Comments on: How Quickly Does Programming Knowledge Become Obsolete?

By: john

john — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:30:56 +0000

I had to post because the Chris R comment made me lmao…
But, all knowledge scenarios are covered nowadays. If your going corporate with large teams, they want you to be able to learn as a prerequ, but of course there are those that need you to be THEIR resource. This facilitates a specified need for the particular up to date languages or even the legacy code they still maintain or need to port…
All answers are correct…

By: Dustin

Dustin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:22:06 +0000

Actually, some colleagues of mine who worked at some rather large defense contractors within the last 3 years or so have told me that ADA is still alive and well in those environments — mostly for maintaining existing code. That they would be advertising for ADA programmers isn’t a stretch of the imagination at all. Of course, these companies would probably be an example of the type of place you’d want to avoid…

By: Derek Park

Derek Park — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:07:58 +0000

All companies want experience. That doesn’t mean they won’t hire people who don’t have it. You can also get experience without working a full-time job. Do internships. Take relevant classes. Study on your own time.

Also, Ada? When were you applying for jobs, 1988? I have trouble believing that you were applying for Ada jobs at all, but even more trouble believing you were turned down for lack of experience. I’ve never touched Ada, and I’m 99.9% sure I could get a job programming Ada if I wanted/needed to. But I wouldn’t, because even the DoD is moving away from Ada.

Outsourcing is an overhyped concern. People have been worried about outsourcing for years, and the wholesale outsourcing of programming is yet to be seen. Good overseas programmers are cheaper than Americans, but they are not free, and there are very real communication costs (which turn into monetary costs).

If you want to be a programmer, I’d recommend getting some kind of projects under your belt, either on your own or with an employer. Go to your professors and see if any of them have interesting work, or can direct you to some. My first jobs were all from networking through my professors.

By: vick

vick — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:35:34 +0000

well, I’m majoring in computer science at a csu, but I still have my doughts as most companies want an “experienced programmer”, believe me, I’ve tried many companies such as HP, Raytheon, Boeing,Northrup, and all of them will choose the programmer that has the latest programming. They said I “had” to know ADA programming. And that I couldn’t just apply my experience of C++ of java and assembly language skills to any other language.

Plus the above fella didn’t mention anything about out sourcing. Most of the worlds computer programmer reside in foreign countries doing all the programming for americans. What’s the point of learning and program, even when your good at it, when a peron in another country is willing to take up the same job for next to NOTHING. Trust me it happens. Why else do you think BILL GATES lobbied congress to allow 65,000 visas to be approved for software engineering every year.

By: Chris R

Chris R — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:20:16 +0000

Found this blog as I’m trying to find out if Oracle can export in ancient punchcard format. This is because a mandatory insurance reporting bureau is still requiring punchcard. And I don’t know whether I have to signify negative digits–character by character–over the whole number, or just the first significant digit and/or including leading zeroes. This technology covers more time than I’ve been alive.

The green screen is alive and well—just ask your bank.

By: Joe Bochinski

Joe Bochinski — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:54:50 +0000

Owned.

By: William Furr

William Furr — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:18:55 +0000

Bravo!