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

[Tim Bowden]

On Thu, 2008-05-22 at 11:11 +0800, Hooker wrote:
> On Thu May 22 10:10 , 'W.Kenworthy'  sent:
> >a) Are you training staff in the skills they need? - I mean properly,
> >not token exercises - companies like to hire fully skilled staff so they
> >dont have to invest in the training, but when no-one is coming through
> t>he training pipeline like now, they are left out.
> >
> >b) Are you paying them what they are worth? - this is a recurring theme
> >in Perth - easy to fix if you REALLY want staff.
> >
> >From what I can see, Perth as a whole (and I am not pointing the finger
> >at any one firm, but at most of them) does not do either of the above in
> >any meaningful way.
> >
> >BillK
> 
> a) Good point. We prefer that staff know the selected language well
>  (that's Perl for a number of locally-valid reasons) and if they don't
>  but are able to convinced us that they are able and willing to learn
>  it, it's very much "on the job" training by way of initial small
>  projects. As they get better and more comfortable with the local
>  standards, the projects get bigger.
> 
> b) Now there's an argument that a number of us have had here before.
>  OTOH, I've interviewed new graduates who expect $80k and a car with no
>  experience. Not all companies pay well I'd agree, but there's also an
>  unreasonable expectation surfacing at times.
> 
> The training issue is similar in the UK, or was 10 years ago when I left.
> 
> Hook

This is an argument that goes around in every consulting industry.  If
you invest in training young blokes, your opposition will snavel them up
before you've had a chance to get a return on your investment, so
there's a reluctance to train.  If you don't train, you won't develop
quality staff.  As a result, most training becomes ad-hoc on the job
type training.  It's more gradual, and becomes limited to the immediate
activities of the business, and there's a greater chance to more quickly
get a return on training investment.  Staff are also less attractive to
the opposition as they don't have format training, and what training
they do have is more specific to the business they're currently at.
That's all very generalised, but by and large that's been my experience.

Regards,
Tim Bowden