From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-10T05:39:06+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Unit tests ... not just for the young

On Wednesday 09 June 2004 13:08, Phil Tomson wrote:
> In article <200406091038.40447.sean@celsoft.com>,
>
> Sean O'Dell <sean@celsoft.com> wrote:
> >
> >I don't agree that side-interests make for a better programmer.  If you're
> >hiring a programmer, you want someone who's main interest is programming. 
> > My experience has been that the more a person loves programming, the
> > better they are at it.  If we're discussing hiring a programmer, to do
> > programming work, I want the best programmer I can get for my money, so
> > side-interests are one of the things I DON'T want in a potential
> > employee.
>
> Side interests (or perhaps I should call it multi-disciplinary
> training) will certainly make for more employment opportunities going
> forward.  Most programming jobs can and will eventually be sent offshore
> (and yes, this definately sucks but there doesn't seem to be much that
> can be done before it's too late).  However, people who can program well
> AND know (biology|chemistry|geology|medicine|genetics|physics|chip
> design,etc..) will continue to be in
> demand.  Its not that you're diminishing your programming skills by
> studying another discipline, its more like you're applying your
> programming skills to that discipline (and at the same time increasing
> your programming skills).   There are many more interesting problems out
> there than just those found in IT (in fact many IT problems look quite
> mundane when compared with those that need to be solved in other fields).

As an employee, side-interests are good.  As an employer, side-interests are a 
potential distraction from the job-at-hand.

	Sean O'Dell