Subj : Re: Doc/noDoc? (was: CV, work-history, 91C, CompSci?, Applet? ...) To : comp.programming,comp.software-eng From : rem642b Date : Thu Sep 15 2005 10:17 am > From: Chris Hills > There are vast numbers of jobs that just require an adult with the > basic skills of life. I wonder if you realize that statement is loaded, that it's discriminatory against anyone who is "disabled", that is anyone who suffers any disabling condition? (I define a "disability", or "disabling condition", as any condition whereby a person can't do, or finds it difficult or painful to do, tasks that are taken for granted by a majority of people, such as you apparently. For example, most adults can climb stepladders to reach high shelves, but people in wheelchairs can't do that. Most adults can lift more than 50 pounds, but many people with flattened spinal disks or other spinal problems can't, or can't safely. Most adults can easily memorize large quantities of meaningless mumbo jumbo or data etc., but some people have great difficulty memorizing anything that doesn't make logical sense. Some people are deaf or blind, or have decreased hearing or visual ability compared to "normal".) I don't know what country you're in, but here in the USA it is illegal to discriminate against a person just because they suffer a disabling condition, providing that the actual job can be done in some way, perhaps an unusual way, despite that disabling condition. Employers are required to make reasonable accomodation so that disabled people can work for them. For example, most people have no particular trouble listening to others speaking at project meetings, but a deaf person would require either a different meeting arrangement or an interpretor during meetings. If the job is not specifically for something that itself requires hearing, the employer would be required to make accomodation to allow the deaf person to work. On the other hand, lots of jobs really do require some physical or mental skill, such as a stock clerk who really must move heavy objects around, and there's no reasonable accomodation that would allow somebody with a flattened spinal disk to work effectively at such a job. (The really heavy loads are carried on a mechanical lift, where the disability would be no problem, but lots of work involves lifting 50-pound loads to/from shelves where a mechanical lift would be useless, the human must be able to lift/carry such loads without mechanical assistance.) So in that light, would you please define what you mean by "the basic skills of life" and how your definition relates to people who suffer various kinds of disabilities per my definition? (Note that I've suffered a spinal disk since I was about 30. Lifting a 40-pound object just once causes severe distress/pain/collapse, and lifting 30-pound objects repeatedly during a workday would likewise be impossible or dangerous, and sometimes I have difficulty standing at all.) And then would you revise your remark about "vast numbers of jobs ...". > Then as has been stated several times here the problem is likely to > be your social skills. And none of those people, including you, has ever met me in person, so none of them/you has any basis for judging my social skills. > I have NEVER done a shrink wrapped product in my life. Then I'm curious how you got your present job, given that most ads for computer programming jobs nowadays require that kind of experience. Some ads nowadays say "must have shipped a commercial software product", which doesn't say specifically that the commercial product was shrink wrapped, but usually software is in fact shrink-wrapped when it's shipped. So I have to ask you, did you ever ship a commercial software product, and if so then how was it shipped if not shrink wrapped? (This is an honest question. I'd like to know. Not rhetorical.) > The problem the industry has moved on where you have not. That's not true. Since I became unemployed I've "moved on" too, teaching myself seven new software technologies and taking classes to learn four more, in addition to using various software technologies to develop software in several new application areas I hadn't tried before. > >> The answer is to get out there and do something. > >If you mean go to some company, walk in the door, and start working, > >without permission of anyone at that company, that's a crime: > >Trespassing. > No I did not mean that. Well then please tell me what exactly you *did* mean by that phrase "get out there and do something" which is something you believe I haven't been doing yet something I am capable of doing all by myself. Specifically where is "there" that you refer to, and what specifically is the "something" that I should be doing there? .