[TriLUG] L.A.M.P job market

[Phillip Rhodes]

matt-nc wrote:


> I have heard that L.A.M.P. is considered by some to be a skill set that 
> will be coming into increasing demand.  Specifically, I am wondering if 
> I would have realistic expectations of being able to get any significant 
> jobs or freelance work if I would develop expertise in that area only.  

I'm not sure how much demand there is, in terms of "permanent" 
employment for those skills... maybe it depends a little on which
language (Perl | Python | PHP) you're using for the "P" in LAMP.
If you know all three, then so much the better.  I have seen a few
job ads circulating on the local mailing lists and job boards
mentioning PHP, so there is at least some demand.

What you really might have some success doing is setting up shop
as an independent consultant type, and do contract work custom
building applications.  In which case you could pitch the use
of L.A.M.P. to your prospective customers, and use the advantages
of the platform to help sell your services.

> Or, would I find that it would still be necessary to have many other 
> programming skills or a computer degree.  

More skills are always good, and you should probably always try to
continue learning new things if you want to stay competitive.  Degrees
are important to some people, not so important to others.  If you're 
good at what you do, you'll probably be able to find something, even 
without a tech centric degree.

> My degree is in business and I 
> am at a transition point right now, weighing the opportunities in some 
> different directions.

Aaah, see you're set.  If your degree is in business, and you have some
technology skills, you're in great shape to set yourself up as a 
consultant and sell "business process reengineering" or "business 
process transformation" or whatever the buzzword of the week is. 
Leverage your business background to convince your customers that you
can help them improve the efficiency of their business, both by 
installing new tech and (possibly) simultaneously improving their
processes.  Pushing an open-source platform should dovetail nicely
since you talk about the better value of F/OSS compared to some
proprietary stuff.


Anyway, that's my $0.02 worth.. HTH, IANAL, YMMV, etc.


TTYL,


Phillip
-- 
North Carolina - First In Freedom

Free America - Vote Libertarian
www.lp.org