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Overspecialization in the Computer Field?
The Mainframe asks: "I visited a nameless college campus recently and was shocked at the degree of specialization within the student body. Of the many CS and other IT-related majors that I talked to, not a single one had any real breadth of experience. Web developers knew Perl, but couldn't tell Apache from MySQL. C++ coders knew their language, as long as it was presented in Microsoft Visual C++. I suspect if I'd asked them to use G++ they would have said 'bless you'. Essentially, I'm worried. I plan to do some very interesting things in the next few years, but I'm not going to be able to pull it off if I have to wade through 100 narrow-minded people for every 1 useful human being. Is this something that other employers and co-workers have been having a lot of problems with? Is the whole world having to show its database developers how to use a copying machine?"
This is happening in every industry. And to answer your specific question, the whole world will not have to, we will have plenty of professional photocopier demonstrators. They in turn will need to be shown how to use the bathroom every few hours though...
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
Is the whole world having to show its database developers how to use a copying machine?
.Net Basic IDE drag & drop list.
What is this thing you call a "copying machine"?
I have never heard of this ActiveX control, and I can't find it in the Visual
It's probably "open source" or "command-line" or something else only used by Pirates and Terrorists. I think we should probably censor this guy's post. I think the RIAA has every right^H^H^H^H^H write to hack his machine to protect its^H^H^H it's legitimate business model.
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I gots my MSCE and now I are a Solution Preventer
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I used to work on the undergraduate helpdesk for an electronics and computer science department. During my time working there I saw a number of things that I didn't believe were possible, things you would expect in a dilbert cartoon, not at a University!
Although you may not believe it, but this is a true story....
One day I was walking through the computer lab on my way to lunch, when I noticed someone sitting at a computer with the monitor turned on its side. Now all the computer in the lab have iiyama 19 inch monitors, so needless to say I was not impressed at a student screwing around with the hardware, so I wandered over to the person in question to ask what the hell he thought he was playing at!
When I got to the machine I asked him what the hell he was doing. He replied that he was viewing some PDF's of past exam papers, but the PDF's were all in landscape and so he had to turn the monitor on its side to view them properly!
Needless to say I was speachless at first, WTF!, I told him off for screwing around with our equipment, put the monitor back the right way up and told him that he was never to move lab equipment around like that again. At this point he got upset saying how was he supposed to view the exam papers? I told him to use the software to view landscape pages and went to lunch
1 hour later I was coming back from lunch (got to love working for a University) and discovered him, still there, head tilted 90 degrees reading the exam papers!
This is just one example of the lack of creative thought that I saw almost every day while working on the helpdesk. My attitude when working with anything, not just computers, is that what I want to do must be possible I just need to figure out how. I love solving problems and finding creative solutions. I always assumed that people who worked with computers were the same as me, with a passion for experimenting and "playing".
Sadly computing has been seen as a cash cow, anyone that want a high payed job tries to get a computer degree. These people do not make great programmers or computer workers because they have no passion for the work. They don't "get" the technology or the concepts and are only interested in one thing - they pay packet and the end of the month. :(
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
int main( int, char** )
{
printf( "Can you define exactly what you mean\n" );
printf( "by 'Overspecialization'?\n" );
return( 0 );
}
So what you're saying, is that employers just look down at all of us? =) Sounds about right...
"... if I have to wade through 100 narrow-minded people for every 1 useful human being." Welcome to reality. There are a lot of stupid people.
They were in the field because they saw the pot of gold at the end of it
That's pretty much the whole problem right there. Whenever you have people going into a field just for the money you will get a high level of cluelessness. Add to that the University-as-trade-school "teaching for the real world" BS you find at a lot of colleges (You know, the "everyone uses Microsoft so we have to teach only Microsoft" mentality) and it's no wonder so many CS students are one trick ponies.
One has to wonder how many of these kids saw an add somewhere about how they could earn $50-80k per year with an MCSE, and figured they could spend 4 years getting one while partying on their parents dime.
Here's a scary thought: the guy I just described is someday going to be my manager... *shudder*
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
One learns more than just jargon at a University. One also learns to communicate coherently, for example. Trying to read your post was so incredibly painful that I was forced to respond.
I would discriminate against a potential employee simply because of a lack of formal education, but I would definately not hire someone with such abysmal communication skills as you have demonstrated in this post! I sincerely hope that English is not your native language.
There is another important thing that a degree demonstrates, though: the ability to overcome obstacles, deal with frustration, and accomplish long term goals; all qualities which, based on your post, you clearly lack.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
funny you should say that -- i'm good at coding but can't operate office equipment to save my life. it took me about 10 tries over the course of two months in order to properly navigate our fax machine. and those big multi-purpose, do-everything enterprise printers? don't get me started.
i'm amazed anyone can use them -- the only time you get to practice is when you're up in front of everyone and other people are waiting in line. maybe that's why i like computers... i can screw them up 95% of the time in private and only show people what i do right ;)