The company I work for hires candidates with no experience all the time (and they've turned into some of our highest performers). However, it's all about the interview in those cases. If you have no work experience, the interview becomes about gauging your passion for IT. We do not have the budget to train every new hire on every technology we use - besides, most "professional" training we've brought in is pretty much worthless in the long run. Instead, we just purchased a corporate subscription to Safari Books - you're basically expected to learn the technologies on the job, leveraging online resources and the more experienced developers to round out your understanding. If you can't show an interest in programming outside of what you had to do for school, you're not going to get hired.
The other thing I'd offer as advice is that I never get entry level resumes from HR. They just don't pass them along - I don't even see the applications. All of our entry level folks came from IT staffing firms - it's obviously not ideal to be working a short term contract, but you've got to get your foot in the door somehow, and they do have the appropriate connections to find you a place (and they're motivated to, since they're going to get a cut of your rate).
Entry level candidates are a mine field for IT departments, but there are still people out there willing to take a chance on you if you give them a reason to.
it was found that the longer people spent playing video games, the less activity they showed in the prefrontal region of their brains, which governs emotion and creativity.
I'm confused about this. I would think that less activity in the sections of the brain that govern emotions would lead to apathy, not to a shorter temper or anger.
The only issue I take is with the decrease in creativity. There are several games (MUCKS/MUDS come to mind) that encourage creativity in the form of building or roleplay. If you're not creative, there is no way you can pretend to be something that you're not.
Jumping around a bit more... the quote states that the decrease in activity was most readily seen in people that game a lot. I ask you this... wouldn't reading do the same thing to you? If came home and read all day, it would most likely affect your social skills and decrease your overall creativity as well.
After looking at the keyboard, I was surprised to see that you had to actually hold your wrist above the desk (without a rest) in order to type. IMHO, that would be VERY uncomfortable after while.
Perhaps thats the point though... it gets so annoying after awhile that you get up and walk away in disgust, thus taking the recommended "break" that you'd otherwise have ignored.
I think that we're operating on a huge misunderstanding, probably generated by my posting, as I've apparently been jumping all over the place when I re-read what's been said. I'll try to express it better.
Also, on re-reading, I did make the media connection. I didn't bother to re-read what I'd said in the previous posts, something I should have done, and the connection is there. I'll try to clarify that too, as it's not what I meant.
I'm not trying to say that people aren't empathetic. I'm not trying to say I know what it feels like to lose an unborn child. I've known people who have, and seeing their grief I can't begin to understand the depth of it. I know I can't.
When you're confronted with something like this, people do react in a empathetic, caring manner. I've seen it. I don't argue with that. But the people that are removed from most often don't.
I'm saying that the common stranger isn't affected in the same way by hearing about a miscarriage or abortion (that someone they don't know had) as hearing that that same person's child was murdered. In fact, I know several people like this. I'm drawing off experience here... I'm sure there are some people that don't react this way, but I'm focusing on a certain group of people.
I believe they feel this way because of their own personal experience in life. They know kids, they've experienced the love a mother has for thier children. They know other people, and they know how they feel when they lose someone they love with all their heart.
However, these same people don't have that expereince with an embryo or a baby in the early stages of development. They can't connect it to their own life experience because the unborn child hasn't created any bonds that they can relate to.
I over generalized. I said everyone, when I meant the people removed from the experience. I'm upset for people when I hear about thier loss, even though I don't even begin to know the depth of it, but I also know people that aren't.
The intital post was my attempting to understand why they feel that way, and the only thing I can come up with is the lack of social bonds that the unborn child has. The person in question feels this way because he has nothing to draw from... which I kind of explained in the first post.
Now I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to stop. Respond if you want.
This is either legitimate, or it's the most insidious thing that the recording companies have done yet. They release a single from an artists CD, in both mp3 and CD format, and monitor the sales. Then, they release another single from another or artist (or the same one, it doesn't matter) in only CD format. They then add the total "sales" of the CD+mp3 song and compare it to the sales of the CD only song. If the total sales for the CD only song are higher they now have their golden excuse for copy protection... if it doesn't, they just ignore that it happened.
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The company I work for hires candidates with no experience all the time (and they've turned into some of our highest performers). However, it's all about the interview in those cases. If you have no work experience, the interview becomes about gauging your passion for IT. We do not have the budget to train every new hire on every technology we use - besides, most "professional" training we've brought in is pretty much worthless in the long run. Instead, we just purchased a corporate subscription to Safari Books - you're basically expected to learn the technologies on the job, leveraging online resources and the more experienced developers to round out your understanding. If you can't show an interest in programming outside of what you had to do for school, you're not going to get hired.
The other thing I'd offer as advice is that I never get entry level resumes from HR. They just don't pass them along - I don't even see the applications. All of our entry level folks came from IT staffing firms - it's obviously not ideal to be working a short term contract, but you've got to get your foot in the door somehow, and they do have the appropriate connections to find you a place (and they're motivated to, since they're going to get a cut of your rate).
Entry level candidates are a mine field for IT departments, but there are still people out there willing to take a chance on you if you give them a reason to.
it was found that the longer people spent playing video games, the less activity they showed in the prefrontal region of their brains, which governs emotion and creativity.
I'm confused about this. I would think that less activity in the sections of the brain that govern emotions would lead to apathy, not to a shorter temper or anger.
The only issue I take is with the decrease in creativity. There are several games (MUCKS/MUDS come to mind) that encourage creativity in the form of building or roleplay. If you're not creative, there is no way you can pretend to be something that you're not.
Jumping around a bit more... the quote states that the decrease in activity was most readily seen in people that game a lot. I ask you this... wouldn't reading do the same thing to you? If came home and read all day, it would most likely affect your social skills and decrease your overall creativity as well.
After looking at the keyboard, I was surprised to see that you had to actually hold your wrist above the desk (without a rest) in order to type. IMHO, that would be VERY uncomfortable after while.
Perhaps thats the point though... it gets so annoying after awhile that you get up and walk away in disgust, thus taking the recommended "break" that you'd otherwise have ignored.
I think that we're operating on a huge misunderstanding, probably generated by my posting, as I've apparently been jumping all over the place when I re-read what's been said. I'll try to express it better.
Also, on re-reading, I did make the media connection. I didn't bother to re-read what I'd said in the previous posts, something I should have done, and the connection is there. I'll try to clarify that too, as it's not what I meant.
I'm not trying to say that people aren't empathetic. I'm not trying to say I know what it feels like to lose an unborn child. I've known people who have, and seeing their grief I can't begin to understand the depth of it. I know I can't.
When you're confronted with something like this, people do react in a empathetic, caring manner. I've seen it. I don't argue with that. But the people that are removed from most often don't.
I'm saying that the common stranger isn't affected in the same way by hearing about a miscarriage or abortion (that someone they don't know had) as hearing that that same person's child was murdered. In fact, I know several people like this. I'm drawing off experience here... I'm sure there are some people that don't react this way, but I'm focusing on a certain group of people.
I believe they feel this way because of their own personal experience in life. They know kids, they've experienced the love a mother has for thier children. They know other people, and they know how they feel when they lose someone they love with all their heart.
However, these same people don't have that expereince with an embryo or a baby in the early stages of development. They can't connect it to their own life experience because the unborn child hasn't created any bonds that they can relate to.
I over generalized. I said everyone, when I meant the people removed from the experience. I'm upset for people when I hear about thier loss, even though I don't even begin to know the depth of it, but I also know people that aren't.
The intital post was my attempting to understand why they feel that way, and the only thing I can come up with is the lack of social bonds that the unborn child has. The person in question feels this way because he has nothing to draw from... which I kind of explained in the first post.
Now I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to stop. Respond if you want.
This is either legitimate, or it's the most insidious thing that the recording companies have done yet. They release a single from an artists CD, in both mp3 and CD format, and monitor the sales. Then, they release another single from another or artist (or the same one, it doesn't matter) in only CD format. They then add the total "sales" of the CD+mp3 song and compare it to the sales of the CD only song. If the total sales for the CD only song are higher they now have their golden excuse for copy protection... if it doesn't, they just ignore that it happened.