programming courses?

[Phillip Mills]

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.

Even the volunteer idea turns out to be something of a dead end.  A 
little over a year ago, I tried to go that route as a way of keeping 
sharp, doing some good at the same time, various other reasons....  I 
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.

> 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.  :-)

........................
Phillip Mills
Multi-platform software development
(416) 224-0714

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