Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths To : comp.programming,comp.software-eng From : gds Date : Mon Aug 15 2005 09:23 pm Ben Pfaff wrote: >rem642b@Yahoo.Com (Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t) writes: >> From: CBFalconer >>> I have heard of most of those terms, but I couldn't answer any of >>> those questions. I _could_ find out in fairly short order. Yet I >>> suspect I would be a worthwhile hire even for your application. >> >> It sounds to me more like you're trying to bluff your way into a job >> for which you have no education or training or self-study or experience >> or knowledge whatsoever. >> >Among the hallmarks of a professional programmer are flexibility >and the ability to learn *quickly*. A professional programmer >should be able to bring himself up to speed on a new language, a >new library, a new protocol or specification, or an important new >concept within a matter of days or weeks. If it were me doing >the hiring, I would be looking for people who can learn and adapt >quickly, not people who already know the popular >buzzword-of-the-week. Throughout most of my sw eng career in the 1980s and 1990s, the above was considered more important and valuable to an employer than the ability to remember bits of trivia. Things like specific language features, user-level commands, and protocol parameters were referenced from books and man pages, not memorized. It was more important to be able to design an appropriate solution to the problem first, then implement the solution. --gregbo gds at best dot com .