[Sussex] Hi Nik/Geoff/Anyone - can you help?

[Geoff Teale]

Angelo wrote:
----------------
>
> In fact, I have never got a job where my experience was not relevant!
> That is just where the job market is today; as more and more employers
> "talent spot" so that they don't have to train anyone, or as little
> as possible.  Its a real bone of contention from my perspective as
> why should I have to spend my hard earned dosh on courses/books just
> so I can do my job more effectively.  Surely if I need to expand
> certain skills to do a job, the employer should fork out.  These days
> getting on a course is equivalent to getting the six little numbers
> on the lotto. Grrr!

Well, that's the price we pay for being in a profession where (even now) the 
number of people with worthwhile skills is much smaller than the number of 
jobs available.  It allows usto change jobs fairly often as companies are 
periodically on the look out for good staff (and they rarely get all the 
staff they want to the standard they need).  Companies now feel that if they 
train someone to a decent level of competence that person will just waltz off 
to a better paid job.  Companies of course could solve this is a much better 
way - they could become less ageist - I know of at least two older guys on 
this list with massive amounts of Unix experience who could be invaluable to 
any number of companies, but who won't even get through the door because 
they're in their 50's.  

Thomson were very keen on training people, on the previsor that if you left 
within 5 years of having completed the course then you would have to repay 
the fees.

Claybrook have a much better set up (from the Companies point of view), the 
majority of programmers there write "Tasks" - a proprietary language with a 
non-transferrable skill set.  That may not be a problem for someone like you 
or I, with a decent amount of experience prior to joining Claybrook, but for 
someone like Heidi, for instance, it makes her time at Claybrook almost a 
waste of time career wise (unless she plans to stay there for the rest of her 
life).  

As far as training courses are concered though, my overriding impression is 
that you learn a lot more from a good book and a project that you will ever 
learn on a course.   The same is true of a Computer Science degree - you 
learn a lot more by reading the books and doing the work than you ever do 
sitting in lectures.

-- 
GJT
Free Software Foundation
tealeg at member.fsf.org