WTF Feedback on Non-WTF Jobs


  • ♿ (Parody)

    So I've received three emails so-far, all along the same lines ...

    Your Non-WTF jobs are big WTFs! Here's a few examples:

    • Diebold
    • COBOL
    • VB6 / VBA
    • etc ...

    Normally, I would write these off as a few crazies who have nothing better to do than whine and complain, but three emails of this nature in two weeks seem a bit high.

    I don't get it. What's wrong with a job that involves one of these? The key part here is honesty. The employer isn't saying "design a brand new .NET system from scratch" with a small "may have some Excel-VBA tasks" disclaimer that describes the real job. They're saying what the job entails and who their looking for. There was a point in my career where I would have gladly taken a VBA-programming job because it offered some programming experience and I had none.



  • Alex,

    I think it's the nature of your site that it attracts some cranks. I know, personally, that I became attracted to the site for the humorous aspect of the WTFs. By reading it everyday, though - and I've observed this in others as well - I became a little obsessed with finding "the WTF" in about damn near everything. It's a sickness, I tell ya!

     Anyway, those items you listed are no mystery: Diebold = Bush/Hitler/Facism/etc. (see Slashdot.org & digg). Visual Basic is the target of many inflamatory posts on this very site. COBOL is old, what kind of loser company still uses COBOL? And so on.

    Also, 3 emails could easily be from the same person.

     I have also noticed a lot of sentiment (usually from anonymous posters) indicating you are some kind of sell-out for having these small text ads. I find this amusing in the context of the right sidebar ads (some with - *gasp* - pictures!) we've had for... ever?

    You are trying to provide a valuable service to both employers and job seekers. You need not feel defensive about it.
     



  • Don't sweat it. If there really isn't any interest in the VBA/COBOL jobs, they'll eventually fade away. Some folks will complain about whatever you do. Now, having said that, I'm not personally interested in any COBOL jobs, but there very well might be some folks here who'd do well in that environment. On the other hand, when/if you post jobs I'm interested in (embedded systems stuff, mostly), someone else is going to say "Assembly and C? WhoTF even uses that any more?"

     



  • The only problem I can is that you don't advertise any malbolge positions.



  • Unless the job description expects you to write AJAXed Webapps in Cobol, I don't see a reason why a Cobol job offer should be considered a WTF. There is still a lot of those programs out there in the wild, having them maintained by non-WTF people might be a good idea since many of these programs do important stuff.



  • I think no matter what job you post, or what the technology is, someone will feel the need to take issue with it.   I'd just ignore those emails; you can't make everyone happy, right? 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Thanks for the feedback, all. Oy, some times it's a bit to easy to get wrapped up in the negative feedback =-)



  • Why should COBOL and VB6 jobs be any more WTF than, say, working in a NASCAR pit crew?

    "Carburetor?  This has a CARBURETOR?  WTF, every MODERN car is fuel-injected or diesel.  Get with the times, man!"

    That said, if you are in demand because you have expertise that is hard to come by you should be compensated appropriately.

     


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