programming courses?

[Rob Sutherland]

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 08:45:26 -0400
Phillip Mills <pmills-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Aug 15, 2004, at 7:46 AM, fcsoft-3Emkkp+1Olsmp8TqCH86vg at public.gmane.org wrote:
> 
> > I think a volunteer co-op or apprenticeship program is a great idea 
> > too.
> 

> posted an offer here and got a couple of feelers that didn't turn out.  
> The funniest reaction, though -- not connected to TLUG -- was from an 
> HR person at a large charity who seemed very suspicious that anyone 
> would volunteer to do IT work.  When I explained that I thought 
> volunteering was a good thing generally and that I'd like to do it in a 
> way that actually made use of the skills I had, she stopped responding 
> completely.
> 
> So, anyone who can get through to the non-profit community with the 
> idea that help is available, let me know how you pulled it off.
> 

Well, *I* sure don't know :-) That's exactly the reaction I got, nothing but
paranoia. I don't know, I've worked for some pretty nasty people in the 
corporate sector, but in terms of sheer petty nastiness and manipulative 
treachery the non-profit sector can hold it's head high :-) Errr...present 
company excepted & IMHO :-)

I guess my answer to the problem of picking up experience was to find an 
idiot who managed to row out past the end of the dock before he burned 
his boat to the waterline. Then I took a running jump off the end of the 
dock and managed to cobble a raft together :-) Idiots being what they are,
he succeeded in doing the same thing again, at which point I decided I'd 
learned enough :-) 

This is not the easiest way to do it, but if you can avoid assault charges 
and suicide you can get a lot of experience quickly. And being involved in
a complete disaster early on in your career can be very useful in learning 
the warning signs. 

> > It is an unfortunate statement of our times when so much of our 
> > experienced
> > programmer skill base is unemployed or underemployed.
> 
> For all kinds of semi-obvious, self-involved reasons (i.e. 26 years in 
> development), I couldn't agree more.  :-)
>

it *is* unfortionate. That's one of the true potentials of Open Source, the 
ability to pull those people into useful roles in their own community rather 
than lining up for a job in a call center.

Rob 

-- 
Rob Sutherland - rob-HoWcdTCbwWKHoZZAE0nKLw at public.gmane.org
Computer Support at http://www.cheapersafer.com
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