[ILUG] Re: Unix in college

[Robert Sweetnam]

In a previous job, part of my job (as a contractor) was to train college
co-ops, Any one of them that came in was stuck with me for a couple of
months (they have my pity).
Anyway they were almost exclusively from UCC. I certainly never trained a
CIT student.
But the what struck me the most was the sheer arrogance with how they
started.
Why dont you do this?, why dont you do it this way?. Now dont get me wrong I
was never in college myself, but I would have thought that in the least they
would know at least *something* about networking or even the OS itself.
Before I go on this is in no way a reflection on any graduates that may read
this as there is always exceptions.
But everytime I had a co-op, they quickly learned and definitely proceeded
onwards, but then again that is part of what being a co-op is all about.
Hands on experience.
Ultimatly I got shafted for one of the very people I trained, who although
had potential was still very much in the "college lifestyle". Had never even
seen NT Server in action (apologies for going slightly OT) and was getting
paid a lot more than I was. End result was that, as i got to know them so
well, I was in a new job and they were still phoning me for support, which I
refused to give without a price.
Now on the other hand, the students in question  knew a lot more, infact
infinitly more than me about scriting and programming which is all very
well, as I have no or nor want any experience in said matter. But If they
are geared towards that end of the spectrum, why the fsck are they in a
sysadmin job.

Cheers
Robert (not bitter, honestly. Just abused.)


-----Original Message-----
From: ilug-admin at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-admin at linux.ie]On Behalf Of
hellbunnie at irelands-web.ie
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 11:16 PM
To: ilug at linux.ie
Subject: [ILUG] Re: Unix in college


At 11:18 16/03/00 +0000, you wrote:
>IMHO, I think this beancounting stuff should
>be left to the Beancounters. The argument "You could be writing a
>financial app and it would be very useful" doesn't hold,

That's not the argument.  The argument is that you might have to run your
own business, and you'll almost certainly have to interact with management.
 The business courses are designed to teach you how to justify your IT
budget requirements to management types by showing them shiny and colourful
presentations.

I'm not defending these courses, mind you.  The problem with teaching
business studies in a computer course is that it takes knowledge, skill and
experience to work with computers.  Common sense is barely a requirement
for management...

Of course, there are courses where you don't usually have to do too much
business stuff.  They're the 'computer science' courses in universities.  A
'computers' or 'IT' course generally has a different focus.  Unfortunately,
I'm studying Information Technology not comp. sci. which means I have to do
management of IT, psychology and sociology modules as well as the real
subjects.  Ugh...




--
Irish Linux Users' Group: ilug at linux.ie
http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug for (un)subscription information.
List maintainer: listmaster at linux.ie