Re: So I guess MIT is not good enough anymore?

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Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:36:28 +0000

In message <d7ednUfbH41XFY_dRVn-vw@comcast.com>, Berlin Brown
<bigbinc097_DONT_SPAM@comcast.net> writes
>I always feel, that your ability to produce is what should get you a job
>, maybe I am wrong.

Most likely correct, how do then explain why software is such an ageist
industry? Surely the older amongst the software profession have more
design and implementation experience and will be less likely to fall
into the software traps the less experienced (for example, your 17 year
old) will fall into. Surely this will then reduce costs and result in
the project being delivered more closely to schedule than if you need to
rework the parts that failed to due to inexperience.

To go back to my original question: how do then explain why software is
such an ageist industry? The answer is simple - the industry doesn't
care about quality - it cares about perceived low cost (provided by
hiring cheap, inexperienced labour) rather than real low cost. The real
low cost is a job done well with high quality - so that there are no
maintenance headaches and recurring costs. You cannot guarantee this at
all with an inexperience team - you stand a much higher chance with an
experienced team.

A few years ago I worked with an outstanding CAD company. Very high
quality standards, you name it, they were on the ball. They had a policy
of not hiring anyone without X years experience - in other words the
opposite of the rest of the software industry. The hired people from all
over the world, regardless of educational background, creed or race.
They hired on ability and experience. They lead their market sector and
recently were voted as one of the worlds 500 fastest growing companies
(I don't know what their rank was). Interestingly they had a lot of
staff over 40. CAD is a complicated business and the good CAD people
have been doing it a long time. This, in an industry where 25 is
considered over-the-hill.

Suffice to say, your 17 year old would not be hired by them. After he
has been to university and got some real-world experience, they may look
at him when he is 25 or so.

I started coding when I was in my teens, I thought I was the world's
best software cracker/hacker (on my Vic-20/C-64) etc. I was wrong. Just
like all the current teenagers that think that. I was good - but there
is so much more to learn that you cannot learn until you enter the
industry and get problems you'd never have thought of thrown at you, and
meet other people with a different take on the same problem.

Anyway, this turned out different to my anticipated short answer, so
I'll leave it there.

Stephen

-- 
Stephen Kellett
Object Media Limited    http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk
RSI Information:        http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk/rsi.html

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