annoying client day
Conversations I had yesterday:
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“Well, the job description says you want a web developer who will also manage your network, and that’s a very rare sort of person. They’re very divergent skill sets.”
“I don’t want a web developer!”
“Your job description specifically says that 50% of the person’s time will be spent on web development, and 15% on database administration.”
“But I don’t want a web developer! I want a programmer!”
“A programmer who writes code for the web IS a web developer.”
“Oh.”
——–
“This HTML Programmer you’re asking me for really sounds more like a Unix Systems Administrator.”
“We don’t need a Unix administrator. We need someone to do HTML and install and configure Solaris.”
“A person who can install and configure Solaris is called a Unix Systems Administrator. An HTML coder who designs websites will weep if you ask him to configure a Unix box.”
“Oh.”
——-
How is it that HR people who are in charge of hiring IT people are allowed to get away with being so completely ignorant of IT? Here’s a hint, people: As a general rule, people who code do so because they hate running the servers and the network. And people who run the servers and network do so because they aren’t coders (and often have no desire to be).
I shouldn’t complain. It’s their ignorance that makes my job necessary. But yesterday I was biting my tongue a couple of times to keep from adding, “…so STOP ARGUING with me! You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about and I DO!”