I, too, am ex-Navy (9 years, YN1(SS)). Got out, went to college (studying English) in the early 90's, and found that HTML was almost exactly like WordStar's markup, so found myself "designing" web pages in 1994. Over time, I "retooled" myself into a programmer and DBA. The economy tanked, I almost got laid off once and then did get laid off a year and a half later. Somewhere In there, I decided that I needed a Plan B, so I went back to school and got an M.Ed. with teacher certification. I am now teaching high school computer science and love it. First off, "stress" for teachers is nothing compared to "IT stress", ifyaknowwhatimean. The job isn't exactly difficult, especially when you're doing what you love. It sounds hokey, but I find it really rewarding to be teaching what I see as the next generation of home-grown US IT workers -- anything I can do to keep US tech jobs from being offshored like my job was. You're not going to turn 100% of your students into programmers/IT people, but even if you help one kid decide that that's what they want to do, it's a great feeling. Moreover, there just aren't enough CompSci teachers out there that actually have real-world experience; many HS CS teachers are just math or business teachers who are 1/2 step ahead of the kids and everything they know comes straight from the textbook.
I'd move to either Canada or Belgium; moving to Belgium would be pretty difficult unless we (wife & 2 kids) decided to just sell it all and move with nothing but suitcases and memories.
I would move to either country because the weather & countryside isn't too different from what we have here in PA, because the people in both countries are very nice and are accepting of well-behaved foreigners, and because people generally seem to have their priorities more in line with enjoying life.
The thing that gets me about the US is the level of paranoia that our society has reached that just doesn't seem to exist in Canada (at least in the places where I have been, mainly around Montreal).
My wife is a clinical pharmacist, and I am a developer/dba who is also a certified English teacher, so I think we would both have pretty good options as far as jobs go.
The thing is, I really DON'T want to pull the plug on living in the US, but this is no longer the country that I was born in (mid 60's) and took an oath to protect (10 years in the Navy as a submariner). It just feels...different now. Sleazier, slimy, with an easily mollified public that hasn't been raised to ask questions of its leaders and demand cogent answers.
So, if these plants can process ANY bio-waste, imagine the possibilities...skim the late-summer algae bloom off of a reservoir and process it...process used diapers instead of sending them to the landfill...process raw sewage, medical waste, and old lawn clippings, for that matter. And, for the ultimate recycling, process corpses; imagine being able to burn your loved one's decomposed and refined remains in your Chrysler. I can see the TV ads now...Charlton Heston in front of a gas pump shouting "Soylent Gas, it's PEOPLE! PEOPLE!"
Sounds tongue-in-cheek, but I think the possibilities are pretty cool..though Biodiesel and true renewable alternative energy is definitely cooler.
I hope we see Mr. Dvorak as an entry in the Darwin Awards someday...the sad thing is, there are people in the world (and a lot of them) who actually believe everything they see in print, even drivel from this jackass.
Pete
*ahem*
I have. My team is 2 women, 3 men. Everyone gets along great, which is also very important. I passed on hiring one very qualified applicant because the rest of the team wasn't getting "the vibe" from this person -- they didn't feel that person would fit in.
Pete
I'm one of those deluded individuals that believes there's more to life than money. I also manage a team of 5 people and have been able to keep them as happy, well-adjusted employees.
First, having an open, honest relationship with your people is important. One of my guys came to me a couple of months ago, and told me that he was thinking of floating out a couple of resumees; I asked him if there was a problem with what he was doing, and he indicated that he wasn't learning as much as he wanted to. So, we discussed the matter openly and honestly and he has since decided to stay -- after I assigned him a good amount of his weekly time to do "technology discovery" -- basically, playtime where he is able to see if there are other appropriate technologies that we should be using (my department does web design and development). I offer my people flexible work times, even though that is not company policy. I keep them "in the loop" as far as company-wide and department-wide issues go. I make sure they are well-equipped, with fast machines and 21" monitors. I give them access to mentors outside of our department so that they can learn from more experienced people. I have convinced accounting to allow me to pay for technology-related and programming classes outside of the normal tuition-reimbursement channels, so that they can also take college classes. I buy them lunch once a month or so, and we have a couple of beers and bitch about stuff that we want to fix, and come up with plans on how to fix them.
Bottom line to me is, I have a group of people who are not the highest paid in the company (though I am working on that, too), yet I have one of the highest retention rates in a 900 person company. Remember, sometimes the less-tangible things can be as important as money.
Pete
Hell who WANTS to still be coding when they're 50?
on
Too Old To Code?
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· Score: 1
Not me... In 2017 I'm going to take an axe to my keyboard and open up a bike shop:-) Frankly, though, I'm not worried. The need for developers will continue to grow, and the educated US population will start to level off -- after all, those of us with good jobs are all too busy to procreate, right? I think what will happen is that our salaries will show as a bell curve, with the peak for most of us in our mid-30's and then starting to taper off after that as we lose the "marketability of youth". We'll still all be employed though... p
I'm a geek. I married a pharmacist who could hardly format a floppy when I met her. I think the differences in our interests is what has kept our marriage strong for 9 years now. Is she a world-class hottie? No, thank goodness. I couldn't deal with that kind of pressure. But she is extraordinarily cute and one of the kindest people I have ever met. More advice. When the time is right, tell her you love her. After that, tell her often. It's nice to hear. The nice thing is that this has given us the opportunity to learn from each other; Mary Beth installed her first card the other day (a NIC) just "because she wanted to know how to do it" and, even though her computer knowledge is far from extensive, her coworkers see her as the computer "heavy" in the office which does earn her perks and recognition. Her only frustration is that 3 years ago I was making $15k less than her, and now I'm making $15k more than her...I tell her it all comes out of one pot, but the reality is that she works in the healthcare profession which certainly doesn't have as much free-flowing cash as the computer industry does.
Slashdot Mirror
I, too, am ex-Navy (9 years, YN1(SS)). Got out, went to college (studying English) in the early 90's, and found that HTML was almost exactly like WordStar's markup, so found myself "designing" web pages in 1994. Over time, I "retooled" myself into a programmer and DBA. The economy tanked, I almost got laid off once and then did get laid off a year and a half later. Somewhere In there, I decided that I needed a Plan B, so I went back to school and got an M.Ed. with teacher certification. I am now teaching high school computer science and love it. First off, "stress" for teachers is nothing compared to "IT stress", ifyaknowwhatimean. The job isn't exactly difficult, especially when you're doing what you love. It sounds hokey, but I find it really rewarding to be teaching what I see as the next generation of home-grown US IT workers -- anything I can do to keep US tech jobs from being offshored like my job was. You're not going to turn 100% of your students into programmers/IT people, but even if you help one kid decide that that's what they want to do, it's a great feeling. Moreover, there just aren't enough CompSci teachers out there that actually have real-world experience; many HS CS teachers are just math or business teachers who are 1/2 step ahead of the kids and everything they know comes straight from the textbook.
I'd move to either Canada or Belgium; moving to Belgium would be pretty difficult unless we (wife & 2 kids) decided to just sell it all and move with nothing but suitcases and memories.
I would move to either country because the weather & countryside isn't too different from what we have here in PA, because the people in both countries are very nice and are accepting of well-behaved foreigners, and because people generally seem to have their priorities more in line with enjoying life.
The thing that gets me about the US is the level of paranoia that our society has reached that just doesn't seem to exist in Canada (at least in the places where I have been, mainly around Montreal).
My wife is a clinical pharmacist, and I am a developer/dba who is also a certified English teacher, so I think we would both have pretty good options as far as jobs go.
The thing is, I really DON'T want to pull the plug on living in the US, but this is no longer the country that I was born in (mid 60's) and took an oath to protect (10 years in the Navy as a submariner). It just feels...different now. Sleazier, slimy, with an easily mollified public that hasn't been raised to ask questions of its leaders and demand cogent answers.
In return for building Beeryard.com I get free beer.
As in, free beer.
Pete
So, if these plants can process ANY bio-waste, imagine the possibilities...skim the late-summer algae bloom off of a reservoir and process it...process used diapers instead of sending them to the landfill...process raw sewage, medical waste, and old lawn clippings, for that matter. And, for the ultimate recycling, process corpses; imagine being able to burn your loved one's decomposed and refined remains in your Chrysler. I can see the TV ads now...Charlton Heston in front of a gas pump shouting "Soylent Gas, it's PEOPLE! PEOPLE!"
Sounds tongue-in-cheek, but I think the possibilities are pretty cool..though Biodiesel and true renewable alternative energy is definitely cooler.
I hope we see Mr. Dvorak as an entry in the Darwin Awards someday...the sad thing is, there are people in the world (and a lot of them) who actually believe everything they see in print, even drivel from this jackass. Pete
*ahem* I have. My team is 2 women, 3 men. Everyone gets along great, which is also very important. I passed on hiring one very qualified applicant because the rest of the team wasn't getting "the vibe" from this person -- they didn't feel that person would fit in. Pete
I'm one of those deluded individuals that believes there's more to life than money. I also manage a team of 5 people and have been able to keep them as happy, well-adjusted employees.
First, having an open, honest relationship with your people is important. One of my guys came to me a couple of months ago, and told me that he was thinking of floating out a couple of resumees; I asked him if there was a problem with what he was doing, and he indicated that he wasn't learning as much as he wanted to. So, we discussed the matter openly and honestly and he has since decided to stay -- after I assigned him a good amount of his weekly time to do "technology discovery" -- basically, playtime where he is able to see if there are other appropriate technologies that we should be using (my department does web design and development). I offer my people flexible work times, even though that is not company policy. I keep them "in the loop" as far as company-wide and department-wide issues go. I make sure they are well-equipped, with fast machines and 21" monitors. I give them access to mentors outside of our department so that they can learn from more experienced people. I have convinced accounting to allow me to pay for technology-related and programming classes outside of the normal tuition-reimbursement channels, so that they can also take college classes. I buy them lunch once a month or so, and we have a couple of beers and bitch about stuff that we want to fix, and come up with plans on how to fix them.
Bottom line to me is, I have a group of people who are not the highest paid in the company (though I am working on that, too), yet I have one of the highest retention rates in a 900 person company. Remember, sometimes the less-tangible things can be as important as money.
Pete
Not me... In 2017 I'm going to take an axe to my keyboard and open up a bike shop :-) Frankly, though, I'm not worried. The need for developers will continue to grow, and the educated US population will start to level off -- after all, those of us with good jobs are all too busy to procreate, right? I think what will happen is that our salaries will show as a bell curve, with the peak for most of us in our mid-30's and then starting to taper off after that as we lose the "marketability of youth". We'll still all be employed though... p
I'm a geek. I married a pharmacist who could hardly format a floppy when I met her. I think the differences in our interests is what has kept our marriage strong for 9 years now. Is she a world-class hottie? No, thank goodness. I couldn't deal with that kind of pressure. But she is extraordinarily cute and one of the kindest people I have ever met. More advice. When the time is right, tell her you love her. After that, tell her often. It's nice to hear. The nice thing is that this has given us the opportunity to learn from each other; Mary Beth installed her first card the other day (a NIC) just "because she wanted to know how to do it" and, even though her computer knowledge is far from extensive, her coworkers see her as the computer "heavy" in the office which does earn her perks and recognition. Her only frustration is that 3 years ago I was making $15k less than her, and now I'm making $15k more than her...I tell her it all comes out of one pot, but the reality is that she works in the healthcare profession which certainly doesn't have as much free-flowing cash as the computer industry does.