RE: Growing your own programmers

[Joel Fritz <JFritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I work in a shop where we've done it numerous times with very good success.
The top person in the department started out as an operator and hasn't
forgotten getting the chance to program.  Most of the people who succeeded
were operators, although two were not.  All had had some school or hobby
programming experience.  Right now our newest department member is a former
operator who's doing very well.  In the six years I've been here, all of the
non-programmers we've trained have succeded.  I think if you select your
candidates carefully, you can't go wrong.  The important qualities for
success have more to do with the ability to break a task down into small
components and the ability to understand a little bit of formal logic than
anything else.  People who have a strong understanding of the business have
an additional edge.

We've done all our training in house.  As long as someone has the time it
works well.  I find it very satisfying working with new people--karma.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allen, Mark [mailto:ALLENMA1@Mattel.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 17, 1999 1:42 PM
> To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      Growing your own programmers
> 
> 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.
> 
> Mark Allen
> MIS Manager
> Mattel-Murray
> allenma1@mattel.com
> 
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