[Coco] Re: Thoughts about going back to school full time.

[Ward Griffiths]

On 12/08/2005 11:45 am, James Hrubik wrote:
> On Dec 8, 2005, at 11:00 AM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
> > At 07:29 AM 12/8/05 -0800, Robert Emery wrote:
> >> As much as I don't like soapboxing on OT issues, this is something
> >> thatreally
> >> chaps my a$$! The fact that years of experience and demonstrated
> >> ability and
> >> the human who posesses them are meaningless compared to some
> >> stupid little
> >> pieces of paper is a travesty.

Yup.  A quarter century of doing and teaching system administration, but the 
companies wants the kids fresh out of school who haven't had a chance to 
learn proper sysadmin paranoia.  (Though they may have contributed to it).

> > Yup. Despicable. At age 56, I'm finally about to get my PhD. I just
> > had to
> > do it, even though my thesis was nothing more than a representation
> > of work
> > done on a particular project over the past 18 years. I have no
> > credibility
> > without a PhD in my field of musical composition, believe it or
> > not. For
> > regular academic invitations (to talk about my music), I need the
> > piece of
> > paper. And those little presentations are really important to my
> > tiny wallet.
> >
> > Dennis

Especially in Europe, much more so than in the US.  You ain't nothin' over 
there unless you can put something fancier than "Mister" in front of your 
name.

> Too frequent a complaint.  I have my RAA, but to do any government
> work I have to have the SRA (which I'm working toward) from the
> Appraisal Institute.  And then, for most of the areas where my
> expertise would really count, like law enforcement (credit & bank
> fraud), the Feds won't hire anyone over 37 years old, and I'm 21
> years over their limit.  I can't say the piece of paper is totally
> meaningless, but in my review work I see plenty of reports, by people
> with earned designations, that have serious flaws in their reporting
> and analysis.  I also see beautiful work by people with fresh, new
> licenses, and no appraisal designations.
>
> However, I love doing what I do, even if I can't be at the top of the
> food chain.  Jim Cox, follow your heart.  Do what you want to do, and
> if you have to be self-employed to do it, you can undoubtedly find a
> niche.  Go to school to learn what you see is important, and stay
> abreast of new developments.  That's why I love this list!  Even the
> OT stuff frequently contains some valuable gems.

Yup.  That's why at 50 I've decided to switch fields entirely.  Hopefully in a 
year or so I'll be operating a restaurant up in New Hampshire.  There's no 
decent chili for sale in the whole state (and from limited study, in Maine or 
Vermont either).  I hope to do well by doing good, filling that gap in folks' 
lives.  Happy customers.  A sysadmin never has happy customers (well, not in 
the phone logs).  I'd like to get back to computers as my hobby, the way it 
was back when it was just me and a TRS-80 yet to be renamed Model One.  (With 
the addition of several Coco incarnations, a Mod II, a T6k, several Mod 100s, 
a few AT&T Unix PC's, miscellaneous other machines and of course a few Linux 
boxen.  Something to occupy the several hours per week I won't be cooking.

10% discount to anybody carrying a gun.
-- 
Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net

Madison said that tyranny would come to this land only under the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. One hundred ninety-three years after his
unnecessary war with Britain, I must say he was right. -- Anthony Gregory