[luau] work in hawaii vs continental 48

[Eric Jeschke]

On Wed, 15 May 2002, Charles Lockhart wrote:

| Anyway, just wondering, is the job market on over there on the Bigger
| Island really any better than over here in these smaller ones?  It seems
| like over here there's still a number of "specialty" or "niche" jobs
| available for people doing wierd stuffs (like Linux), while at the same
| time my friends "over there" are telling me there just isn't anything
| going on anymore.

It's pretty slow over here.  I haven't really been in the job market
until now, so I don't know for sure until I've had a chance to look
around at what's being advertised.  But as a CS prof we usually inferred
a fair bit based on where our students were getting positions,
organizations contacting us with job notices, etc.  After 9/11 things
have been pretty quiet based on those indicators.
 
| Is there any way for people to drum up work with/for linux?  I always
| thought that the software industry would be ideal for Hawaii, our economy
| is already kinda screwy, it doesn't produce much in the way of pollution,
| etc.

This is question everyone would like a straight answer on.  My feeling
is that there is a lot of Linux work out there and the amount is going
to grow significantly, but how much of that is happening in Hawaii is
hard to say.  With the Internet connectivity we have, a lot of things
are possible.  E.g. I'm doing a little consulting for a firm on the east
coast; this was due to a chance encounter on the Big Island from a guy
who was vacationing here for a few months.

I was disappointed to see the Oahu-based computer film effects co. go
under (can't remember the name; they did "Final Fantasy").  That's
exactly the kind of thing that would be great industry for the islands.
Look at what they are doing with Weta Digital in NZ; same thing.

--Eric

-- 
Eric Jeschke, Ph.D.      |  Assistant Professor of Computer Science
jeschke at hawaii.edu       |  The University of Hawaii at Hilo
808-974-7392             |  200 W. Kawili St., Hilo, HI 96720
http://cs.uhh.hawaii.edu/~jeschke