[CLUE-Talk] The Microsoft penalty that isn't - Tech News - CNET.com

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Wed, 17 Apr 2002, Sean LeBlanc wrote:

> Hmmm. A PhD in what, though? A PhD in itself is hardly a testament to much -
> there are some really dubious majors out there. If they were PhDs in
> math/science/engineering, that's scary. If they were PhDs in 18th century
> French Lit., well...

I dealt with a few - one had a PhD in math, another taught
natural science (I'm not sure exactly what her degree was, though.
I do know she had a PhD, but not what it was in...)

Even a person with a PhD in 18th century French Lit.. you'd think
they'd have enough problem-solving skills and brainpower to
figure out "ok"...

> I couldn't agree more with this - I've worked as a software
> developer/engineer/coder/whatever the current en vogue term is for it these
> days for almost eight solid years post graduation, with a smattering of
> co-op and workstudy jobs before that. In other words, I'm HIGHLY specialized
> esp. from a 20,000 foot view. But I can attest that even within the
> relatively small niche of programming, you have this nonsense. HR and
> headhunters would prefer to have someone 2 years out of school doing X
> language on only one plateform than someone who has 30 years experience
> coding with W,Y, and Z languages on A,B, and C platforms. It's absolutely
> ridiculous. I realize headhunters have less play in this area because of
> clients perceived needs, but HR people should know better.

Yeah, and the managers giving requirements to the HR people
should *really* know better! A lot of headhunters don't seem
to know the difference between "nice to have" and "required"
either.

*snip*

> Semantics, but as you say below, a huge difference. I hate to be
> pigeonholed.  The sad thing is that when you are talking to some folks, it's
> actually a detriment in their eyes that you worked on a variety of different
> projects because you can't be pigeonholed and sold to their client or their
> boss as such. It's hard to find jobs or gigs where you are finally permitted
> to wear many hats.

Indeed. I don't know about anyone else, but if I get a gig doing one
thing only, it gets very old, very fast.

> I find it amazing headhunters can continue to be
> so bad at what they do - yeah, yeah, I know there are those out there that
> know what they are doing at don't come off as used car salesmen, but they
> are hard to find. When I do find them, I sure whip out the black book, I can
> tell you.

Hey...maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree... I should look for a job
as a headhunter! I'd almost have to be way better than the average
headhunter...

> Coding is coding is coding. The older programmers who have been doing, say,
> functional programming for the past 20 years can and will learn OOP if given
> the chance. People writing JCL can learn event-driven programming. I can't
> understand how the industry was crying for more H1-B's, and at the same time
> kicking older programmers out the back door. The older programmers probably
> had infinitely more to offer than the
> I-just-graduated-from-highschool-and-I-know-VB folks, too. Or the
> "webmasters" who knew Homesite or FrontPage, some HTML markup, and little
> else.

Oh, I can understand - they wanted to hire people they could pay
diddly-squat and abuse like mad. Older programmers tend to be
ornery cusses (and that's not an insult...) and they tend to
have opinions about how things should be done. As a rule, larger
businesses don't really appreciate these qualities... they just
want warm bodies that can do a particular task and be disposed
of at the first sign of a dip in profits to protect the CEO's
bonus, or whenever they start to make too much money - whichever
comes first. (Okay, so I'm a little cynical...)

> Yep. See Above. Absolutely insane. No aptitude tests have ever been given to
> me on a job interview for my entire career. Anyone hiring or managing people
> in software absolutely needs to read Peopleware, Mythical Man-Month, oh, the
> list goes on and on... me, bitter? Nah. :) For those of you who have read
> Peopleware, remember the juggler analogy? I have yet to see the
> trial-by-fire anywhere.

I haven't heard of "Peopleware" who's the author?

> Yes, people need to re-gain that sense of empowerment. I don't know how we
> get from where we are now to there, though.  I'm a complete dolt when it
> comes to cars, but lately I've been consciously trying to take a whack at
> the things I think I can handle on my car. I wish more folks would approach
> computers and especially software the same way. It's not like other fields -
> in most cases, there is no possiblity of loss of life or limb.

Yup. I guess you could fry yourself if you try working on the
guts of your CRT monitors... but other than that, it's not particularly
hazardous.

I have to admit - I was intimidated by the concept of trying to repair
a PC when I got my first computer (1994). I had a 486/33 for about
a month, then I moved to go to college and apparently during the move
the video card had shaken a bit loose, though I didn't know that
at first. I just knew that it had worked 48 hours before and now
it didn't - and my options were to fix it myself or drive four hours
to return it to the guy who built it to get him to fix it. Lucky me,
if he had been local (or if I wasn't a poor college student...) I
probably would never have gotten into working on PCs...
However, I decided that it couldn't be *that* hard, so what the hell.

> My favorite is the "TCO" so marketed to and touted by PHBs - the whole
> message seems to be "use this, buy our product/service, and never have to
> hire anyone who has advanced beyond well-trained monkey (read: expensive)".

Exactly - but if it's my money, I'd rather spend it on people than
software licensing.

> Yes, language defines how we think and act, there is no doubt. Good point on
> your part. In the larger picture, I have always loathed the term "consumer"
> myself. It's all in the semantics, though - why do you think M$ calls it a
> "service pack" when it's really a set of bug fixes?

Very true. I think the term started innocently, but I believe it's taken
on a new tone lately. Imagine how any of the press releases from the RIAA
about "rights management" or whatever with the word "consumer" replaced
by "customer" and it'd have a completely different tone...

Take care,

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
ymessenger: jbrockmeier / AIM: ZonkerJoe
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moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our
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laws of the country." -- Thomas Jefferson