From: Peter Hickman Date: 2012-12-16T23:47:23+09:00 Subject: Re: Wondering About Flatiron School --e89a8fb1f81e91043d04d0f95782 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On 16 December 2012 12:38, Carlo E. Prelz wrote: > I wonder how you deal with people who offer lots of experience (say, > around a quarter of a century). I mean: what could a person learn in a > year? If I compare myself now and after one year being employed, I > certainly wouldn't want to go back... And I had already done one > year's Fortran77 at the university plus an unforgettable year writing > administrative code in GWbasic (compulsory military service). > > Carlo > > We have come to the conclusion that experience is experience regardless of the languages or technologies (personally I have been programming since the late 70s and was originally a mainframe COBOL programmer, spent a few years writing financial software in Basic). You can learn a lot in a year, but it does depend on the year. As someone said "They know Java, now they need to learn how to program", well that one year counts for a lot. Given the choice between two candidates one who has left university with 3 years of Java but no real world experience and one who has completed one years employment as a PHP programmer the candidate with real world experience actually has the upper hand. But then again as I have said we are a small shop and need people who can take on a problem and handle it by themselves. A large bank that is hiring a dozen programmers probably has completely different criteria. It is my experience that much of the technology that I have learnt over the years is, of itself, completely useless (and as a consequence does not appear on my CV). I have used languages and operating systems that are almost extinct so they are not marketable skills. The real skills (the ones that are not tied to a language or platform) accumulate very slowly. So the difference between no real world experience and one years experience is significant, but the difference between 1 year and 3 is less marked. 25 years experience is not 25 times greater than 1 year - I would only consider the last 5 to 7 years of your CV to be of interest. If however your CV showed that you had been doing the same thing for the last 15 years then it might start to count against you - I like to see someone learning new things (or at least new to them). --e89a8fb1f81e91043d04d0f95782 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 16 December 2012 12:38, Carlo E. Prelz <fluido@fluido.as> = wrote:
=A0
I wonder how you deal with people who offer lots of experience (say,
around a quarter of a century). I mean: what could a person learn in a
year? If I compare myself now and after one year being employed, I
certainly wouldn't want to go back... And I had already done one
year's Fortran77 at the university plus an unforgettable year writing administrative code in GWbasic (compulsory military service).

Carlo


We have come to= the conclusion that experience is experience=A0regardless of the languages= or technologies (personally I have been programming since the late 70s and= was=A0originally a mainframe COBOL programmer, spent a few years writing f= inancial software in Basic). You can learn a lot in a year, but it does dep= end on the year. As someone said "They know Java, now they need to lea= rn how to program", well that one year counts for a lot. Given the cho= ice between two candidates one who has left university with 3 years of Java= but no real world=A0experience=A0and one who has completed one years emplo= yment as a PHP programmer the candidate with real world=A0experience actual= ly has the upper hand.

But then again as I have said we are a small shop and n= eed people who can take on a problem and handle it by themselves. A large b= ank that is hiring a dozen programmers probably has completely different cr= iteria.

It is my experience that much of the technology that I = have learnt over the years is, of itself, completely useless (and as a cons= equence does not appear on my CV). I have used languages and operating syst= ems that are almost extinct so they are not marketable skills. The real ski= lls (the ones that are not tied to a language or platform) accumulate very = slowly. So the difference between no real world=A0experience=A0and one year= s experience is significant, but the difference between 1 year and 3 is les= s marked. 25 years experience is not 25 times greater than 1 year - I would= only consider the last 5 to 7 years of your CV to be of interest.

If however your CV showed that you had been doing the s= ame thing for the last 15 years then it might start to count against you - = I like to see someone learning new things (or at least new to them).

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