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- Path: nntp.teleport.com!not-for-mail
- From: dispatch@teleport.com (Mark K. Horan)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
- Subject: Re: Difficulty hiring people with C++ experience
- Date: 9 Jan 1996 18:57:05 -0800
- Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016
- Message-ID: <4cv9u1$nu2@julie.teleport.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: julie.teleport.com
-
- I didn't discover my interest in programming until about four years
- ago when I was required to familiarize myself with computers as
- part of the requirements for a masters degree in counseling psychology.
- I'd never touched one previously; It was a life-changing experience.
- This encounter involved the UNIX operating system and the SPSS statistical
- package. Shortly thereafter, I conceived of a thesis project which
- required that I learn some computer programming. Well, I failed to secure
- faculty support for my thesis proposal, so I changed my program option
- from master of science to master of art, thus eliminating the requirement
- for a thesis project, and I then went ahead and wrote the program which
- was necessary for it. It was a great learning experience. I took two
- years out from my masters course to study computer science at the local
- community college, learning much about Pascal, C and C++.
- I've since finished the program for a masters in counseling, and I now
- have no interest in pursuing the field for which I've trained. The
- creative possibilities offered through computer programming are simply
- too compelling for me to consider doing anything else. Yet I'm at
- a serious disadvantage not having a background in computer science.
- I started out as a fine art student, gravitated to psychology, got
- my BS in that, and subsequently an MA in counseling psychology. So
- I'm a well educated individual, with much interest ( and talent )
- in programming with yet little formal training in this area. What
- do the prospects look like for someone like me breaking into the field?
- I'm 40 years old, a late-bloomer, and at this stage in my life I want
- little else but to concentrate on work, on learning more and exercising
- my knowledge. Now that I'm finally done with school, I'm pursuing a
- couple of large, complex projects which should provide me with considerable
- fluency in both C++ and Windows programming. Will this do the trick
- insofar as making me marketable as a programmer, again given that I
- have much education under my belt, albeit little formal CS training?
- I'm looking for pointers and advice.
- Thanks.
-
- Mark Horan
- dispatch@teleport.com
-
-