I have been "in the industry" for about 12 years now and opened my own computer support company about 2 years ago. Early on I came across the site http://www.experts-exchange.com/ . I found it in a google search for some wacky problem on a client's computer that I hadn't seen before. I could see the question, but the answer...for that I had to take out a $9.95 per month subscription.
I decided to subscribe figuring that I would cancel it once I fixed this one problem. Turns out that I use it a couple of times a month to find the answer to some obscure problem in just about any area from Programming to Desktop tweaks and Linux to MS Exchange Server.
For me it's well worth the money because I'm the guy they call when no one else can fix a problem. It might not make sense for a regular user who has an occasional question with an easy answer to pay the fee...but if your time is worth a lot to you, I'll say you can find just any piece of information on the site.
Ive done some BlackBerry development myself (about 3 months ago) and after tracking down a bunch of FAQs and mailing list entries I found that RIM discontinued support of Java on their current devices. They still planned on using a Java-only environment on their next-gen devices (like the one just announced) but for now you have to stick with C++.
With that said, there is a hack someone put together that let's you pull some strings and trick the regular instlaller into install Java apps. You can find it on the developer mailing list archives on the RIM dev site.
Ok, first off, I'll admit that looking for people who have left a PhD program will seriously cut down on the already small pool of programmer types.
Everyone in my CS PhD program who dropped out (meaning took a job in the industry) were all strong scientifically and mathmaticaly but just didn't want to deal with the way out there the theory needed to complete a thesis.
That kind of person sounds perfect for you.
Bright enough to do research, but not spacey enough to give up programming for the rest of their lives in order to get papers published.
I'm in a similar position. I work for a small consulting company that recently took a turn for the worse and am now faced with the prospect of giving up my "seniority" as employee #3 to take a job at another company.
I've received offers from clients that there is a job available for me should I want to take it. I haven't updated my resume in 5 years and have never sent it out to anyone...but if you work in the right field, people will come looking for you.
If I take this job it would be the second I've gotten without a single interview. In my first job I was recruited by a member of my study group from grad school.
I think actually working with someone for a month (either as a consultant or a partner on educational/open source projects) is a much better indicator of future performance than any 1 or 2 days of interviewing.
First a dsclaimer: I'm a principal developer of SteelBlue
If you are intersted in web scripting languages similar to Cold Fusion, you may want to check out http://www.steelblue.com
SteelBlue is a fully free and open source application server designed to produce dynamic database driven web applications.
The core design of the language is similar to Cold Fusion in that regular HTML is extended with special purpose tags for doing things like SQL, data type checking, making select boxes, etc. This is supplemented with a "Eval" language that is similar in syntax to C. There is also a library of a few objects that can be manipulated to do things like parse XML or manipulate JPEG files.
In addition hooks have been built to allow easy extension of the core language by anone who can write C or C++.
This code is newly open sourced, so we are looking for whatever feedback we can get...what we have gotten so far has been good, so people seem to like it. Now all we need to do is get more people to see it!
-Al
I work for a 25 person computer consulting company that is more than 50% women.
The programming staff is 3 women and 6 men, but nearly all of the project managers and html designers are women...most of whom have had some formal training in CS even if it did not end in a degree.
So lets not forget that there are lots of technical jobs that are not programming and that we should look at the percentages of women in the industy as a whole before we can make any real conclusions. (Yes, my evidence is only anticdotal and I would like to see real numbers if anyone has them)
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I have been "in the industry" for about 12 years now and opened my own computer support company about 2 years ago. Early on I came across the site http://www.experts-exchange.com/ . I found it in a google search for some wacky problem on a client's computer that I hadn't seen before. I could see the question, but the answer...for that I had to take out a $9.95 per month subscription.
I decided to subscribe figuring that I would cancel it once I fixed this one problem. Turns out that I use it a couple of times a month to find the answer to some obscure problem in just about any area from Programming to Desktop tweaks and Linux to MS Exchange Server.
For me it's well worth the money because I'm the guy they call when no one else can fix a problem. It might not make sense for a regular user who has an occasional question with an easy answer to pay the fee...but if your time is worth a lot to you, I'll say you can find just any piece of information on the site.
I wish I had moderator points...I would give them to you.
I would go so far as to say that Filezilla is much better than most -commercial- products.
-Al
Ive done some BlackBerry development myself (about 3 months ago) and after tracking down a bunch of FAQs and mailing list entries I found that RIM discontinued support of Java on their current devices. They still planned on using a Java-only environment on their next-gen devices (like the one just announced) but for now you have to stick with C++.
With that said, there is a hack someone put together that let's you pull some strings and trick the regular instlaller into install Java apps. You can find it on the developer mailing list archives on the RIM dev site.
Everyone in my CS PhD program who dropped out (meaning took a job in the industry) were all strong scientifically and mathmaticaly but just didn't want to deal with the way out there the theory needed to complete a thesis. That kind of person sounds perfect for you.
Bright enough to do research, but not spacey enough to give up programming for the rest of their lives in order to get papers published.
I've received offers from clients that there is a job available for me should I want to take it. I haven't updated my resume in 5 years and have never sent it out to anyone...but if you work in the right field, people will come looking for you.
If I take this job it would be the second I've gotten without a single interview. In my first job I was recruited by a member of my study group from grad school.
I think actually working with someone for a month (either as a consultant or a partner on educational/open source projects) is a much better indicator of future performance than any 1 or 2 days of interviewing.
If you are intersted in web scripting languages similar to Cold Fusion, you may want to check out http://www.steelblue.com SteelBlue is a fully free and open source application server designed to produce dynamic database driven web applications.
The core design of the language is similar to Cold Fusion in that regular HTML is extended with special purpose tags for doing things like SQL, data type checking, making select boxes, etc. This is supplemented with a "Eval" language that is similar in syntax to C. There is also a library of a few objects that can be manipulated to do things like parse XML or manipulate JPEG files.
In addition hooks have been built to allow easy extension of the core language by anone who can write C or C++.
This code is newly open sourced, so we are looking for whatever feedback we can get...what we have gotten so far has been good, so people seem to like it. Now all we need to do is get more people to see it! -Al
The programming staff is 3 women and 6 men, but nearly all of the project managers and html designers are women...most of whom have had some formal training in CS even if it did not end in a degree.
So lets not forget that there are lots of technical jobs that are not programming and that we should look at the percentages of women in the industy as a whole before we can make any real conclusions.
(Yes, my evidence is only anticdotal and I would like to see real numbers if anyone has them)