Craig McClanahan wrote the following on 9/10/2005 1:10 AM:
* I took my own advice when *I* was in college :-), and have a Business
Administration
degree, with an emphasis in Accounting. You'd think (from the outside) that
there couldn't
possibly be a profession that changes slower than accounting, but I can
guarantee you that
this is not the case. Once you get past double entry bookkeeping, everything
I learned in
college (even if I remembered it all, 30 years later) would be totally
obsolete.
* The same sort of thing happens in scientific fields all over the map. For
example,
I aced a test on Astronomy by (among other things) nothing that Jupiter had
12 moons,
Saturn had 9, and so on. Those facts were considered true at the time ...
but not any more.
* Would you trust a doctor today to diagnose you with a 1950s medical
education?
Or even a 1990s medical education? Like basically all professions, medicine
(and software)
assume that a lifetime of learning new things is a fundamental requirement
for success.
Although the above is true, there is a big difference from the fields
you mention above and the IT field. Other professions build much more
upon previous knowledge and experience. Sure the doctor might learn new
techniques for performing open heart surgery, but I doubt he's throwing
away everything he learned previously about the heart. Even his
experience in performing surgery should increase over time.
With IT, I've noticed that previous knowledge only helps slightly. Yes,
a seasoned programmer will more valuable than someone right out of
college, yet once that college grad has about 5 years (maybe less)
experience, I would not say that he's necessarily any less valuable than
the programmer who has been programming for 10 or more years. The
deciding factor will then become who's been keeping up more with the
latest technologies. Previous experience becomes much less important.
With other professions I don't see this being the case as much. My
background is in biology (BS degree) and education (masters degree).
Even though in science things change at a rapid pace, previous
experience in the field is still highly valued. A new planet might be
discovered, but you are still working with the same old planets as well.
Same thing I'm sure can be said for most other professions. Things build
upon each other much more on other professions. Even if it's not pure
'fact type' knowledge, just basic experience in other profession is much
more valuable. A police officer, fireman, teacher, construction worker -
even in those fields just time itself in the profession can really have
a large impact in your skill and value.
Information Technology is very frustrating because certain things you
learn can be COMPLETELY thrown out in a very short while. Take for
instance something that hits home directly to me. I'm now in the process
of learning JSF. All the time spent learning struts and even JSTL is
basically thrown out the window if I end up coding with JSF. Same thing
would be said if I jumped over to .NET. I can't think of a profession
that throws away as much 'old' knowledge as the IT field.
--
Rick
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