Loading...
Loading...

In this short episode, Jack takes a look at the current state of the IT hiring market — where job postings seem plentiful, but actual opportunities often feel strangely elusive. From "entry-level" roles asking for a decade of experience to companies searching for the mythical full-stack, cloud, DevOps, security expert all in one person, we discuss the growing gap between job descriptions and reality. With a bit of sarcasm and a lot of firsthand observation, we unpack what's going on in tech hiring right now and why so many professionals feel like the market has become a puzzle nobody quite understands.
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Market Struggles
02:22 Hardware Shortages
02:56 Merged Roles
05:12 Interview Issues
08:31 AI's Impact
10:18 Conclusion
Welcome to Jack Swans, our series of smaller bonus episodes where I discuss recent IT and
security news that has popped up locally and worldwide which might not be the material for
my episode but nevertheless deserves a bit of insight. I am Jack Smith.
Earlier this week I was mingling a bit on an IT networking event and it was one of those rare ones
where you actually have the business site and the IT's guys on one end and also had independent
contractors and people from body shops around with both sides of defense. Both sides came to me
independently to talk and rant about the hiring market and this is a summary of my findings
and what I learned and what people have told me left and right. Currently you could say hardly
anybody gets hired in IT and some major topics were able to be identified. First of all and
actually the one and biggest one, the current economic uncertainties which exist. Long story short,
long-term budgets cannot be put together. First of all there is the cost of everything you don't
know what your transport is going to cost. You don't know what your raw materials are going to cost.
It adds a big and large question mark to what will be available when. On top of that some countries
have imposed import tariffs on the water which are quite volatile. Again, making it very hard to
define what your equipment will cost. Say you want to install a new warehouse with access points
or you want to renew an office with new switches or with new routers. You have no idea what these
are going to cost. You know what they will cost today but you will have no idea what they are
going to cost when they get ordered or paid or delivered two three four months down the line.
Those uncertainties make people just say, eh, we'll wait a bit and see how it goes in six months
and what will happen in six months. Well, there is not a single or very few chipfabs which have
capacity left for the next 18 months because there is this thing called AI in the market which
everybody is jumping on like a madman and if then it's justified or not is not what we're going to
talk about here. But there is no capacity left to make any new chips to make any new hardware. So
again, if you want an access point in those access points are chips. If current stock runs out,
there is no production capacity to make new ones and starting a new fab, new fabrication plant
will take years to become online so you cannot do that. With these uncertainties, business is
trying to save cost. What the contractors and the hiring managers from the body shops mentioned
most and for all is that malls are being merged as a costee where you would have had an SDM
through a delivery manager and a scrum master some pms separately. It is now being thrown into one
big pile. So you have your sdm scrum develops pm in for pm all combined into one which is a
position that basically in large corporations doesn't exist. You would have those four rolls
spread out to over well three or four people and today it needs to be merged into one which is a
different experience to have because you must be a specialist of everything and even a generalist
will have no chance because it might be a very good scrum master but this scrum master might
not be a good sdm or have you experienced in it so therefore it is a hard thing to find merged
in those profiles. Same story in the support world I had a guy that had to interview for an IT
and help us cleat and do a third line support on some application ownership at the same time
and it would have been a plus if he could also take on the role as the service delivery manager
for a few applications and departments towards the business which is not something that is very
common and not something that you can easily pull out of your head not even when there is a
white rabbit in there and then from mainly some contractors that I spoke over there across the
field it was both from business pms IT pms developers onto architects security guys whatever you want
so if they do get an interview it's really hard because then what you have across the table
it's been described to me as statler and Waldorf from the Muppet show and they are really in their
tower in the big city and have no feeling with the local production facility so this is more of
course in a blue color environment but there is no feeling with the technical side it is
like your in a tv show where you have to answer the correct buzzwords and then when the bell
things you get to advance to the next round your experience and your way of working is absolutely
not important you just have to tick all the theoretical boxes to fit into the framework that was
acquired from some expensive consultants maybe recently or a few years ago but anyway they are
stuck it if you do have a technical person in the interview from the employer side quite often
they don't really have a say or don't have that as to say and I ask the same questions on the
business side like hey like you know mr statler mr Waldorf if you interview for any position
what's it like for you what do you and first and foremost it well we cannot find profiles we
are looking for which is logical because they are as we said a bit earlier they are throwing
everything together onto one big pile good luck finding a delivery manager a scram master a
DevOps PM and infra PM in one or same thing good luck finding your IT lead hellabdesk lead
third line support doing some delivery management on the site really good freaking luck with that one
so they are stuck and then of course and then if they do find a good candidate that matches the job
they are more or less forced to go with the one that has the lowest cost which does not guarantee you
the best profile and even then approval to get everything hired and get every contact and every
PO if it is an external resource that just take forever and then from that is why from there on
almost nobody gets hired as well some guys were there that I knew for not a few years or even
a few decades and when they took me aside they were asking me is this my fault as in are they
at fault itself or not getting any reaction out there and no I don't think it it is it is not
the the contract is fault it is what the market is right now if there are any job postings and you
submit something there is any reaction or hardly any reaction and also any contract that goes on
the market and now I'm talking a bit more about the freelance market but bullish shops can also
apply for these two agencies you will see contracts being opened and closed and opened and closed
on the fly with nobody getting hired you will see a scrum master position come out on the market
and you have to put in your candidacy in the next two weeks after one week you'll see it has been
closed it has been vanished from the publication website to be reopened one week later without any
comment or any change but you have to resubmit your candidacy to it it gets closed again and then
comes back two days later and then you just only have to be not just a scrum master but also
a devils person and a devils PM and a delivery manager there is absolutely zero consistency in there
and then if somebody does get hired you see after three months after six months you see the same
positions coming out back on the market again and again and again so either the poster gives up
and doesn't find anyone or somebody does get hired and because of all the things being pushed
and at the lowest budget well sadly you know if you pay peanuts you know what you will get they hire
the wrong profile or somebody that is completely overwhelmed or was very good in talking his
her their way through the interview but once you get into the driving seat it doesn't work and
they just after three months well don't don't come back in tomorrow yeah it is also what is
been going on and then we've touched it a bit earlier the elephant in the room is AI at fault
because it's really easy to just to point to AI as I know it's it's it's AI that is at fault
it that's why nobody is getting hired well yes and no a few months ago there was in the local
news was a local professor made a very good statement saying that everybody is writing their resumes
with AI AI checks them and as a result nobody gets hired and this then goes into I think it's a
famous quote now from an IBM training manual from the late 70s that you cannot hold a computer
accountable therefore it should not be used to make an actual decision and that is what you see
here certainly on the HR level is that all kinds of toolkits if you want to call them AI yes or no
I leave it in the middle they are making decisions okay I do understand that you get 100 125
resumes in for a position you have to do a check but it is a blind check just looking for some
keywords and if you are really 100% checking on the key was existing yes or no well yeah people will
start plastering their resumes with keywords in the hope that they just get picked plus if you're
not having the right search because you don't know what you're looking for or you're putting
everything together you will not get the right candidates to pop up anyway another quote from
more of a scientific podcaster comedian whatever good guys I call it leave a share looking
up he made a quote that AI is an excellent intern and it does a lot of work but you have to
verify and validate everything that it does to make sure that it is correct and that is where again
we are today in conclusion to this rant are there contracts right now being put out well yeah not
much let's be honest about that it is a very very difficult market but there is work and companies
actually want to hire but they don't get the budget approved or they are forced to go with a lower
budget and then get basically not a good match in whatever they are looking for and of course
in the end AI is not helping this was Jack Smith have a nice day
the content of this podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only and is meant to
humorously explore various tech related situations any resemblance to actual events or real
persons living or dead is purely coincidental you ridicule situations never individuals or groups
listener discretion is advised and we encourage everyone to approach technology with a sense of
humor and an open mind
when you really need care you need 24 seven access to a care team not a maze of paperwork
from a third party every day america's hospitals and health systems show up for you
navigating healthcare can feel overwhelming but you can count on real doctors real nurses real
people providing quality around the clock care when you need it most they're in your corner
in communities across america your neighbors your lifelines right beside you holding your hand
and helping find answers that's what putting patients first actually means learn more at
strengthinhealthcare.org brought you by the coalition to strengthen america's health care
hey y'all it's kelly Clarkson with Wayfair where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps
on your phone picture this you're relaxing in an old hammock scrolling Wayfair's app when you
spot it a brand new patio set next thing you know Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and
all you need new girl too all right Wayfair's got you covered with Wayfair's room of choice
delivery and fast expert setup on qualifying orders life gets a little easier visit Wayfair.com
or the Wayfair app Wayfair every style every home

IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith

IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith

IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith
