Skilled labor on 3000 takes work to find
September 1, 2008
Homesteading on the HP 3000 — whether it's the type until migration, or unlimited future style — takes labor to maintain. Labor is on our minds here at the NewsWire today, when much of the US has taken a day off from the office or away from the computer keyboard to celebrate the American labor movement.
Your community is experiencing much movement, so any tools to track the travels of skilled 3000 pros can be useful. Let me recommend LinkedIn once again. The HP 3000 Community Group at the site now has a couple of questions posted to start discussions. Again, the LinkedIn advantage is connecting to pros to share with specific work experience details, plus the chance to draw on others' networks through introductions.
Anybody can join, for free. We've got 35 members in the group, and many others in the LinkedIn network with 3000 experience. Michael Boritz commented on our Group question about who's doing what with the HP 3000 these days:
I’m still working on the 3000. I’ve been working on 3000s since the 1980s, at J.D. Abrams at that time. Since leaving JDA, I worked at Tivoli in Austin (i.e., Unison-Tymlabs) for a couple of years. Since then, I have moved four times — all for new HP 3000 positions.
This social networking stuff works, if you can keep at it a few minutes a day. Boritz tells of his stops along the way:
I am currently in the Cleveland area, working at a Law firm, Weltman, Weinberg, and Reis, supporting their two legacy 3000s. I’ve been here since December, starting as a contractor, and becoming permanent in March. My current position is basically a programming position, supporting the legal documents created for the courts. It’s definitely different — I've never worked in the legal industry before.
Like most other shops, they are talking about migrating off the 3000 platform, but that will probably take at least two to three more years, perhaps longer. That’s fine with me! It’s getting harder and harder to find 3000 jobs out there.
Put a little light labor into connecting with your community on LinkedIn. Staying in touch can make easier work of traveling between career stops.