Information Systems Design and Development

Powerbuilder

Powerbuilder?  Wow.  Really?

I received three calls today from recruiters about a senior Powerbuillder architect/developer position.  There are so many things wrong with this:

  • Does Powerbuilder still exist?  I haven't heard of anyone using it in a lot of years.  A quick perusal of the Sybase website tells me it does.
  • I had a couple years of Powerbuilder experience in the mid 90's.  In face Bill House and I were working on a Powerbuilder book so I was ramping up as somewhat of an expert at the time. I presented at some of of the seminars PowerBuilder was doing about success stories in converting legacy applications.  That was what, 14 years ago?
  • Two of the three people calling were from call centers.  They didn't have a clue about what the job entailed.  In fact, they didn't seem to have much of a grasp of any of the technologies they were looking for and couldn't relate them to my resume or experience.  This kind of thing drives me crazy.  Human Resources should be about humans.
  • For two of the three calls it wasn't clear to me that the people calling had even looked at my resume. 
  • It's a sad state of the world when there are so few opportunities available that I'd get three contacts on the same day about a technology that is so stale on my resume.

One of the three people who called was, by the way, understood that there was a lot of distance between my resume and the client's requirements.  He also had enough grasp on the market to recognize that there esentially isn't any Powerbuilder talent on the market, despite the economy.  He asked if he could run my resume by the person hiring for the position, just to see if there was any interest.  I appreciate professionals.