[Blackpool] Udemy discussion... continued?

Tue Jan 13 09:54:11 UTC 2015

You missed a good session, there were a couple of new toys that were very interesting!

UX is quite trendy now isn't it, that job function has always been covered by a traditional 'product manager' where I've been, and sometimes it was left to a senior developer which is not the thing to do really.  What do hardcore devs know about real people and tasks?!   It sounds like a great area to be working in and will be around for a while (a good horse!).  I'd agree, it's a scarily wide subject, and it sounds like you have ideas over and above basic UX, good luck with it.  I studied traditional Human and Computer Interaction and that started a lot more to do with biology than technology, and so many interesting subjects we only skimmed the surface of as each of them could be a lifetimes study on its own.  What was funny about that course was that in one bit we studied a really crap interface on a central heating timer, around the same time we had a new boiler put in and a pretty much identical crap timer came with it.

 So an intern might assign value to a technology based on it's technical capabilities and be able to show in great detail why their MongoDB beats Oracle in certain areas for example.  But if the immediate market says starting salary for Oracle is £45K and starting salary for MongoDB is 'maybe you'll get a job for £25K if you are lucky' then it's time to forget how good MongoDB is and wait until hopefully the people paying the wages catch on.  (or back the longer odds horse and start or join a startup I guess). Not that I raked in huge amounts of money for any long length of time, but I have had the massive privilege to be able to just work 3.5 or 4 day weeks for many years and just enjoy a relatively fun and easy job cutting code, (compared to my Civil Service days where I worked longer hours and overtime for much less take home).  
Yes please, a bridge over the Ribble especially would suit me fine!!!!   For a few years I thought of moving to Cheshire where the jobs for me are, staying here (St Annes) has compromised a lot of things for me career wise. Regards A
   > Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 14:43:50 +0000
> From: jmsp.1983 at gmail.com
> CC: blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [Blackpool] Udemy discussion... continued?
> 
> I'd have popped in today, but my sleep pattern is usually incompatible with
> LUG meeting times!
> 
> Yep, backing horses sounds right. You have to be something of a
> futurologist or a lucky hobbyist to find something nichey and in-demand.
> Maybe that's what I'm aiming for? I'm sort of trying to pursue a design
> route - User Experience and Service Design - but I want to augment that
> with tech skills. I see value in being able to iterate and prototype
> concepts which require a technical element. The other aspects of it are
> that i) I'm curious and ii) I get frustrated not being able to experiment
> with my ideas. Trying to juggle all those things is something else, though!
> 
> If it's not an employment market for grads and interns, what's the
> impression they give?
> 
> Living by the coast is one thing; living on a peninsula is even worse, I
> think. I'm interested in the North West Energy Squared scheme as it would
> appear to potentially mitigate part of that problem:
> http://www.nwblt.com/the-model/ - probably nothing to get too excited
> about, though, as it's already had the 'artists impressions' treatment by
> The Gazette, so you know it's already doomed to remaining a pipe dream!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> James
> 
> On 9 January 2015 at 21:31, Arthur Garlick <arthur_garlick at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Ha ha, well unintentionally I seem to do a good sideline in spam...
> >
> > I will have to ask you what you do or want to do when I see you next.
> >
> > I agree with your thought of a bell curve. I relate it more to backing
> > horses.  Maybe you'd go for steady odds or maybe you'd go for longer odds
> > that might give a better return. Depends on your outlook and circumstance.
> > Either way an element of luck that is out of your control will affect the
> > out come. All I say is as long as you've made some attempt at a rational
> > choice and looked at the form of the skill sets you are looking at.
> > Picking a horse or skill set based on you like the colour or with a pin
> > means you deserve to loose your shirt.
> >
> > I am quite opinionated about this because of  experience of fresh from uni
> > guys and interns. I get the impression that the idea that it's an
> > employment market has been lost.
> >
> > Living near the coast geographically cuts out 180 degrees of employment
> > opportunities, sad but true!
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Arthur
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > > On 9 Jan 2015, at 20:54, James Page <jmsp.1983 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > For whatever reason, the mailing list is rejecting any further replies to
> > > that discussion as spam.
> > >
> > > I'll see if pasting my original response to Arthur's last reply gets
> > around
> > > it...
> > >
> > >
> > > Not especially, or at least, not primarily. It's partly so I can maintain
> > > my VPS, partly so I can do enough to work around some dev stuff (when it
> > > gets to that point, e.g. Ruby) and partly so I can appreciate technical
> > > roles and requirements if I'm ever in a position where that would be
> > > helpful.
> > >
> > > Whatever happens for me career-wise, I'm doubtful it's going to be in an
> > FY
> > > postcode.
> > >
> > > On the ranking front, would it perhaps follow a bell curve? I can well
> > > imagine that the most obscure stuff, whilst not in mass demand, can still
> > > have a demand and thus a bigger premium attached to it - for those
> > > situations which absolutely demand it (e.g. COBOL, Fortran etc?).
> > >
> > > As for me, I'm less IT-orientated, despite my interest in tech.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Best wishes,
> > > James
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/blackpool
> >
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