RE: AS/400 History

[Buck Calabro <mcalabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, July 20, 1998 12:00 PM, ericadelong@pmsc.com 
[SMTP:ericadelong@pmsc.com] wrote:
>
>      Of course you realize that NOBODY wants to send one of us
>      "youngsters"
>      to Common (or any other type of advanced training or educational
>      seminars). I've been working in this biz for >13 years now, and 
have
>      NEVER been sent for training/certification/vacation. (Well, I wonce
>      was sent to IBM(Midland,TX) for a product announcement. Woo hoo!
>      AS400-236.) Everything I've learned has come as a result of LONG,

-snip-

>      Yea, I a little frustrated with this. I KNOW that if I want to
>      progress in this biz, I need to try to stay current with
>      techniques/technology, but how much is MY responsibility and how
>      much
>      my EMPLOYER? Every time I learn something new, I add value to the
>      services I can perform for the employer. Shouldn't they reimburse 
me
>      or otherwise compensate me for this. Shouldn't they CREATE
>      opportunities for advances education or training?

Yes they should, but they probably won't.  It's *way* too easy for a 
business to quantify the expense of training, and way to hard for them to 
quantify the benefits.

>      Maybe it's just where I've worked, or I've just been unlucky, or
>      whatever. Is it just me? I have a lot of passion for learning new
>      technology and applying it in a practical fashion. So why do I feel
>      like I'm being taken advantage of by me employers? (sigh)

I have encountered much the same situation here.  Don't let it get you 
down.  You're NOT being singled out.  Learn what you can for YOU and you 
will become more valuable to your current employer and to your next 
employer as well.  Given the educational vacuum left by midrange 
employers, we have little choice but to become proficient on our own.

Personally, I'm getting computer science textbooks (maybe will even take 
some classes,) I bought a copy of Visual Basic for home, awk and Perl and 
am reading about Java.  Pretty much any general concepts I pick up there I 
can take with me to my AS/400, even in RPG III.

Good luck and remember that you're not alone!

Buck Calabro
Commsoft, Albany, NY
mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net

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