When I first started, my peers and I were required to put in an hour of study/training time every day. We also had to keep a log of what we studied/learned. Deep and wide skill sets are developed that way.
Now it has changed drastically. They are willing to hire a contractor for more money, hope that the contractor will train the in-house people, and they are being paid 2x+ what the in-house folks get. And of course the contractor best not slip a date or a deliverable. Can be rough all around. Thanks, Linda Sent from my iPhone On Apr 23, 2014, at 7:09 AM, "Sankaranarayanan, Vignesh"<vignesh.v.sankaranaraya...@marks-and-spencer.com> wrote: > The article which started this discussion suggested that people be given 10% > free time to explore the systems and to learn by doing. > Once again, decisions are made, which make it extremely difficult to put in > that time for personal development. > > I got into REXX just a month after I learnt what a mainframe is. Although I > was working to improve the existing processes, most of the time spent was > non-office hours. > > - Vignesh > Mainframe Admin > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On > Behalf Of Gerhard Postpischil > Sent: 23 April 2014 14:57 > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: Sorry state of IT education? > > On 4/23/2014 8:56 AM, Sankaranarayanan, Vignesh wrote: >> Are we supposed to magically grow skills when it's known that there's a >> massive competency gap? >> >> I think I digress ... > > In the sixties I was a competent ForTran and assembler (FAP and MAP) > programmer on the 700/7000 series, with experience on several plotters; the > company I worked for put me on a government contract to convert a sizable > 7094 plot package to 360 assembler. My first ASM/F assembly had > 6000 lines of errors. I gained experience from reading the manuals, testing, > followed by going back to manuals ( with AHA! moments), etc. > The company also had a policy of tasking employees not currently on a > contract to nurse the system (DOS to start with, PCP, then MFT II later), > which is how I got hooked on systems work. While IBM provided > (expensive) training courses, they were never as good as real-life experience. > > Nowadays companies need to assess applicant skills, but are not willing to > pay for (third party?) testing, even though it would save them money. > A small ISV I did consulting work for exemplifies this - their flagship > package kept bombing - two programmers they hired for upgrades had inserted > things like MVC byte,C'A', instead of MVI or =C'A'. > > Gerhard Postpischil > Bradford, Vermont > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to > lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > MARKSANDSPENCER.COM > ________________________________ > Unless otherwise stated above: > Marks and Spencer plc > Registered Office: > Waterside House > 35 North Wharf Road > London > W2 1NW > > Registered No. 214436 in England and Wales. > > Telephone (020) 7935 4422 > Facsimile (020) 7487 2670 > > www.marksandspencer.com > > Please note that electronic mail may be monitored. > > This e-mail is confidential. If you received it by mistake, please let us > know and then delete it from your system; you should not copy, disclose, or > distribute its contents to anyone nor act in reliance on this e-mail, as this > is prohibited and may be unlawful. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
