Now that the economic slump is wearing off, we're finally starting to see the IT job market shift from an employers' to an employees'. What inevitably comes with this shift is head-hunters recruiters and their valiant quest to find employers qualified employees for a fee of 25% of the annual salary a mere pittance.

Cyrano got an email from a recruiter who thought that this job would be a great fit and didn't quite understand why Cyrano never got back to him ...

Consultant will support the Corporate Compensation team that designs, develops, communicates, and administers the salary and bonus compensation plans, policies and programs for the Corporation. Information and tools to analyze data and administer policies reside in 3 Microsoft Access databases. One of the databases has a complicated data structure with over 1500 objects. Many of the tools to administer the policies are Excel files that include complicated macros. Excel tools are frequently uploaded into the Access Databases for further use and report generation. Information gathered through Business Objects reports from a Peoplesoft derived HR Toolkit will also need to be uploaded into the Access Databases. Manager is looking for a consultant with a BS/BA degree and five years programming experience.

Emphasis mine. I wonder if our dear friend Nikolay Simeonov would even take such a job. No less, the job qualifications should make you feel a bit better about your current job (or lack thereof):

1) Demonstrated experience as an Access Database developer.

2) 5 plus years of Advanced to Expert level VBA programming skills. Candidates must be able to write Access Visual Basic Code and not just throw together a database. Abilities include development of forms and "front ends." The candidate will be working in mature and complex databases, updating legacy applications and creating new ones. "Applets" (small programs) may be used to "peel off" portions of the database to allow independent data changes that are later re-integrated into the core database. Other tools are peeled off to facilitate other data manipulations that users must perform which are later integrated back into the core database. Tools may need to be modified to remove or change factors that were used in the last compensation cycle. New applet development is anticipated. Needs to have the ability to write code to upload data changes from Excel to Access.

3) Excel. Expert capability including use of pivot tables, macros and charting. The candidate will need to be able to create and modify macros. They will need to be able to generate and update Excel workbooks from within Access using VBA.

4) PeopleSoft Modules experience for writing reports and for updating and running queries only.

5) Must be comfortable integrating and analyzing information from many different sources and presenting resulting information in a useable format (charts, databases, etc.)

6) Must have excellent consulting/listening skills and ability to turn user requests (most of which are on an ad hoc basis) into executable solutions and capabilities. There is a high expectation of zero-mistake execution of a proposed solution with the ability to turn work around ahead of proposed deadlines.

7) Data to which candidate will have access is employee specific at the highest levels of the Company and is highly personal and confidential.

8) Background and experience in Compensation administration is highly desired.

If you haven't already, make sure revisit yesterday's post for some absolutely amazing ways of incrementing a number by eleven.

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