DevTopics

Here’s a clever way to pre-screen candidates: post the job description in C# code.  That’s what a company in Port Chester, New York did for a $80K-$100K .NET Developer position posted on CraigsList.  The job description starts as:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace CandidateSearchApp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main( string[] args )
        {
            var candidateSearch = new CandidateSearch();

            foreach (Candidate candidate in candidateSearch.GetCandidates())
            {
                if (candidate.IsViable() && candidate.IsQualified())
                    candidate.SubmitResume();
            }
        }
    }

And the necessary qualifications are summarized as follows:

return
    canWriteCSharp
    && canWriteCPlusPlus
    && knowsOO
    && knowsInterop
    && knowsThreading
    && knowsEntity
    && knowsClientWCF
    && knowsLinq
    && knowsWinForms;

There’s an old saying that, “In tough financial times, buy Procter & Gamble stock,” because people will always need toilet paper and laundry detergent.  In recent years this adage seemed to be true with tech companies, because in our new technology-dependent economy, companies will always need computer hardware and software.

But although the global recession took a while to reach Silicon Valley, it’s clear that tough times are in store for the tech industry as well.  This shouldn’t be a surprise, however.  Companies are shedding millions of jobs across the country.  New jobless claims hit 589,000 on January 17, matching a 26-year high reached four weeks ago.  As companies in other industries lose jobs, they find themselves with a glut of extra computers, so hardware spending slows to a crawl.  And as money becomes tight, companies will surely delay upgrades to Windows Vista even longer, many skipping Vista altogether while they wait for Windows 7.

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Software giant Microsoft announced Thursday it will cut 5,000 jobs over the next year and a half.  Microsoft will eliminate 1,400 positions immediately, with the rest cut by June 2010.  The company said it will save $1.5 billion in operating expenses and another $700 million in capital expenses.

Microsoft also posted lower fiscal second-quarter net income of $4.17 billion, down 11% from last year.  The company reported earnings of 47 cents per share, missing analyst estimates of 49 cents.

Microsoft said the job cuts and soft income is the result of “deterioration of global economic conditions.”