I’m a software developer with a bunch of industry experience. I’m also a comp sci professor, and whenever a CS alum working in industry comes to talk to the students, I always like to ask, “What do you wish you’d taken more of in college?”
-
Jean-Sébastien Guayreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands Totally true. I try to be constructive in all cases. Sorry if I came across as pedantic myself.
I only express my frustration in reference to people who genuinely do not see the value in learning.
-
@inthehands Technical writer and API guy here, just stopping by to say YUUUUUUUP.
-
Paul Cantrellreplied to Jean-Sébastien Guay last edited by
@skylark13
You didn’t! It’s just a thing about which I try to remain sensitive, being a person who can be pedantic and also a person who works with and teaches people with many different native languages, experiences, cognitive types, and gloriously varied kinds of minds. -
Paul Cantrellreplied to Captain Superfluous last edited by
@CptSuperlative
Oh, yes. Agism in tech has been rampant and appalling at least as long as I’ve been in the industry. The window between “too young” and “too old” is like maybe 10 years for men, and -15 years for women. -
Captain Superfluousreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
This is something I did not know before going back to school for CS.
-
Paul Cantrellreplied to Captain Superfluous last edited by
@CptSuperlative
And it really doesn’t help that the whole job market is in chaos right now: layoffs still reverberating, and the application market swamped with AI-generated resumes to the point where real humans can’t even find each other on the application •or• the employer side…! -
@inthehands @stephstephking @lisamelton I was a double major in college: CS and History. When it comes up, I’m always asked “why history? There’s no money in that.” True, but it gave me an opportunity to study abroad and it taught me how to write. Well, my writing has gotten me farther in my career than my coding
-
@mkristensson @stephstephking @lisamelton
Broad education is a long-term investment with a slow but very large long-term payoff, both career-wise and human-being-wise! -
@inthehands @stephstephking ignore the corporate aspect if you will, most people reading and writing globish are not native an don’t have the cultural bagage to understand any metaphor or any reference - and they don’t need to - so this has to go, same goes with vocabulary richness, pick one term and stick with it. The language needs to be as pretty as bulldozer, ie not at all.
Just admitting the language is not English but another related language is the first step. -
@thias @stephstephking
Ah, I misread/misunderstood “globish” on the first pass: I took you to mean corporate gobbledeygook / business-speak, but I think you’re talking about English as a global lingua franca…?That now understood, you may misunderstand what English depts teach. It’s not primarily grammar, and “pretty” isn’t the central idea at all. It has to do with clarity: not just of expression, but of •seeing•. Having a point matters in any language.
-
@inthehands @stephstephking @markmorow at least half of my success in it is because I can write well. I can communicate my ideas to people who aren’t me or aren’t in tech.
-
@bynkii @stephstephking @markmorow
Yes. Both the writing and the boundary-crossing aspect of that are •huge•. To be able to talk to somebody from a different discipline, in a different role, from a different culture or place of origin, etc etc never stops opening doors. -
Captain Superfluousreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
I did get a mobile dev position after college part 2 for a few years. Which was fun. But then... Nope. Now I'm out of the industry and doing special ed paraeducation. Which is a huge change.
-
Paul Cantrellreplied to Captain Superfluous last edited by
@CptSuperlative
Oh! My wife is an SLP, and she values the work of special ed paras immensely. Good stuff! -
Captain Superfluousreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
It is hard work in every way. But every single kiddo is wortg it.
-
Paul Cantrellreplied to Captain Superfluous last edited by
@CptSuperlative
I know just what you mean. -
Some of the best people I know in cybersecurity are those that come from a "non-traditional" background - whether humanities or social sciences or no college at all. So much of security is needing folks from a lot of unique perspectives to look at the challenges through different lenses, then communicate that risk to others.
-
Christopher Pickslayreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @stephstephking I was an English major and have been a software engineer for almost 30 years. Close reading and literary analysis are also extremely valuable skills for software development.
