> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Virgil Bierschwale > Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:56 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Foxpro Developers - Chapter 01 > > Ok, I'm not an author. > Never claimed to be, nor wanted to be, but I believe I need to do what I > can to stop what I see happening in software land here in America. > <snipped>
I am manning the helpdesk today.... spots of free time interupted by calls to action... Looking back over my career I can see that rarely I used any of the skills/education I got when earning my degree... once I did a linear programming project for optimization that I did in Informix, and I think I pushed the square root button on my calculator once, but other than that... Sure, I've done some incredibly complex coding but it had nothing to do with higher level math or statistics that I was trained to do. Sigh.... When I started college I was thinking of being a Physics teacher, but got in the wrong line at registration (seriously!) and ended up in Computer Science. Then I thought I'd be a cryptographer for one of the intelligence agencies or programming deep space probes at NASA or something.... Back in those days (early 80's) demand for CS classes was so high that my first class had 450 people in it and 950 on the waiting list... There were seniors still waiting to take sophmore level classes... Since I was declared CS I got priority for computer classes so stayed with the program until about late junior year when they kicked me out after realizing I hadn't taken any CS classes in two years... I had been grandfathered into the professional school which was kinda big deal, but by then I had switched to Math... things were nuts back then w/ computers.... Often you had to go down to the computer center w/ your box of punch cards, 2am, to get your project run on the Honeywell mainframe... don't even think about trying to do anything during the day.... After college I needed a job and got hooked up with the police dept in a neighboring town... For 13 years I managed to work full or part time as both a police officer and a software developer... when you're young a 70-80 hour work week isn't so bad.... would kill me these days... So sitting here now and thinking about it, did I *need* a college education to perform any of the jobs I've done over the years?? I sure doubt it, other than learning critical thinking and problem solving. Heck, maybe the big joke on everyone is that navigating your way thru college is the ultimate word problem, and getting thru is the ultimate test. College was the hardest thing I've ever done... But here's the key: I'd sure rather have that degree in my pocket when out looking for a job than to not have one. I can always NOT tell them about it if I think it would help get me in the door. Same with my MCP status - not that it's that big of a deal but it sure is nice to have some credentials... Both credentials set me apart from everyone that doesn't have them... I like having that advantage... And heck, when you're young, why NOT go to college? What the heck else you gonna do? When struggling in college, I often thought of dropping out and going into the Army to fly attack helicopters... came really darn close one time, but backed away... I think if I had to do the whole thing over again, I'd go military out of high school, do something kick ass like flying helos or Rangers, come out and let them pay for college, then start my career... Thanks, Matthew Jarvis || Business Systems Analyst IT Department McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center 1460 G Street, Springfield, OR 97477 || Ph: 541-744-6092 || Fax: 541-744-6145 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: This electronic message may contain information that is Proprietary, Confidential, or legally privileged or protected. It is intended only for the use of the individual(s) and entity named in the message. If you are not an intended recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete the material from your computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this message and do not disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on the information it contains. _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/69f310c05dd83c48a84ba3769ce1ecf80306c...@tntriexevs02.triadhospitals.net ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
