Are Potential Employers Disrespecting Job Seekers?

Around the United States, I and other colleagues are beating the bushes looking for jobs. The outlook has not been pretty. It is a buyers market out there, and it looks like some potential employers are trying to take advantage of those looking for work.

I found the most blatant example yet today, when looking at employment announcements on the Georgia Department of Labor web site, The employer is looking for a Websphere Portal administrator in the Atlanta area. This is what is being advertised:

Job Number          GA7782262
Job Title         SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
Job Location         MARIETTA, GA

Minimum Skills         Bachelors degree in Computer Science,Management Information Systems, Computer Technology or related field and seven years progressively knowledgeable and skilled experience in systems analysis and development, including integrated systems analysis for linking processes across varying platforms, programming languages and technologies; additional years of experience in programming and applications support functions may substitute for a portion of the required education or an equivalent        

    * 24 Months Experience
    * 12 Years Education
    * Must Type 45 Words Per Minute

Preferred Skills         Continue required: Experience administering IBM WebSphere application server and IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6 ,installing and configuring WebSphere Portal in a production environment. Experience with AIX system administration, Apache and IIS web server administration.Ability to resolve WebSphere Portal related technical issues.

Job Description         Systems Administrative , Information Services. Closing date: July 12th! Hours and days to be announced.Work within structured portal and project framework, build and deploy portal and portlet applications, develop SQL including stored procedures and integrate Portal with back end data sources and other services. Work with business representatives, analysts and team members to analyze business requirements, translate requirements to program specifications and manage the implementation of comprehensive solutions for integrating existing COTS and custom software applications into the enterprise portal. Perform highly skilled technical work in broad scale systems analysis, design and management for major installations and/or support systems of the County. Provide administration of the Portal installations, hardware, operating systems, software installations, configuration and operations of the environment(s). Assists development team in activities such as Portal integration with back end data sources and building/deployment of portal and portlet applications. Assist in architecting hardware and software environments for the portal framework. -- Assists the development team in designing and implementing comprehensive solutions for integrating existing COTS and custom software applications into the enterprise portal. Manage WebSphere Server and Portal software and/or hardware upgrades. Employees in this classification possess in-depth knowledge of the integrated technologies and systems supporting major system(s) of assignment, and function as technical expert in system administration for other department technical staff, external consultants, vendors, and related business interests. Duties may extend to encompass server administration, network administration, database administration and programming tasks. Perform other related duties as assigned.


The punchline? The company is willing to pay a whopping $13.46 per hour! Yes, that equates to $27,997 a year, just $5,947 above the poverty line for a family of four, $1,533 BELOW the poverty line for a family of six. It is also $5,480 below the entry level salary for the federal government.

The economy is hurting. We all understand that and understand that we may not be able to keep our previous salaries. But to pay this low for an experienced WebSphere administrator (and apparently also a developer) is not only appalling, but immoral. Yes immoral. And if I could find out the name of the company advertising this job, I would publish it here.