IPL Your Career

[tomholden]

Re: IPL Your Career

Welcome to the as/400 world! What other computer industry magazine would be urging it's readers to learn something "new" like HTML (born 1991) and SQL(available on S/38 in 1979).

To get started try offering your services free to local bowling club or baseball league. It gives you better motivation, deadlines and critical users to push you to learn stuff that you might not otherwise look at.

i totally agree! unfortunately that's why the article was written. i know that 80-90% of the RPG developers i've worked with over the past 10 years do not know anything about HTML, CSS, etc. i was hoping to "kick them in the rear" in a polite way of course

[BenThurley]

Re: IPL Your Career

but you can at least read the code and get an idea of how the process works, the platform/framework that it runs on and are better equipped to interface between the IBM "i" and the other platforms, etc. which was also one of the points. even if you don't have the time/opportunity to use the skills you'll at least be better able to understand what the best methods, etc can be used to do interfacing, etc. it's not all about just coding. if that wasn't clear then i must not have conveyed everything i had hoped.

This point is true but we don't all have the same freedoms to use whichever tool we like. I might see the problem as a screw and reach for my screwdriver but if my boss wants me to use a hammer then a hammer it is unfortunately.

[tomholden]

Re: IPL Your Career

This point is true but we don't all have the same freedoms to use whichever tool we like. I might see the problem as a screw and reach for my screwdriver but if my boss wants me to use a hammer then a hammer it is unfortunately.

and this is why i have a favorite saying left over from my consulting days. It's my job to tell you that what you propose is stupid, but if that's what you want, i'll do it! (unfortunately as you say they sometimes opt for stupidity.)

[Chipper]

Re: IPL Your Career

This point is true but we don't all have the same freedoms to use whichever tool we like. I might see the problem as a screw and reach for my screwdriver but if my boss wants me to use a hammer then a hammer it is unfortunately.

Exactly -- if they insist you pound the screw in with a hammer, then so be it.

and this is why i have a favorite saying left over from my consulting days. It's my job to tell you that what you propose is stupid, but if that's what you want, i'll do it! (unfortunately as you say they sometimes opt for stupidity.)

Great line, Tom! This is the perfect line to use before agreeing to pound the screw in with a hammer. I'm going to have to remember this line.

[gcraill]

Re: IPL Your Career

Exactly -- if they insist you pound the screw in with a hammer, then so be it.

That's the great thing with hammers, if you can't bang the old screw in first time, you can get a BIGGER hammer !!!

[itp]

Re: IPL Your Career

Get outside contract/volunteer work and learn to turn your screws outside work, then come back and show the boss. If he doesn't like it you still have a new skill, a new demo program, new contacts and more confidence that you are worth something outside the 400 shop.

Tommy, here is another training site that I like. vtc.com. They have both intro and advanced tutorials on a whole range of topics including "Javascript Libraries", UML, Ruby on Rails, and advanced C. (Of course, no RPG or Cobol). Each set of videos run from 6-9 hours and "all you can watch buffet" is only $30/month with 1 month minimum. Quality varies and some are a few years old. Great for downtime at work or the under-employed!

[BenThurley]

Re: IPL Your Career

What is this "downtime at work" you speak of?

One thing I've heard a number of times is that it would be madness to develop something in a language that nobody knows. Instead it is better to develop in the language people do know, even if that solution ends up being so complicated that nobody understands it...

I do have a spring/hibernate project I'm working on at the moment but it's a struggle to find time with my other commitments. I spend the whole day sat on my arse looking at a screen so I like to go out in the evenings and stretch my legs a bit.

[Chipper]

Re: IPL Your Career

Tommy, here is another training site that I like. vtc.com. They have both intro and advanced tutorials on a whole range of topics including "Javascript Libraries", UML, Ruby on Rails, and advanced C. (Of course, no RPG or Cobol). Each set of videos run from 6-9 hours and "all you can watch buffet" is only $30/month with 1 month minimum. Quality varies and some are a few years old. Great for downtime at work or the under-employed!

Looks like you can also get certifications through this site.