Re: ADVERTISING SUPPORT FOR AS/400 ANNOUNCEMENT

Mike,

In a message dated 97-08-13 01:21:11 EDT, you write:

> Ya know, I wish they'ld take some of that $100M and put it into training
>  college kids on the 400 platform.  We're not seeing ANYTHING coming out of
>  colleges with a midrange knowledgebase...and it kinda really sucks!

<<Begin soapbox mode>>
Aw, now you've gone and touched a nerve!  After all of these years, the
American college education system is STILL unequipped to provide decent C/S
education -- yet companies are more often demanding a C/S degree.  What a
load of, uhh, problems.  The problem with both college and community college
C/S programs is that you're pretty much stuck with whatever platform the
school decided to buy.  Most teach PASCAL as a language and, although I've
heard good things about it, have YET to see a job ad asking for it.

Colleges often teach A database (often IMS on mainframes, which corporate
America is dumping like the plague) associated with A platform.  We have a
young lady that just started with us who is VERY bright, and actually learned
programming on an AS/400 in Community College -- unfortunately her
instructors didn't know the platform and it took her two years in business to
figure out that PDM was good for more than viewing file content!

You cannot teach PASCAL as a language, or relegate your students to a single
platform in order to achieve a viable C/S degree in today's software
environment.  Despite the UNIX promise of "openness", C is different on the
AS/400, the RS/6000, the HP, the Tandem, and the DEC.  In the same vein, C
works differently if your database is Oracle, SQL Server, or some other.
 Colleges need to QUIT making these students go to "Western Civ", and START
making them spend more seat time in front of various platform/database
configurations.  In addition, IBM needs to start assuring that things like my
aforementioned example don't happen when the sell an AS/400 to a Community
College.

Employers, quit relying on the degree -- Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve
Jobs, and many other influential persons in our industry didn't have one.
 IBM, start getting the AS/400 into the educational system and make sure that
it is properly supported.  Colleges, start presenting a DECENT C/S
curriculum.  And all of the above, QUIT RUINING MY LIFE with these new
candidates...
<<End soapbox mode>>

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"Jimi Hendrix was the first rocker on the Internet.  His modem was a purple
Hayes." -- Anonymous
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