> with a college
> degree can usually be assumed to be literate, which is not
> always true of
> high school :P
> But isn't the question whether the industry would benefit
> from some sort of
> standard, whether degree, certification or whatever
> Dana
I remember being told that the test to get a GED was harder than
graduating high-school. I'd gone to private schools throughout (yea,
in between being beaten with egg-wisks -- don't ask -- I had a very
bizarre childhood -- my dad was at one point in time worth $25mil as
an individual, but my mom was taking us to the laundromat to do
laundry for months when the washer broke because he was too busy being
a screw up to figure out that he had the money to fix/replace it... I
went to an expensive summer camp too). But getting back to the point
-- when I took the test for the GED I thought to myself "this was
harder than graduating?!!?!"... I could have "CLEP'ed" out of
high-school all-together and had my minor status removed if I'd had a
place to stay when I was 15.
A friend of mine got hired to work for the Las Vegas water dept. (not
directly, he's subcontracted) a couple years ago at $85k to start,
with generous relo. and everything. He's got a GED and is working with
CF and ARC-IMS. Prior to getting the job we'd worked together before
and I'd taught him some of what he knows about CF and I'd like to
think programming theory. Since then he's recommended me as a
top-notch developer and his boss has whined and refused to call me
because I don't have a bachelors, when she knows he's only got a GED.
I'd love to get a bachelors, but there's no way I could afford it now.
I made some poor decisions early on, got married to a girl I have
nothing in common with, had 3 kids and screwed myself with Sally Mae
on a trade school I had to drop out of to support my kids (they lied
to me about refunding the remainder of my tuition to Sally Mae
incidentally). I think I'm finally getting to a point where I'm about
to start earning similar to what my friend is making in Vegas and if
things go well I'll probably hire out some of the work on my CMS.
As to the industry benefiting from some sort of standard (degree,
cert, etc.) my vote is no. We already have degrees and certifications
and whatnot, and although I have the CF cert and plan to get more MM
certs (because some managers do value them), I don't believe that
educational standards like certs and degrees are genuinely helpful. A
person performing an interview focuses on the fact that the candidate
has or doesn't have a particular cert. or degree and in many cases
that frees them up from having to know any of the job themselves. Not
that every manager will be an expert, but having talked to lots of
really smart people without the degrees or certs, and lots of really
"well educated" people who can't think on their feet, I think a
manager's sense of character is a better judge of a person's ability
to do the job than a standardized test is. I think ultimately it boils
down to standardized tests being comforting to people who've grown up
in a world where only things which can be counted are valued.
p.s. See the book Technopoly by Neil Postman for information about how
all other forms of thought have been deprecated in favor of science
during its rise to popularity. In particular there's some good stuff
in there about IQ tests and how they exemplify the cultural need to
value science and to disvalue anything that's not science.
s. isaac dealey 972-490-6624
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