Lowball job posting for the week 20081009

"Programmer hardware/software interface (Austin)
Reply to: deleted
Date: 2008-10-09, 11:28AM CDT

We manufacture nuclear instrumentation electronics and nuclear radiation detectors. Our instruments contain small embedded processors, such as FPGAs and micro-controllers.

We seek a programmer to write drivers and sample application code for the benefit of our customers.

Duties: Write and maintain low-level C-code (Application Programmer's Interface, and libraries). Work closely with FPGA programmers to define and implement communication protocols. Support our efforts to write and test server and client side applications as we develop Ethernet connectivity for our instruments.

Operational skills: Proficient in C; Programming experience in connection with embedded digital signal processors or micro-controllers; Basic knowledge of industry standard communication methods such as Ethernet, USB, UART, SPI, I2C; Knowledge of IGOR PRO a great plus.

We are a small business with a rich and varied work environment. If you have enthusiasm for learning and working in a team, we give you the opportunity to expand your knowledge and acquire new skills.

Requirements: At least 2-year college in a technical field and at least 2 years of relevant work experience.

This job pays $35k to $43k per year plus limited health and retirement benefits, depending on experience.

At this time we can only hire persons who are US citizens or permanent resident aliens.

* Location: Austin
* Compensation: Depending on experience
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests."

This is obviously intended to be a fairly entry level job since they only require AA level education, but the 2 years experience they are looking for in embedded programming is pretty specialized and people who know it have traditioanlly been fairly well paid in general. And even for what the media tells us the normal salaries for recent CS grads are this one is sub-par. Realistically to attract and retain someone reasonably qualified for this position they should be paying at least $60k with full benefits. Even if they find a newbie or someone down on their luck enough to take this, chances are they will get zero employee loyalty with at this insultingly low salary level.