I work for a recruiting firm and I can definitely tell you that I'd would take a CS graduate with bad grades and 2 years of "real world" experience over somebody with a straight A (4.0) GPA and no experience. I would do it 100 times over and over. In fact, if you are looking for a job, send me an instant message and we can definitely talk about getting you placed somewhere.
To give a personal experience/testimony, I graduated with a CS degree with a 2.0 GPA about 3 years ago but with about 3 years of solid full-time work experience. Most of my class mates had 3.0 or greater GPA's and no work experience. Almost all now have gone into different fields (fast-food restaurant management) because they couldn't hack it and couldn't apply education curriculum into the real world.
You do not know how frustrating it is to interview recent CS graduates with 3.0+ GPA's and not be able to give you the fundamentals of computing. Just simple questions like the difference between a binary tree or a linked list let alone anything regarding any object-oriented programming concepts. The truth of the matter is that the IT field right now is hot, not like it was hot during the dot-com boom where anybody that could spell "Webmaster" got a job. But it's hot for SKILLED workers. Somebody that can write compilable code, use object oriented programming languages (Java,.NET, etc.) and be able to determine the difference between recursion and for-loops. Those people (regardless of GPA) will continue to be employed and will maintain a high standard of living with a job they can enjoy because they can convert knowledge into wisdom through experience.
Developers go for MCSD or SCJP/SCJD. Not the Cisco/Novell networking stuff.
The MCSD from Microsoft is pretty thorough, as it is a 5-exam course that covers everything from web development, to web services, to database and standalone application development.
Don't go chasing after the healthcare industry cause its currently hot, or going after the defense industry and stuff like that if you really would hate it, or hate promoting that field.
Simply get a job in the area that would make you happiest. To me, it is more valuable being a happy broke person, than to be miserable the rest of your life.
Once again we have a kid that misunderstands the true importance of college.
College isn't about partying 24/7 or even shagging the nearest female. It's about experience. Personal and professional experience. The point is to get a good internship or co-op job (even if it pays beans) WHILE you're in college. Be REALLY productive (co-op, internships, start your own business, develop a new 3-d game engine) in college. It will all pay off when you get your diploma and see that you receive many more offers than your colleagues. And just because some survey says that the average CS major makes about $65k per year, don't expect that right out of college. Be reasonable. You can still live decently on $35k per year in a suburb and still like a lifestyle much better than the one you did in school. The experience will all pay off in the end.
Many people are now beginning to see that the IT labor market is cyclical just like every other labor market. You have ups and downs. Supply and demand takes over. Right now we're on the cusp of demand outstretching supply, especially as more of the baby boomers retire. I never truly believed there was an IT unemployment problem. You can read my blog entry on this. Those in a CS-related field that stuck with the field during the bust times will enjoy a much higher salary (due to tons more experience). So basically, stick with it mate. Your star is going to shine.
Just imagine if Microsoft just went across the board to all their application programmers and said "Hey, here's a $3000 bonus on your next paycheck if you can take time to reduce bloatage in WinXP or Office ". I would then think the world would be a better place.
In all fairness, GNOME has a long way to go to reduce the bloat, but I wish them all the very best.
Firefox could use the treatment too. This would be great if there could be some kind of metric available for the FireFox team. E.G., "Here FireFox with 3 tabs open only uses 300KB of RAM, while IE uses 30MB of RAM".
If TV/MPAA/Whomever were really smart. They'd just offer up the show playable via some streaming media format (even with DRM-galore) including the 30-second commercials.
They'd be able to offer up cheaper 30-sec spots on these Internet-only viewings (assuming less people will PPV it rather than watching it on a traditional TV set).
Of course this plan is just a simple idea with no forethought, but if the TV Industry put their heads together they could definitely come up with a new business model. Either they will have to or Darwanism will take over.
I for one would pay $3-5/show to go online and watch the latest episode of "24" rather having to plan my day around the show time or getting a TiVO. If people are paying $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, surely they can come up with some kind of business model.
They should also release TV show episodes via the traditional PPV scheme. A user clicks a few buttons on the remote and the thing is played just like "renting" a PPV movie/pr0n is done now.
Of course this will all probably never happen because the people that are in the board rooms are all 60+ yr old baby boomers who don't understand the Internet or this "New new media". Instead they will succomb to piracy. Right now it is too convenient to join a BitTorrent network and downloading the latest episode than trying to find a legitimate way to view it (mostly because there isn't one).
This was either really stupid or really bold. Unfortunately there is a fine line between the two, and I think you're straddling right down the middle. Your gut instincts should always prevail.
Charge just a flat rate, like $50 to take their computer(s) and then run Ad-Aware on them.
If you really think about it, how much does it REALLY cost you to do a service like that to family/friends? Yet the $50 will go a long way in buying you new hardware.
The $50 (or whatever your flat fee is) also helps you from getting too much business. Sometimes people ask friends/family to do something for them just cause their friends/family and don't expect them to charge. But of course your time is worth something.
I used to do websites for family/friends and it was at first just to give me something to do in my spare time, but eventually EVERYBODY wanted one for their business or the company they worked for, so eventually I had to start charging a fee.
Normal people are wary about being charged an hourly fee because they will always wonder how long it really took to design the site, so I always charged a flat fee. That way I can guaranteed to get paid a certain amount, regardless of the time I put in it.
Suprnova was a fairly decent site, but its mainly popular because it was so large with a large number of seeders.
Now, alot of torrent "networks" (Like FileList.org) have popped up, requiring registration and a certain ratio. These networks are very large (100k+ users), moderated, and consistently get the latest torrents by qualified individuals (meaning everything is usually checked before its put on the network).
Since the fall of SuprNova the only thing the *AA has done was increase the quality of torrents and pushed pirates further underground.
The article does cite its inability to spider those restricted torrent networks, but if you ask me, I'd say the problem has gotten worse for the *AA, not any better.
Liberals like this and John Kerry also pointed out the same "facts" back in the 60s when they thought air superiority was invalid. So they went against funding fighter jets and bombers and expanding our intelligence in space. And yes, the military is an important part of the economy because it employs AMERICANS.
Just think if they had their way...
To be so rich and "smart" Microsoft is fairly dumb when it comes to this.
As I suggested before, if MS came out with a media player for Xbox that will function as it does on a PC (allow me to play DiVX/XViDS/Mp3s/etc.) I would run out and buy a copy instantly.
Instead, Microsoft puts out a Media Player that requires you to have a PC! That's absurd. If you already have a Media Centric-PC why would you want your Xbox to play your movies when your PC can do it just fine without the extra electricity.
Microsoft has dropped the ball on this one, so people like me who want to view movies from Xbox or over a network share will end up modding the Xbox and then opening ourselves to the new arsenal of games on Torrents and such. Thanks MS!
With XBMC (XBOX Media Center) the new XViD/DiVX codecs are usually included in the latest CVS releases, so you just upgrade that.
Sometimes these standalone players offer firmware upgrades that you download ISOs and burn to update, but usually are very slow to release.
Personally I prefer the XBox so I can just download from my network instead of having to burn a bunch of CDs.
It still amazes me why there aren't any "official" Media Players out for XBox from Microsoft. I'm sure porting WMP shouldn't be that bad. Even if they offered an xbox version for $20, they would still be able to sell millions off the sell of the copies, and then not to mention the millions from ad placements they do inside WMP.
Does Bush always have to be either lying or telling the truth?
Could it be perhaps that for once we were mistaken? It's not like we were the only country to be fooled by the WMD. Even France/Germany/Britain/Israel/Yemen/Japan/South Korea/Poland/Australia, (hell even Nigeria) were all fooled.
When it all comes down to it, even if we found nuclear weapons in Iraq, there would still be some published report from the NYTimes about not finding ENOUGH warheads or not finding them quickly enough or not finding them in a neat yellow box with labels beside them. There will always be conspiracy theories how Bush manipulated (or didn't manipulate enough) the intelligence to bring about justification for the war. Saddam brought it upon himself, all he had to do was disarm.
In this post 9/11 world, we can't wait for threats to develop, and can't wait till years later to really see if that Uranium some dictator wanted was just for 'research' purposes.
We should just kickass and take names. One day all of you will realize that this whole Iraq war was just a dress rehearsal for going after Iran. Atleast thats what I hope it was for...
3-5 years experience can be gained DURING college.
I no longer believe it is an employers market. I went to my university's career fair today. A lot were hiring CS majors, and not only were they looking to hire CS majors, they were out in full force HUNTING US DOWN. (We had to have a nametag with our name and major). Employers are looking for motivated people that do take on additional tasks while in college. Sure if you think partying your 4-6 years or rushing a Frat thinking it'll get you ahead, then by all means go and do it.
To me it's about surviving. If I want to eat and put food on the table and a roof over my family's head then I'll do whatever it takes. Even if that means taking those lame internships where I fetch coffee and make copies for 8 hours a day. Or even if that means losing an hour of sleep so I can improve my knowledge of emerging technologies. I'll do whatever it takes.
Unfortunately I don't believe many others share that same work ethic. Some still have parents to fall back on.
Many CS majors have it all wrong. College isn't about wasting 4-6 years studying, it's about doing something PRODUCTIVE during that time (co-op, internships, start your own business, develop a new 3-d game engine). Something to show that I have talent. Unfortunately darwinism is taking place and only the strongest are surviving right now. The weak are all complaining that it's Bush's fault that they have no experience and aren't willing to relocate to take on an entry-level job.
Okay, it's quite OBVIOUS that we knew Bin Laden was going to strike the U.S. I didn't need to 'get that memo on that'. Any person with a half brain knows that terrorists want to strike the U.S.
Now magically the president supposedly read this memo on August 6th and was then supposed to automagically know that a few airlines were going to be hijacked on September 11th at 8am on the east coast and hit the Pentagon, WTC, and another target.
That's stupid. You have 25 "years of experience" and made it clear you'll do "almost anything". Have you looked on DICE.com? I hate it when people complain about being qualified and employed yet they don't want to relocate from SmallTown, Kentucky.
If you're that motivated, how come you haven't started your own consulting business with your extensive work experience. I've seen very unqualified people get interviews (and jobs) mostly because they were MOTIVATED to learn, work, and serve the company. I haven't even graduated college yet and I've gotten job offers that I haven't even applied for. That's not because I have tons of experience, but because employers are BEGGING college students to work for them practically. It's nearly the same feel as it was back in 98/99, except they're not giving out free BMW leases.
This idea of the "post-DotCom" economy is over. The market is back and employees have the upper hand now over employers.
As a neocon, I will say this economy and world is about survival of the fittest. While it seems that you have been pampered the last 25 years of your life, I've been busy MAKING IT. I too live in a non-IT town, but there are still contract jobs in the big cities that I take.
Stop complaining already. Waiting for the government is not a good idea. I have a family to support and thats what I'll do.
Slashdot Mirror
Confusing post. Didn't qualify statements. "When they diagnosed an eye infection....". Who is "they"?
I work for a recruiting firm and I can definitely tell you that I'd would take a CS graduate with bad grades and 2 years of "real world" experience over somebody with a straight A (4.0) GPA and no experience. I would do it 100 times over and over. In fact, if you are looking for a job, send me an instant message and we can definitely talk about getting you placed somewhere.
.NET, etc.) and be able to determine the difference between recursion and for-loops. Those people (regardless of GPA) will continue to be employed and will maintain a high standard of living with a job they can enjoy because they can convert knowledge into wisdom through experience.
To give a personal experience/testimony, I graduated with a CS degree with a 2.0 GPA about 3 years ago but with about 3 years of solid full-time work experience. Most of my class mates had 3.0 or greater GPA's and no work experience. Almost all now have gone into different fields (fast-food restaurant management) because they couldn't hack it and couldn't apply education curriculum into the real world.
You do not know how frustrating it is to interview recent CS graduates with 3.0+ GPA's and not be able to give you the fundamentals of computing. Just simple questions like the difference between a binary tree or a linked list let alone anything regarding any object-oriented programming concepts. The truth of the matter is that the IT field right now is hot, not like it was hot during the dot-com boom where anybody that could spell "Webmaster" got a job. But it's hot for SKILLED workers. Somebody that can write compilable code, use object oriented programming languages (Java,
1. M.B.A.
2. P.M.P.
3. S.C.I. (Polygraph and Top Secret Security Clearance)
If you have any of those three you can get a job with no problems.
Developers go for MCSD or SCJP/SCJD. Not the Cisco/Novell networking stuff. The MCSD from Microsoft is pretty thorough, as it is a 5-exam course that covers everything from web development, to web services, to database and standalone application development.
That URL and also the really big logo in the upper right hand corner of the site that says Powered By Java/Sun would probably be a hint.
Don't go chasing after the healthcare industry cause its currently hot, or going after the defense industry and stuff like that if you really would hate it, or hate promoting that field. Simply get a job in the area that would make you happiest. To me, it is more valuable being a happy broke person, than to be miserable the rest of your life.
College isn't about partying 24/7 or even shagging the nearest female. It's about experience. Personal and professional experience. The point is to get a good internship or co-op job (even if it pays beans) WHILE you're in college. Be REALLY productive (co-op, internships, start your own business, develop a new 3-d game engine) in college. It will all pay off when you get your diploma and see that you receive many more offers than your colleagues. And just because some survey says that the average CS major makes about $65k per year, don't expect that right out of college. Be reasonable. You can still live decently on $35k per year in a suburb and still like a lifestyle much better than the one you did in school. The experience will all pay off in the end.
Many people are now beginning to see that the IT labor market is cyclical just like every other labor market. You have ups and downs. Supply and demand takes over. Right now we're on the cusp of demand outstretching supply, especially as more of the baby boomers retire. I never truly believed there was an IT unemployment problem. You can read my blog entry on this. Those in a CS-related field that stuck with the field during the bust times will enjoy a much higher salary (due to tons more experience). So basically, stick with it mate. Your star is going to shine.
In all fairness, GNOME has a long way to go to reduce the bloat, but I wish them all the very best.
Firefox could use the treatment too. This would be great if there could be some kind of metric available for the FireFox team. E.G., "Here FireFox with 3 tabs open only uses 300KB of RAM, while IE uses 30MB of RAM".
They'd be able to offer up cheaper 30-sec spots on these Internet-only viewings (assuming less people will PPV it rather than watching it on a traditional TV set).
Of course this plan is just a simple idea with no forethought, but if the TV Industry put their heads together they could definitely come up with a new business model. Either they will have to or Darwanism will take over.
I for one would pay $3-5/show to go online and watch the latest episode of "24" rather having to plan my day around the show time or getting a TiVO. If people are paying $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, surely they can come up with some kind of business model.
They should also release TV show episodes via the traditional PPV scheme. A user clicks a few buttons on the remote and the thing is played just like "renting" a PPV movie/pr0n is done now.
Of course this will all probably never happen because the people that are in the board rooms are all 60+ yr old baby boomers who don't understand the Internet or this "New new media". Instead they will succomb to piracy. Right now it is too convenient to join a BitTorrent network and downloading the latest episode than trying to find a legitimate way to view it (mostly because there isn't one).
This was either really stupid or really bold. Unfortunately there is a fine line between the two, and I think you're straddling right down the middle. Your gut instincts should always prevail.
So what else is new?
If you really think about it, how much does it REALLY cost you to do a service like that to family/friends? Yet the $50 will go a long way in buying you new hardware.
The $50 (or whatever your flat fee is) also helps you from getting too much business. Sometimes people ask friends/family to do something for them just cause their friends/family and don't expect them to charge. But of course your time is worth something.
I used to do websites for family/friends and it was at first just to give me something to do in my spare time, but eventually EVERYBODY wanted one for their business or the company they worked for, so eventually I had to start charging a fee.
Normal people are wary about being charged an hourly fee because they will always wonder how long it really took to design the site, so I always charged a flat fee. That way I can guaranteed to get paid a certain amount, regardless of the time I put in it.
Now, alot of torrent "networks" (Like FileList.org) have popped up, requiring registration and a certain ratio. These networks are very large (100k+ users), moderated, and consistently get the latest torrents by qualified individuals (meaning everything is usually checked before its put on the network).
Since the fall of SuprNova the only thing the *AA has done was increase the quality of torrents and pushed pirates further underground.
The article does cite its inability to spider those restricted torrent networks, but if you ask me, I'd say the problem has gotten worse for the *AA, not any better.
These produce very high quality along with very good compression.
For some intro how-to's, check out Doom9.org
XViD is on:
- Win32 (MSVC, cygwin, mingw)
- GNU/Linux x86/ppc/sparc/ia64
- MacOSX
- *BSD
- Solaris 8 Ultra Sparc
- BeOS
That covers most of the major operating systems that your users will encounter.
http://www.TrustCommerce.Com
Liberals like this and John Kerry also pointed out the same "facts" back in the 60s when they thought air superiority was invalid. So they went against funding fighter jets and bombers and expanding our intelligence in space. And yes, the military is an important part of the economy because it employs AMERICANS. Just think if they had their way...
As I suggested before, if MS came out with a media player for Xbox that will function as it does on a PC (allow me to play DiVX/XViDS/Mp3s/etc.) I would run out and buy a copy instantly.
Instead, Microsoft puts out a Media Player that requires you to have a PC! That's absurd. If you already have a Media Centric-PC why would you want your Xbox to play your movies when your PC can do it just fine without the extra electricity.
Microsoft has dropped the ball on this one, so people like me who want to view movies from Xbox or over a network share will end up modding the Xbox and then opening ourselves to the new arsenal of games on Torrents and such. Thanks MS!
With XBMC (XBOX Media Center) the new XViD/DiVX codecs are usually included in the latest CVS releases, so you just upgrade that. Sometimes these standalone players offer firmware upgrades that you download ISOs and burn to update, but usually are very slow to release. Personally I prefer the XBox so I can just download from my network instead of having to burn a bunch of CDs. It still amazes me why there aren't any "official" Media Players out for XBox from Microsoft. I'm sure porting WMP shouldn't be that bad. Even if they offered an xbox version for $20, they would still be able to sell millions off the sell of the copies, and then not to mention the millions from ad placements they do inside WMP.
It must be genetic why French people are all pansies...
Does Bush always have to be either lying or telling the truth? Could it be perhaps that for once we were mistaken? It's not like we were the only country to be fooled by the WMD. Even France/Germany/Britain/Israel/Yemen/Japan/South Korea/Poland/Australia, (hell even Nigeria) were all fooled. When it all comes down to it, even if we found nuclear weapons in Iraq, there would still be some published report from the NYTimes about not finding ENOUGH warheads or not finding them quickly enough or not finding them in a neat yellow box with labels beside them. There will always be conspiracy theories how Bush manipulated (or didn't manipulate enough) the intelligence to bring about justification for the war. Saddam brought it upon himself, all he had to do was disarm. In this post 9/11 world, we can't wait for threats to develop, and can't wait till years later to really see if that Uranium some dictator wanted was just for 'research' purposes. We should just kickass and take names. One day all of you will realize that this whole Iraq war was just a dress rehearsal for going after Iran. Atleast thats what I hope it was for...
To me it's about surviving. If I want to eat and put food on the table and a roof over my family's head then I'll do whatever it takes. Even if that means taking those lame internships where I fetch coffee and make copies for 8 hours a day. Or even if that means losing an hour of sleep so I can improve my knowledge of emerging technologies. I'll do whatever it takes.
Unfortunately I don't believe many others share that same work ethic. Some still have parents to fall back on.
Many CS majors have it all wrong. College isn't about wasting 4-6 years studying, it's about doing something PRODUCTIVE during that time (co-op, internships, start your own business, develop a new 3-d game engine). Something to show that I have talent. Unfortunately darwinism is taking place and only the strongest are surviving right now. The weak are all complaining that it's Bush's fault that they have no experience and aren't willing to relocate to take on an entry-level job.
Only the strongest will survive.
Okay, it's quite OBVIOUS that we knew Bin Laden was going to strike the U.S. I didn't need to 'get that memo on that'. Any person with a half brain knows that terrorists want to strike the U.S. Now magically the president supposedly read this memo on August 6th and was then supposed to automagically know that a few airlines were going to be hijacked on September 11th at 8am on the east coast and hit the Pentagon, WTC, and another target.
Yea, but what if you want to play a game?
That's stupid. You have 25 "years of experience" and made it clear you'll do "almost anything". Have you looked on DICE.com? I hate it when people complain about being qualified and employed yet they don't want to relocate from SmallTown, Kentucky.
If you're that motivated, how come you haven't started your own consulting business with your extensive work experience. I've seen very unqualified people get interviews (and jobs) mostly because they were MOTIVATED to learn, work, and serve the company. I haven't even graduated college yet and I've gotten job offers that I haven't even applied for. That's not because I have tons of experience, but because employers are BEGGING college students to work for them practically. It's nearly the same feel as it was back in 98/99, except they're not giving out free BMW leases.
This idea of the "post-DotCom" economy is over. The market is back and employees have the upper hand now over employers.
As a neocon, I will say this economy and world is about survival of the fittest. While it seems that you have been pampered the last 25 years of your life, I've been busy MAKING IT. I too live in a non-IT town, but there are still contract jobs in the big cities that I take.
Stop complaining already. Waiting for the government is not a good idea. I have a family to support and thats what I'll do.