[Chester LUG] Career change

[Michael Crilly]

I agree with David on this one.

A friend of mine used to work for a comparison website as a
programmer. After I told him I wanted to go into programming, he
advised I applied to the same company as they're looking for junior
programmers at the moment. He went on to add that some of the
programmers that had been there for a year or more, didn't know what a
class property was; didn't understand the four basic principles of OOP
and in some cases, didn't know what OOP was... and some of these
people had Comp. Sci. degrees? Also, the website is ASP.NET based, so
knowing what OOP is is pretty essential to the job. I was head and
shoulders above some of the programmers there with no commercial
experience, no computer quals. and 8 useless GCSEs.

In fact, even some programmers I speak to now who work in the industry
don't understand things like Seperation of Concerns, Dependency
Injection, Aspect Orientated programming, Domain Driven Design, etc.
As far as most of the GOOD programmers I know, these are basic
concepts.

Just goes to show you what you can find in the work place earning
£22k+ by blagging their way by :)

You're an intelligent bloke Paul, so as David said, sell your self and
add some icing on the cake :)

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 9:31 AM, David Holden <dh at iucr.org> wrote:
> On Tuesday 24 March 2009, Paul Williams wrote:
>> cheers guys.  I have taught ICT before.  Problem is I never bothered with
>> vista (so out of date with windows) and not skilled enough to train anyone
>> on linux.
>>
>> I would probably be looking more at a trainee techie post to start off to
>> broaden my skill base.
>
>
> One thing I'll add is try not sell yourself short, I find this hard since my
> cautious nature means I always do this, but I can't tell you how many times
> I've met people doing jobs that they clearly have no clue about . Someone
> with a bit of enthusiasm is already ahead of the game, so I'd try
> and "oversell" yourself because I guarantee there will be people with less
> gumption bluffing it.
>
> Anyway good luck and all the best!
>
>
>>
>> Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:43:46 +0000
>> From: biglynchy at gmail.com
>> To: chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> Subject: Re: [Chester LUG] Career change
>>
>> That sounds like a great idea, there are always stories on the news it
>> seems about the lack of trained IT professionals and how this skills gap
>> needs to be filled. Someone will have to train them. Could be a winner.
>>
>>
>> I'm afraid I don't know of any IT jobs personally that I can recommend, I'm
>> about as much use as a chocolate teapot in this case but I wish you the
>> very best of luck in your search. Hope you find something that suits you
>> very soon.
>>
>>
>> Good luck!! :)
>>
>> Dan
>>
>> 2009/3/24 Stuart Burns <stuart.james.burns at gmail.com>
>>
>> Hiya,
>>
>> Just as a thought, if your a people person, why not look to IT Training ?
>> From what I hear (one of my friends does training) it can be good money. I
>> even happen to know that (don't all wince at once;) West Cheshire College
>> do a Microsoft Certified Trainer course, in the evenings.
>>
>>
>>
>> Also Linux training is a big area. We recently went on a private Solaris
>> course organised through a uni, and I think the trainer easily netted a
>> couple of grand for a weeks work.
>>
>> As I say, just a thought!
>>
>>
>>
>> 2009/3/24 Paul Williams <wilp4a at hotmail.co.uk>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I have been advised to leave teaching.
>>
>> The fact is that I cost too much.  My salary is protected by law, so I
>> can't lower it.  Problem is there is nothing to force schools to consider
>> employing me despite the cost.
>>
>>
>>
>> I cost about £10k more than a newly qualified teacher.  So I'm not getting
>> a look in.
>>
>> A school can employ me, or a NQT and a teaching assistant.
>>
>> So...  Career change time.
>>
>> Does anyone know of any entry level jobs in IT for someone with 10 years
>> experience (user rather than job related) using computers, with a degree,
>> but no IT qualifications other than ECDL?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> Windows Live Messenger just got better.  Find out more!
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Chester mailing list
>>
>> Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
>>
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> Chester mailing list
>>
>> Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
>>
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> View your Twitter and Flickr updates from one place – Learn more!
>> http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/137984870/direct/01/
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. David Holden.
>
> See: <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html>
> regarding Word or PowerPoint. GPG key available on request.
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chester mailing list
> Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
>



-- 
M. T. Crilly
http://www.mcrilly.co.uk/