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Administrators in greatest demand;
Year 2000 work impacts 3000 growth

With the rush to complete Year 2000 projects and renewed outlook on the 3000’s life span, hiring qualified professionals for MPE/iX systems management is becoming one of the most challenging tasks a company can face. The operator’s post wasn’t all that common to begin with in MPE/iX environments – many of the systems are used by companies with lean MIS staffs, where programmers double as administrators.

Finding professionals willing to work in just a portion of MPE operations at large sites is the toughest, according to both managers and recruitment/contracting firms in the community. Director of Reservation and Distribution Technologies Terry Hornbaker at Southwest Airlines has been scrambling to fill positions that stem from the company’s MPE/iX expansion plan.

“We’re struggling in that area,” he said. “We’re desperately looking for qualified people who have experience supporting the database and know how to install products and support the HP 3000. The majority of people who’ve worked on HP 3000s for more than six months work in a shop where they’re everything – system and database administrator, and they do everything. We’re at a large enough size that we don’t want to do it that way.”

And it’s possible that the new target customer for HP 3000s – companies with massive transaction loads – will need those kinds of dedicated administrators. Recruiters report that these positions are going unfilled at firms like 3M and Nortel, where multiple 3000s and large systems are the order of the day.

Hornbaker said he’s competing with those firms for professionals who know the 3000, a skill set that’s not being taught as much anymore. “They are happy where they’re at, and they’re not moving,” he said. “We’re hiring people with good business skills and teaching them how to be successful on the HP 3000.”

HP’s own training offerings on 3000 skills are a shadow of their former size, by most accounts. HP 3000 courses aren’t offered on tape, like HP-UX classes, or as self-paced courses. Only five cities host HP classes on HP 3000 skills, while HP-UX skills are taught in 30 locations around the US. The MPE classes cost more than $2,200 for five days of training, plus the costs of travel, lodging and time away from the job.

Donna Garverick, chair of the SIGSYSMAN group and an administrator at Long’s Drug, said off-site classes are often not an option.

“For a lot of people, being sent to class just is not an option,” she said. “They can’t be away from the job that long, or the cost of the class itself or the cost of the travel and the lodging just makes it impossible.” Garverick added that Long’s hasn’t been able to hire someone to work alongside her to mirror her administration duties. “Trying to hire somebody at my level has proved to be nearly impossible,” she said.

Year 2000 demands have dried up a lot of the available talent, as experienced 3000 people respond to offers like a recent $55/hour contract posting from the State of Oregon, an offer that required only COBOL experience. The lure of more than $100,000 a year has put salaries in turmoil, said Brian Donohue of career search firm Infotech.

“I’ve seen a meteoric rise in rates,” he said. “I liken it to a hurricane in Florida. The construction business gets real good for a couple of years afterward while they’re rebuilding. But once that’s done, there’s no more business, no remodeling. The work just kind of dries up.”

For clients who ask what kind of salary range they can expect in HP 3000 positions, Donohue replies, “There are no more rules. Y2K has wiped out all the rules.”

He added that to some extent, companies can grow the administrators they need. Diane Amos, who runs another HP search firm, also noted a keener need for admin staff recently, and speculated it may be the result of a generation of HP managers moving up or out of the business – and a lack of glamour in the eyes of a newer generation of MIS employees.

“People didn’t used to need recruiters to get operators,” Amos said. “In one week I got this barrage of operation positions. There’s certainly a resurgence of the 3000 market. But they’re having a hard time finding people to do operations on the 3000 because its considered old technology by the media.”

Contract-only firms like Tek Systems (888.560.2054) are having a hard time filling posts at the operator level, where a tradition of contract work for operations positions hasn’t established itself in HP 3000 shops. “You just stumble across them,” said Jill Heavey of the firm’s placed staff. “It just doesn’t seem like there’s any kind of bulk of people we can pull from.” Open operator posts are in the $14-to $17-an-hour range at Tek.

One popular alternative is to contract with a third-party company for the training, like Abtech Systems in San Diego. Abtech (800.474.7397) has been running five-day HP 3000 classes in programming, TurboIMAGE, 3000 management and administration skills, offering a class in its San Diego facility for $1,495. Even more popular is on-site training, which coordinator Tim Lundquist said has been used by companies in a wide variety of business segments.

“Eighty percent of the training we do is on the HP 3000,” Lundquist said. “There’s so much competition in other markets for training, and not much on the 3000 side.”