I know of a technique I've seen work. Do a survey. Get in touch with the people in charge of the types of projects you would like to be on (not the personell department or something), and go interview them to find out what they want. You'll be surprised. Interview at least 10 people so you get a good base. I guarantee you'll know a lot more coming out than you did going in. I saw one young man, just out of high school, with no experience, try this and he had to stop because of the job offers--he had to decide on one. He took one that paid tuition and books so he could get his degree while he worked. I have programmed computers for 25 years and I know there are jobs out there, but you've got to do research to find out where they are and what they are. Don't job hunt, go hunting for information. It won't be what you expect it to be.
Doing something illegal is perfectly okay these days, if enough people do it. An example of this is illegal aliens--somehow that seems to be just fine. So must be making copies of CDs. Anyway, when you buy a blank CD you pay for the right to copy anything--the license fee is included. It's just more work for the members of the overstaffed legal industry.
I agree with you, but your argument is more for it than against. School classes form an artificial society with kids all the exact same age. The develop a false set of values based on that very bizarre situation. Outside, they deal with people of all ages and become more rounded. The human interaction of schools is detremental to a well balanced education. It's just that we've done it that way since schools got so large that all the 'grades' were no longer mixed, but now we have a better choice.
I taught Java online for five years. I just taught the language and let them work out their own way of editing and compiling. It came out just fine. Different editors were used--they can teach themselves that stuff.
Now VB and C++ is you main problem. You will have to disabuse them of some misconceptions and some bad habits. But it's not quite as bad as it was back in the days of Pascal. I found the quickest learners were old COBOL programmers.
There's not much point in reading newspaper accounts of the fictional world they live in. After all the lies and rumors that have been been spread as if they were facts, isn't it rather foolish to believe anything you find in a newspaper? You can believe it if it makes you feel better, I suppose, but the whole thing is getting very silly.
It sounds like a good idea to me to be able to read a headline and tell something about the contents. Now we need to come up with something that can check whether the story is true or just made up.
The interface for doing things like that is bizarre. Most people have never set the clock on their VCR. Most people don't care--they just want to watch a little TV. I find it easier to subract one hour from the time on the clock in my car than go find the manual every six months to figure out how to set the thing. Modern interfaces are getting silly.
I did it for years, until the IRS passed a specific regulation against it. But only for programmers and engineers. Check section 1706 of the IRS code. Many companies follow this law and outsource to another country rather than hire a contractor. You would probably be better off doing it from another country. I just got out of programming after 20 years and went into a different profession.
It works for me, but maybe I'm a special case. I am able to give out special email addresses and then set up my local client to plop each into its own mailbox. That may not be something you do a lot, but it has sure worked for me. I just ignore the stuff that doesn't get filtered into a special location. Of course, you have to plan this from the very beginning and give out addresses that way. If one becomes a spam attracter, I just give out a new address for that slot and change the filter.
I will admit to getting lots of spam until my ISP recently implemented a wonderful spam filter.
There is a vast differenc between ripping yarn that's fun to read, and something that's literary. All of the editors that decide what is to be published are from the literary school (English majors and such), so they only print fiction if it fits into the literary genre. It's just gotten too damned hard to find something fun to read.
I went into computing from broadcasting (TV stuff and deejay) at age 39. It was a gret decision. I spent 25 years at it and now have a third career that I started at age 58. Go for it! Everybody should change careers from time to time--it keeps you alive. Specialization is for insects.
But I wouldn't worry too much about another degree. Just learn the stuff. You can slip over into medical software and have no problem. (I found that a software specialty is the way to go. General programming doesn't work too well.)
I have been hearing of the death of UNIX for some time now. As best I recall, the first reports of it started coming in in the mid 1980s. These reports always show trends in the number of installations--and there are more UNIX installations now than at any time in the past. The numbers supposedly supporting the demise of UNIX always deal with market share, a number which is bogus on its best day. There are more Toyotas than there are Boeing 747s, but who cares. It's a silly comparison.
It is the biggest one. Job postings for it seldom get online, yet it still has 1598 on monster.com. There are more COBOL programmers than any other kind.
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I know of a technique I've seen work. Do a survey. Get in touch with the people in charge of the types of projects you would like to be on (not the personell department or something), and go interview them to find out what they want. You'll be surprised. Interview at least 10 people so you get a good base. I guarantee you'll know a lot more coming out than you did going in. I saw one young man, just out of high school, with no experience, try this and he had to stop because of the job offers--he had to decide on one. He took one that paid tuition and books so he could get his degree while he worked. I have programmed computers for 25 years and I know there are jobs out there, but you've got to do research to find out where they are and what they are. Don't job hunt, go hunting for information. It won't be what you expect it to be.
Doing something illegal is perfectly okay these days, if enough people do it. An example of this is illegal aliens--somehow that seems to be just fine. So must be making copies of CDs. Anyway, when you buy a blank CD you pay for the right to copy anything--the license fee is included. It's just more work for the members of the overstaffed legal industry.
It makes sense to me. If you bite the hand that feeds you, you should expect it to quit feeding you.
I agree with you, but your argument is more for it than against. School classes form an artificial society with kids all the exact same age. The develop a false set of values based on that very bizarre situation. Outside, they deal with people of all ages and become more rounded. The human interaction of schools is detremental to a well balanced education. It's just that we've done it that way since schools got so large that all the 'grades' were no longer mixed, but now we have a better choice.
I taught Java online for five years. I just taught the language and let them work out their own way of editing and compiling. It came out just fine. Different editors were used--they can teach themselves that stuff.
Now VB and C++ is you main problem. You will have to disabuse them of some misconceptions and some bad habits. But it's not quite as bad as it was back in the days of Pascal. I found the quickest learners were old COBOL programmers.
There's not much point in reading newspaper accounts of the fictional world they live in. After all the lies and rumors that have been been spread as if they were facts, isn't it rather foolish to believe anything you find in a newspaper? You can believe it if it makes you feel better, I suppose, but the whole thing is getting very silly.
It sounds like a good idea to me to be able to read a headline and tell something about the contents. Now we need to come up with something that can check whether the story is true or just made up.
The interface for doing things like that is bizarre. Most people have never set the clock on their VCR. Most people don't care--they just want to watch a little TV. I find it easier to subract one hour from the time on the clock in my car than go find the manual every six months to figure out how to set the thing. Modern interfaces are getting silly.
I did it for years, until the IRS passed a specific regulation against it. But only for programmers and engineers. Check section 1706 of the IRS code. Many companies follow this law and outsource to another country rather than hire a contractor. You would probably be better off doing it from another country. I just got out of programming after 20 years and went into a different profession.
It works for me, but maybe I'm a special case. I am able to give out special email addresses and then set up my local client to plop each into its own mailbox. That may not be something you do a lot, but it has sure worked for me. I just ignore the stuff that doesn't get filtered into a special location. Of course, you have to plan this from the very beginning and give out addresses that way. If one becomes a spam attracter, I just give out a new address for that slot and change the filter.
I will admit to getting lots of spam until my ISP recently implemented a wonderful spam filter.
There is a vast differenc between ripping yarn that's fun to read, and something that's literary. All of the editors that decide what is to be published are from the literary school (English majors and such), so they only print fiction if it fits into the literary genre. It's just gotten too damned hard to find something fun to read.
I went into computing from broadcasting (TV stuff and deejay) at age 39. It was a gret decision. I spent 25 years at it and now have a third career that I started at age 58. Go for it! Everybody should change careers from time to time--it keeps you alive. Specialization is for insects.
But I wouldn't worry too much about another degree. Just learn the stuff. You can slip over into medical software and have no problem. (I found that a software specialty is the way to go. General programming doesn't work too well.)
Good luck. Stay alive and don't get bored!
I have been hearing of the death of UNIX for some time now. As best I recall, the first reports of it started coming in in the mid 1980s. These reports always show trends in the number of installations--and there are more UNIX installations now than at any time in the past. The numbers supposedly supporting the demise of UNIX always deal with market share, a number which is bogus on its best day. There are more Toyotas than there are Boeing 747s, but who cares. It's a silly comparison.
It is the biggest one. Job postings for it seldom get online, yet it still has 1598 on monster.com. There are more COBOL programmers than any other kind.