My concern about the current state of many University programs and especially these ridiculous (for profit) IT certification programs can be summed up as follows.
We are graduating students with too much knowledge and not enough skill. We have produced a nation of memorizers and test takers.
I know this is out there, but we need is something like the Guild system, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master - the skills and knowledge required to "level up" can be obtained from a variety of sources, both school and OJT. Bouncing between school and work is a great way to go. Context and skill from work, knowledge and skill from school.
When I hire, what a candidate currently knows is if interest, but I'm more interested in a demonstrated ability to figure out stuff you have never seen. It will take more than three months to teach that and I'm not convinced it can be taught in a classroom.
As a hiring director, I recently had a great big pile of resumes on my desk. My preconceived idea of an ideal candidate for a "all arounder admin" was a Math or Physics major, with a passion for computers and hobbies that involve playing with computers, gadgets, etc. Military experience a plus. Certifications mean nothing to me.
After weeks of interviews, some lasting hours, with people with piles of certs and degrees, I ended up hiring a guy pretty much on the spot after a five minute interview. No college, no certs, ex-military and he had a clear passion for computers and problem solving, documented experience and solid references (not friends).
Plain and simple, his resume and interview demostrated a clear knowledge that an IT job is about problem solving.
The two best things to be able to do in this business are:
1. Know how to ask a good question
2. Know what you don't know and know where to look it up.
Far as I know, they don't teach that in Certification Boot camps.
FWIW - the guy I hired is a key member of the team after only eight weeks on the job.
When I built my house five years ago, 100mbps switches were still a little expensive for the home user. So, wanted to connect all the "wiring closets" on each floor with co-ax between 10mbps hubs to start. But running co-ax vertical in the house was a dead end.
Solution: I ran conduit in the form of Central Vac tubing from the attic to the basement, then ran Vac tube from a electrical outlet box (dedicated, of course) in each room on the second floor to the attic, and from each room on the first floor to the basement.
The attic to basement "conduit" tee's off to the "wiring closets" on each floor. One such wiring closet is actually the linen closet in the upstairs guest bathroom.
A while back, I got a nice high end switch, stuck it in the basement, replaced the co-ax with cat5 and collapsed the "wiring closets" to the basement switch.
The Central Vac tubing cost me about$70.00 at Home Depot to do a 3700 sq ft house.
Ahh, BRE, that was by FAR the most popular game on my BBS. I still have the images of my old RA bbs burned on CD somewhere. One of these days, for fun, I'll put it all back on a HDD and fire it up for fun.
I used to have the most complex set of batch files that ran that BBS and Frontdoor. When the Internet hit, that BBS ran on autopilot for over a year before I shut it down.
During that year, all people did, was dial in, and play BRE.
-JeffR
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I have had a risky tech job since 1996, we were a start up before startups were cool, we were doing layoffs, before layoffs were rampant. I've been through round after round of financing, rounds of layoffs, the selling of the company, and a complete shutdown.
I think the risk is a big part of what makes it cool and fun. I love the risk, I love the change.
We went through three very bad management teams. Bad tech decisions forced down from the top, over hiring, hiring friends, buying 1 mil worth of furniture we didn't need, you name it.
Last December, they laid off everybody except the 12 people that were doing all the work. Then they put us in charge of our departments. It was like a fantasy come true, somebody got rid of the idiots. We have an ass-kicking mean old man running the company now. We do far more with far less. We have actual customer income, and get this, we know what it costs to run our business.
I work with 21 other people, not one of them is a slacker. I respect every single one of them. A very rare situation indeed.
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My concern about the current state of many University programs and especially these ridiculous (for profit) IT certification programs can be summed up as follows.
We are graduating students with too much knowledge and not enough skill. We have produced a nation of memorizers and test takers.
I know this is out there, but we need is something like the Guild system, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master - the skills and knowledge required to "level up" can be obtained from a variety of sources, both school and OJT. Bouncing between school and work is a great way to go. Context and skill from work, knowledge and skill from school.
When I hire, what a candidate currently knows is if interest, but I'm more interested in a demonstrated ability to figure out stuff you have never seen. It will take more than three months to teach that and I'm not convinced it can be taught in a classroom.
You talking about the video trailer? Worked just dandy on my mac.
There are much bigger problems in the world than a few worthless channels.
I'm disgusted by the whole thing. Greedy bastid's running over uninformed consumers.
As a hiring director, I recently had a great big pile of resumes on my desk. My preconceived idea of an ideal candidate for a "all arounder admin" was a Math or Physics major, with a passion for computers and hobbies that involve playing with computers, gadgets, etc. Military experience a plus. Certifications mean nothing to me.
After weeks of interviews, some lasting hours, with people with piles of certs and degrees, I ended up hiring a guy pretty much on the spot after a five minute interview. No college, no certs, ex-military and he had a clear passion for computers and problem solving, documented experience and solid references (not friends).
Plain and simple, his resume and interview demostrated a clear knowledge that an IT job is about problem solving.
The two best things to be able to do in this business are:
1. Know how to ask a good question
2. Know what you don't know and know where to look it up.
Far as I know, they don't teach that in Certification Boot camps.
FWIW - the guy I hired is a key member of the team after only eight weeks on the job.
When I built my house five years ago, 100mbps switches were still a little expensive for the home user. So, wanted to connect all the "wiring closets" on each floor with co-ax between 10mbps hubs to start. But running co-ax vertical in the house was a dead end.
Solution: I ran conduit in the form of Central Vac tubing from the attic to the basement, then ran Vac tube from a electrical outlet box (dedicated, of course) in each room on the second floor to the attic, and from each room on the first floor to the basement.
The attic to basement "conduit" tee's off to the "wiring closets" on each floor. One such wiring closet is actually the linen closet in the upstairs guest bathroom.
A while back, I got a nice high end switch, stuck it in the basement, replaced the co-ax with cat5 and collapsed the "wiring closets" to the basement switch.
The Central Vac tubing cost me about$70.00 at Home Depot to do a 3700 sq ft house.
Ahh, BRE, that was by FAR the most popular game on my BBS. I still have the images of my old RA bbs burned on CD somewhere. One of these days, for fun, I'll put it all back on a HDD and fire it up for fun.
I used to have the most complex set of batch files that ran that BBS and Frontdoor. When the Internet hit, that BBS ran on autopilot for over a year before I shut it down.
During that year, all people did, was dial in, and play BRE.
-JeffR
Do they make them in Essex Junction Vermont?
I have had a risky tech job since 1996, we were a start up before startups were cool, we were doing layoffs, before layoffs were rampant. I've been through round after round of financing, rounds of layoffs, the selling of the company, and a complete shutdown.
I think the risk is a big part of what makes it cool and fun. I love the risk, I love the change.
We went through three very bad management teams. Bad tech decisions forced down from the top, over hiring, hiring friends, buying 1 mil worth of furniture we didn't need, you name it.
Last December, they laid off everybody except the 12 people that were doing all the work. Then they put us in charge of our departments. It was like a fantasy come true, somebody got rid of the idiots. We have an ass-kicking mean old man running the company now. We do far more with far less. We have actual customer income, and get this, we know what it costs to run our business.
I work with 21 other people, not one of them is a slacker. I respect every single one of them. A very rare situation indeed.