RE: Chasing the wrong target? (was "giving an iSeries system toeachcollege")

Also for the USA, there are always masses of people who want to move
here even w/ the weak dollar, those w/ RPG etc. knowledge would take
those spots.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DeLong, Eric
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 3:09 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Chasing the wrong target? (was "giving an iSeries system
toeachcollege")

Jon,

<snip>If you can't rely on graduates to fill the vacancies - where are
the System
i programmers of the future to come from?</snip>

Same place they've always come from?  There has always been a culture in
midrange where Bobby from the warehouse wants to learn computer
operations.  Later on, he starts programming little utilities, and the
next thing you know, he's become one of the programmers....

That's not an uncommon scene in many SMB environments.  However, there
can be serious flaws in this scenario...

The scope of education is often very narrow, and often there is NO
formal training provided.  The RPG manuals are great for learning what
the language can do, but is a lousy guide for "how to think like a
programmer".  Experience will usually help correct these deficites, but
think of all the sloppy code that gets slung before the light shines
upon them.....  

I dunno, education is key to the success of our platform.  

Eric