I have also be observing the job posting that have from time to time appear on the technet. Your concerns are valid. My personal opinion is that there is nothing wrong with job postings, but I would prefer that the IPC set up a separate Job posting board. Employer concerns aside I'd prefer that technet discussions be oriented on technical problems, not want adds. Regardless as to whether it is done separate or not, in current times I do not think that it will be possible to for a shop to isolate their engineers from this forum, even if you they want to. Anyone with a PC and a modem, for ~$10/month can from home subscribe to an on-line service like Compuserve, AOL, or Prodigy and get a E-Mail address. With an E-Mail address anyone can subscribe to the technet forum. In addition they can tie into the Internet's other resources which include major job posting & job search resources. Even if the IPC discontinued the forum, someone somewhere would set up their own forum that anyone could subscribe to. This would be a pity, because the IPC is the best place for this. All of this is a result of the emerging phenomena of the Internet. In the past we had groups of technical "experts" in various companies. The "experts" generally kept within their company, with little interaction to other companies. Consider the "interaction" of the IPC committees and meetings. These typically involved only a small percentage of the total technical community. Think of how many people you sent to the last IPC annual meeting vs how many interested engineers you had. Today this is rapidly changing. The technical "experts" can now freely communicate to their peers in other companies. The isolated groups of engineers that work PCB/PCA related technical issues are evolving into a much larger worldwide community of engineers. They can compare notes on process, problems, even things such as working conditions and salaries. Human Resource folks from various companies are beginning to realize this also. Using the internet to pursue these experts has just begun. Several major PCB companies have already set up Worldwide Web home pages on the internet that include sections on job opportunities. I would expect to see much more Job traffic on the technet, unless an alternative is provided. My two cents. Regards, [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] (my personal American Online address) ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Survey re Job Postings Author: [log in to unmask] at Dell_UNIX Date: 8/5/95 4:06 PM I have been silently reading all of the postings now for just about two months and I think this forum offers tremendous advantages to its members and the companies that allow their employees to participate. As a short-cut to problem solving, it has no equal so I am considering granting access for my engineering and technical staff and encouraging active participation. Yet as the president and owner of my own pcb manufacturing company, I have mixed emotions about the recent increase in "jobs available" postings. These postings offer both positive and negative benefits: A) TechNet is the perfect place to advertise for experienced and technically-oriented individuals B) Clearly, I don't want my best engineers lured away by targeted mailings from my competitors C) If one of my employees is dissatisfied and looking for another job, then should I really be overly concerned if he finds a position on TechNet D) If my employees are being solicited, then I have a right to solicit. I can go on and on, but you see my quandary. Do I post my openings or not? If I don't post and my competitors do, then should I allow uncensored access to this forum by my technical staff? As members of this forum, I think we all have a voice. What is your vote.... Do we want companies to post their job openings to this forum?