than it was a couple of years ago?
>   
It is - too many light-weight IT courses IMHO.
> We're looking for someone with a decent grasp of supporting,
> enhancing, creating, and fixing web apps in an Apache environment.
> Perl/PHP is useful, although we're happy to take someone who's good at
> picking up different languages, and doesn't mind us saying "No, don't
> do it in Java or .NET".
>   
Good luck... few IT "professionals" in Perth want to work on open sauce 
tools. They don't believe it's good for their "career"... as they 
believe no one else will hire them should they wish to move on.  
Unfortunately it seems this is true.

My partner is an experienced Perl/Php web-weeny (14 years) having built 
some of the first commercial websites in Australia.  He also has some 
experience in .Net.  He remained unemployed in Perth for 4 months until 
iiNet employed him, despite a notional lack of skilled IT staff in the 
state.  Seems employers won't believe a a professional IT person can 
pick up a new language or environment easily... sigh!

Paul