October 26, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hybrid
October 27, 2010 at 5:41 am
When I was in logistics training in the service, our instructor told us that we should be "jack of all trades, and master of all trades."
I took this to heart when I began my IT career, trying to obtain experience that was both deep and broad. It's served me well. I couldn't imagine being pigeonholed into one area of expertise or application domain. Even though my present position has limited my opportunities for broad exposure in the day-to-day realm, I still try to keep my skills current in a number of technologies.
October 27, 2010 at 6:42 am
When I started in IT, the joke was, "If you can spell VB, you can get a computer job." It seemed like I was surrounded by people who read "learn programming in 24 hours". If you knew one language well, you could make good money developing software.
Now, in order to compete for jobs, I have to know C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, T-SQL and yes, I still get asked to solve problems in old VB6 apps. Add to that required knowledge of design patterns and methodologies such as Agile.
Heck, the other day I was asked to figure out why a server wasn't communicating correctly with a printer.
The scary part is, I make 10-20 percent less than I did a few years ago...:w00t:
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October 27, 2010 at 6:53 am
When I was going in IT, if you could spell VB, you COULD get a job. If you could get a few letters after your name (first, CNE, then MCSE), you also could get a good paying job. Which was scary.
October 27, 2010 at 9:06 am
I'm in the process of making myself a SQL Server / Oracle / Data Analyst / Business Analyst hybrid. I've had experience with all of the above over the years, and they are a natural fit, because they are one degree of seperation from each other. Fortunately in my present job I have an opportunity (a necessity in fact) to context switch between all of them on any given day.
However, trying to break into back room database administration, web application development, or management is harder to pull off in most organizations, because there is a non fluid barrier there. You can have an interest and study up on it, but once you make the leap, it's harder to context switch back to what you previously knew and loved.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 27, 2010 at 9:32 am
The scary part is, I make 10-20 percent less than I did a few years ago...
The sad part is that the folks at the top of the heap make 100-200 percent more than they did a few years ago... :sick:
October 27, 2010 at 9:37 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
When I was going in IT, if you could spell VB, you COULD get a job. If you could get a few letters after your name (first, CNE, then MCSE), you also could get a good paying job. Which was scary.
You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I freely admit that I'd probably never have found long-term success as a programmer if not for products like Access and VB. I was only a serious hobbyist and occasional contractor before Access and VB came along. I've continued to learn and develop as a professional, but I also freely admit to a continued dependence on visual designers, whether for forms or for query design. I can function without the designers and wizards, but both make me more efficient and effective.
People like me provide good value to the small companies that would otherwise have no access to programmers. I'm far from being best-in-class, but they are far from being able to afford best-in-class. A top-notch developer/DBA in a Mom & Pop shop is just as big a mismatch as putting me in MultiNational Inc. These small companies don't need and can't get master programmers/DBAs yet they often need custom databases to streamline their work and improve their ability to make the decisions that help them survive an ever more challenging business climate.
Sorry, that came off like a rant. I guess it was, a bit.;-) Sorry for taking this so far off topic.
October 27, 2010 at 9:50 am
chrisn-585491 (10/27/2010)
The scary part is, I make 10-20 percent less than I did a few years ago...
The sad part is that the folks at the top of the heap make 100-200 percent more than they did a few years ago... :sick:
If you're referring to executives, then the big shareholders are probably just glad that the corporate "heap" is still there and are willing to pay extra to keep these guys at the top, rather than lose them to a competitor.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 27, 2010 at 10:07 am
Ron Porter makes a good point about how business needs all levels of expertise. Those of us working in larger corporations tend to forget about the smaller businesses with 2 to 20 "employees". I've done pro-bono work in the past for smaller non-profits; it's one way to allow access to higher-level skills that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford.
Back on topic, I work with a team of three others; part of our job is to help our different systems transfer data between themselves. At last count, we were working with 14 different software products using at least eight different types of databases. Some of those we can't access directly so we have to dump out data files and load them to the other systems using in-house written code. And you can guess how important periodic audits become! Keeps us busy and employed. :hehe:
Steph Brown
October 27, 2010 at 10:19 am
Ron Porter (10/27/2010)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
When I was going in IT, if you could spell VB, you COULD get a job. If you could get a few letters after your name (first, CNE, then MCSE), you also could get a good paying job. Which was scary.You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I freely admit that I'd probably never have found long-term success as a programmer if not for products like Access and VB.
I'm not knocking the tool. I'm knocking the fact that people with no real experience or even skills could get jobs. And horribly damage big, or small, environments. If you have some skills, or if a company wants to pay you to learn on the job, that's great. But overall I think we had a lot of issues that people got jobs for which they were very under-qualified and didn't look to improve their skills. They threw things together and companies then had to pay for them.
October 27, 2010 at 10:34 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
Ron Porter (10/27/2010)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
When I was going in IT, if you could spell VB, you COULD get a job. If you could get a few letters after your name (first, CNE, then MCSE), you also could get a good paying job. Which was scary.You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I freely admit that I'd probably never have found long-term success as a programmer if not for products like Access and VB.
I'm not knocking the tool. I'm knocking the fact that people with no real experience or even skills could get jobs. And horribly damage big, or small, environments. If you have some skills, or if a company wants to pay you to learn on the job, that's great. But overall I think we had a lot of issues that people got jobs for which they were very under-qualified and didn't look to improve their skills. They threw things together and companies then had to pay for them.
Point taken. As the years went by, I found that a lot of my work was related to cleaning up the stuff left behind by others. Sorry, I guess I'm a bit cranky because it seems to be increasingly common for people to dismiss me just because I think those kinds of tools are valuable and useful.
October 27, 2010 at 10:38 am
I do make some jokes about Access, but it's a valid tool. In fact, you've got me thinking about another piece on the topic.
October 27, 2010 at 11:00 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
I do make some jokes about Access, but it's a valid tool. In fact, you've got me thinking about another piece on the topic.
I look forward to it. We're currently rethinking our development practices and it looks like Access could once again play a larger role. We still maintain some Access apps (actually Access front-ends to SQL Server databases), but all new development is currently in .NET/SQL Server.
October 28, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I'll have to keep this conference in mind. Even though I spend a lot of time here on SSC, SQL Server is not my primary focus. I'm primarily a web developer, and I deal mostly with ASP, ASP.NET, and (very recently) MVC.
However, I do need some SQL knowledge in order to do my job (which is why I frequent this site quite a bit).
I'm also well-versed in other things, including VB, VB.NET, HTML, documentation, technical writing (I have professional technical writing experience -- I often joke that I'm a techie who actually knows how to write), etc. In one of my previous jobs, I was the jack-of-all-trades. In order for me to do my job well, I needed to know a little bit of "everything." And even though my focus has narrowed a bit, I'm finding out that knowing other subjects outside of your primary focus is actually a pretty good thing.
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October 28, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Ron Porter (10/27/2010)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (10/27/2010)
When I was going in IT, if you could spell VB, you COULD get a job. If you could get a few letters after your name (first, CNE, then MCSE), you also could get a good paying job. Which was scary.You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I freely admit that I'd probably never have found long-term success as a programmer if not for products like Access and VB. I was only a serious hobbyist and occasional contractor before Access and VB came along. I've continued to learn and develop as a professional, but I also freely admit to a continued dependence on visual designers, whether for forms or for query design. I can function without the designers and wizards, but both make me more efficient and effective.
People like me provide good value to the small companies that would otherwise have no access to programmers. I'm far from being best-in-class, but they are far from being able to afford best-in-class. A top-notch developer/DBA in a Mom & Pop shop is just as big a mismatch as putting me in MultiNational Inc. These small companies don't need and can't get master programmers/DBAs yet they often need custom databases to streamline their work and improve their ability to make the decisions that help them survive an ever more challenging business climate.
Sorry, that came off like a rant. I guess it was, a bit.;-) Sorry for taking this so far off topic.
I got my start in VBA and Access. Before that, I was just in the "he's good with computers" category.
It's definitely a good skillset, and a valid path towards "bigger and better things".
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