[idrios]

Anecdotally, a friend of mine works for a state department of transportation and has been trying to get a developer and a DBA to replace some people who've recently left.

He's been having an insanely hard time finding anyone for the role, and not because of salary requirements. He's required to vet candidates through approved sources and so his department uses a recruitment firm that keeps sending him resumes from people who are substantially lying about their experience and maybe also their identity. I tried recommending someone I knew who I knew had a lot of db experience and was job searching, and he said he wouldn't be able to interview the guy because he wasn't from an approved source.

His best recent hire was a woman who understood the system well enough to create her own firm, get it govt approved, and then get herself hired as a consultant.

Bear in mind I'm just recounting what my friend told me so I may have inaccuracies in this story.

[98codes]

Getting onto the allowed vendor list for the US Government is a dire process even for the largest of global service companies, by design by the folks already on the list.

I was able to work as an individual as a subcontractor for a subcontractor for a company on the list. Rates aren't as high, but with federal regulations (for now) mandating that subcontractors be paid as soon as the primary contract holder was paid meant that there was 0 chasing after invoices which is actually very nice.

[windex]

> a woman who understood the system well enough to create her own firm,

Your friend could go through her firm then.

[exe34]

he should just hire some high school script kiddies, they already have access to the highest level of government!

[gscott]

Put in that persons first name as 'Big' last name 'Balls'. No one will question the hire, change the persons name later to their actual name.