Yet another rant
Again our author comes across with yet another rant. It seems time and time again your articles are more complaint based or that they stem from the negative past you seem to have had. I'm burned out on all the negative attitude I seem to always read from you. I sincerely hope you can salvage enough positive experiences to share with us in future articles. Your words show that you've got experience in the field, but the chip taints it every time.
I think in all due fairness to the I.T. community, we need to separate the main types of job candidates:
1) People who have a stable job, but casually shop around.
2) People whose job instability encourages going elsewhere.
3) People who just plain need a job and can't afford to sit unemployed for very long.
For the people in #3, you're unlikely to maximize your starting wage, compared to those who don't NEED the job. That's life, but there are ways you can improve your options (including wage, benefits, environment).
For the people in #1, you're in the best situation ever. If you're happily employed and have no real need to leave, you can be firm when interviewing. You can be playful without the stress while interviewing. And most important, you have taken away some of the biggest factors that companies use to get away with lower pay, lesser benefits, crappier job duties, etc. You can shoot for the moon when it's not critical to actually get the job.
