[rescue] Mainframe on eBay

[Barry Keeney]

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> >From: Barry Keeney <barryk at chaoscon.com>
> >Date: Tue Sep 20 15:30:43 CDT 2005
> >To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [rescue] Mainframe on eBay
> 
> >On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, velociraptor wrote:
> >> On 9/20/05, William Enestvedt <William.Enestvedt at jwu.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> I just look at my paycheck when people (try) to make
> >> fun of my English degree.
> >
> >  Funny, most of the people I know with english degrees 
> >cry when they look at their paychecks :^)

  First of all, IT'S A JOKE!! Maybe in more then one way...
 
> Well, you should never confuse your major with your occupation - I have
> a humanities degree (essentially an English degree, but a little
> (electronic) music and (computer) art classes mixed in, and I never
> planned on "working" as a teacher or similar occupation... I just
> studied what I liked, then got a job in computers because the pay was so
> good (and I felt I had an aptitude).

  Good for you, I never got passed my second year in collage, to 
many learning disablities. Not having a degree slowed my progress
in the job market early on it but hasn't stop me from teaching at the
local university either. :^)

  When I look at people for a computer job, If they've got a degree 
in a related field great! If not, I pretty much count it as a minor 
point against them. They spent all that time on something they don't
need for this job, why didn't they go back and get something usefull?
I'm going to look for the skills for the job and they didn't get it
from thier degree. Now english skills are usefull, just not the most
important part of a computer admin/support job. 

  It's also likely, I'm guessing here, you had better then average
english skills before college then most computer support staff, so
your english degree really didn't add much to your job skills, except
to document them.
 
> I once had a college guidance counselor try and talk me out of an
> English degree - he said there was "nothing to do with one." I used my
> acquired skills to write a persuasive letter to the President of the
> college, and got him "b*tch-slapped" for his guidance... See, I found
> something to do with my degree ;^)

  He did his job! If you're going to go into a field you should
know all the pitfalls before you spend 4+ years working for a 
degree that won't be very marketable or won't meet the students
goals.

  The fact you felt so strongly about his advise just shows 
that you really cared about the field you selected. 

  Too many kids go into fields they like without understanding
the likely job market they'll enter with that degree. I have 
a friend who was about half a year from finishing a BS in bio. 
He was working at a pet store at the time and one day looked 
at his co-workers. The assistant manager had a master's in bio, 
casher had a BS in bio, and few others also had degrees in less 
marketable areas. None were really getting much from their degrees 
and they really didn't need them in their jobs. They weren't 
doing any research, nothing. They would have been better off 
not going to school then getting a degree that didn't make a 
difference in their jobs and having to pay all those wonderful 
loans back.The main reason so many people with degrees worked 
at the pet store was they started working where while in college. 
Most tried and failed to find other work related to thier degrees.

   With only a few months left to finish his degree he switched 
majors to enginering and a few years more he finished that 
degree and is happier with his current lifestyle then working 
at a pet store. He still likes bio related stuff, just wasn't a 
future in it, for him anyway.

> The things I got from my education were a critical eye and an effective
> way of writing - skills that have served me well in various fields...

  Well I'm sure your writing skills are far better then mine!
That's not say much, most people I know are better then me
as I'm sure you can tell from this response. :^) And good
communication skills are useful in most fields, but they
aren't likely to be the most important skill. 

***** Warning!! JOKE  Alert! (required for english majors :^) ******

   There's always someone with an english degree who can clean up 
my poor written work, I think the janitor has a english degree :^)

***** End of joke, you can now return to your flame war, already in
progress.... :^)  *****


Barry Keeney
Chaos Consulting
email barryk at chaoscon.com

"Rap is Square Dancing gone terribly, terribly Wrong...."