Re: Growing your own programmers

Mark,

In a message dated 6/17/99 6:12:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ALLENMA1@Mattel.com writes:

> Would appreciate any input from companies and/or individuals who have taken
>  "non-programmers" and through in house training/external training converted
>  them to AS/400 RPG programmers.  I am considering starting a program here 
to
>  do that and would like all the "experts" out there who may have done
>  something similar to share their experiences.

Excluding the AS/400 for doing it myself (a truly _GOOD_ programmer can 
function within any environment, eh?), I've both done it and seen it done.  I 
certainly wouldn't recommend it as a primary source for new talent.  As I've 
stated here before, I believe programming to be an art -- either you can 
program or you cannot.  Also as stated before, I was pointed to an article 
regarding programming when I first started nearly 20 years ago that stated 
only five percent of the people on the face of the earth _could_ program and 
that, of those, only three percent of the whole could do it well.  Staggering 
statistics but then, according to Harry Truman, there are lies, damn lies, 
and statistics ;-).

Unfortunately, the people of whom you speak that seem to be able to do it the 
best are the ones that already get paid _more_ for what they do now.  In my 
experience, people from the accounting department seem more inclined than 
folks from other departments.  Their attention to detail seems to allow them 
to handle the nuances of programming, and the higher the position in that 
department, the better.  Unfortunately, a CFO already makes far more than a 
programmer/analyst ;-).  The old adage that you "can't make a silk purse out 
of a sow's ear" seems to apply.

There are still people out there to be found, however.  Usually someone with 
low self esteem that took the clerk or forklift job because they always felt 
that "I'm not good enough" or "I'm not smart enough".  Low self esteem seems 
to be a hallmark of our industry.  I do not doubt that you can find someone 
"in house" that can program.  The question is whether or not they do it well. 
 The latter not only depends upon their inherit ability, but upon _YOUR_ 
mentoring...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"While an original is hard to find, he's always easy to recognize." -- John 
L. Mason
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