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Re: What do they teach in school today?

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On 9/7/2015 7:20 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
> In article <msfh8e$cg4$1@dont-email.me>, james.harris.1@gmail.com
> says...
>>
>> "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:MPG.3045bde82d0b2a3f989ae4@news.eternal-september.org...
>>> In article <mrfb5m$eo3$1@news.albasani.net>, cr88192@hotmail.com
>>> says...
>>
>> ...
>>
>>>> where I am living, there are not a lot of programming jobs, and most
>>>> of
>>>> these are web/business/financial stuff, which I personally don't want
>>>> to
>>>> go anywhere near. likewise, don't want to relocate right now either.
>>>
>>> A year ago I would have said the same thing.  Don't avoid the
>>> "business/financial stuff".  It may seem boring but it's experience
>>> regardless.
>>
>> An interesting comment. I am thinking of getting back into programming
>> professionally, having spent many years programming at home but doing
>> other IT stuff for an income.
>>
>> As well as being unsure what level of programming skill and experience a
>> prospective employer would look for (aka compare me with other
>> programmers available) a lot of the jobs I have seen are ones that I,
>> like Brendan, really don't think I want to do. I have become more
>> free-wheeling in my programming and been able to pick things that I want
>> to do. That's why your comment was interesting. It sounds as though the
>> job turned out for you to be more interesting than you expected.
>>
>> James
>
> Well, to give an example, my current employer has an opening for a
> Quantitative Consultant (the same title I hold--don't let the
> "consultant" part throw you--it's a full time salaried position with
> full benefits), with the stated requirements being a bachelor's degree
> in computer science and two years programming experience.  The candidate
> also has to pass an aptitude test (a timed test which is half "word
> problems" in mathematics and half "fill in the missing piece" on
> flowcharts), and pass the interview.
>

don't have a degree...


> What we're actually looking for though is someone who can write code and
> is willing to learn--the main languages we work with are Fortran and
> APL, with the Fortran in a mainframe environment, and we don't actually
> expect anybody to know either those languages or to have worked with a
> mainframe.  What we do expect though is that when asked "how would you
> handle this problem" they can come up with an algorithm on the spot to
> handle it--doesn't have to be a _good_ algorithm although if it is
> that's so much the better, and they don't have to actually write code
> for it on the spot.  There's a list of "problems" none of which are
> particularly difficult (to my way of thinking anyway).
>
> The "hard" part of the job isn't the programming, the code is generally
> pretty straighforward--it's the business logic, which is driven partly
> by marketing, partly by accounting, partly by actuarial concerns, and
> partly by regulation.
>
> Now, that's just at my employer, which is a Fortune 100 life insurance
> company.  Others may have different requirements.
>

generally, I historically have been the sort of person who throws lots 
of code at a problem and gets things working by beating on it to make it 
work (IOW: write lots of code fairly quickly and then play whack-a-mole 
with the bugs).


though, a lot of my recent stuff hasn't aligned as well with my main 
skill (tasks which depend a lot more on fine tuning and "getting it 
right" rather than things solved by ability to write lots of code).

like, a lot more focus on performance and timing issues and similar, and 
cases where "more code" is detrimental (memory footprint and 
build-times), or can render it unusable (running out of ROM space).

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What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-08-20 18:17 -0400
  Re: What do they teach in school today? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-08-20 23:56 +0100
    Re: What do they teach in school today? fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-08-20 16:10 -0700
  Re: What do they teach in school today? Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2015-08-20 23:55 +0000
    Re: What do they teach in school today? Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2015-08-24 04:28 -0700
  Re: What do they teach in school today? Leo <chris.w.l.macleod@sympatico.ca> - 2015-08-20 21:21 -0400
  Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-08-23 09:33 -0500
    Re: What do they teach in school today? fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-08-23 09:47 -0700
      Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-08-23 14:45 -0500
    Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-08-23 23:27 -0400
      Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-08-24 09:48 -0500
        Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-08-25 00:49 -0400
          Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-08-25 09:58 -0500
            Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-08-28 19:30 -0400
            Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-05 20:49 +0100
              Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-11 00:26 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 10:58 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-12 08:06 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 15:20 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-13 00:53 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-13 12:19 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-14 00:32 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-14 07:17 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-14 09:29 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 13:11 -0400
          Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-05 20:55 +0100
            Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 20:20 -0400
              Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-11 00:44 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-11 08:29 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-09-11 17:05 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Mark Carroll <mtbc@bcs.org> - 2015-09-11 17:07 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-09-11 17:27 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 12:51 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-09-11 14:55 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 12:54 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-11 17:52 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-09-12 00:23 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-11 22:45 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 12:56 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 11:04 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-12 08:10 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 15:24 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-09-12 15:36 +0100
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-12 23:24 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-16 13:08 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2015-09-16 18:54 +0000
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-17 00:15 -0500
                Re: What do they teach in school today? Chad <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2015-09-25 21:08 -0700
                Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-12 12:49 -0400
                Re: What do they teach in school today? BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2015-09-12 19:56 -0500
  Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-05 21:21 +0100
    Re: What do they teach in school today? Mark Carroll <mtbc@bcs.org> - 2015-09-05 22:54 +0100
      Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-05 23:17 +0100
        Re: What do they teach in school today? Mark Carroll <mtbc@bcs.org> - 2015-09-06 09:59 +0100
          Re: What do they teach in school today? "James Harris" <james.harris.1@gmail.com> - 2015-09-06 11:11 +0100
    Re: What do they teach in school today? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 19:59 -0400
    Re: What do they teach in school today? "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2015-09-11 14:59 -0500

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