I've read this exchange. Interesting. In our now defunct local
hospital, the "tech boys" would be called in from the "mother hospital"
35 miles away. Many times, they were simply unable to fix problems.
They were absolutely lost with older technology. My husband would
explain how to fix something, and they'd go "NO! You can't do that!".
After they would go, he'd fix it so the machines would run.

Lots of book learning. Not much life experience.
Dianne

DebM wrote:
On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 02:11:40 GMT, animaux wrote:


world with no degree.

My point is, he didn't walk in off the street and say he had life experience and
got the job. He had 9 months of classes then an additional 4+ years of OTJ
training. There is a big difference between that, and walking in off the street
with "life experience."


Then I guess you and I are talking about different types of life
experience. My original point was that while desirable in many
instances, a college degree is not necessary to get a good job. In
many cases, previous employment experience where someone started at
the entry level and worked their way up counts for as much or more
than a degree, and there is a world of difference between "book
learning" and "real life".


The company I work for (a software development firm) prefers
non-college grads over college grads, for various reasons.

No knowledge means no established bad habits. The price for their salary may
also be pretty stimulating, as well.


No degree does not automatically translate to "no knowledge". In our
business, there has to be a base level of knowledge about software and
computers. It's amazing how many young folks out there have it. No
bad habits is a very valid consideration, and it's amazing how many
bad habits come with a Computer Science degree grin.

As for salary, that is also a valid consideration....all of our
programmers started out in the tech support arena. It gets them
familiar with our software, and how it is supposed to work. It
familiarizes them with the industry our software is targeted towards.
It lets us find out who has the aptitude for programming and exposes
them to the code before they are "responsible" for maintaining the
code. After two years, if they show the aptitude and if they want to,
they can move over to programming. It is interesting that every time
we've hired a programmer with that degree, within 30 - 60 days, they
are gone. One was just unable to write a decent section of code,
despite his degree. Another would decide in the middle of the day
that she was "bored" with the code she was writing, and we would find
her playing solitaire or napping. Then, there are those that never
make it in the door. I mean heck, their profs told them they would
START at a minimum of 50K per year. In Jacksonville, FL, that is not
realistic. Odd, that we are still getting resumes from these guys on
every ad we place, a year or more later.

Techs do start out at a lower salary than programmers. At our company
we get a 1K per year raise every 90 days, starting at the first 90 day
review after hire. By the time the tech makes it to programming (if
they move, we have some that just like it in tech), he/she is making a
minimum of 8K more than their starting salary.

I guess it's all in perspective.


--
Deb
Works in Progress:
L&L "The Spirit of Christmas"
2002 Christmas Angel
Meg's Lacy Sampler Pouch
Marbek Nativity
Needlework Necessary