[Linux-aus] The Great Debate 28 May 2007 - Linux vs Windows

[James Polley]

On 11/05/07, Paul Antoine <pma-la at milleng.com.au> wrote:

> As someone who has worked extensively with Universities I can tell you
> they are in a quandary: many CS students enrol *expecting* to be taught
> product familiarity in order to earn a large salary.  Few expect or see
> the benefit of being taught the theory that will enable them to keep
> current throughout their careers, and in fact make them *better* users
> of those same proprietary technologies!  Instead they can expect to
> spend $1000's to get product qualifications as the product-du-jour
> changes(or expect their employers to do so!)


My very first exposure to ACS, way back in the days when I was in high
school, was attending a session run by an ACS shill where I was exhorted to
take a degree in SAP; SAP is the way of the future, you'll never be out of a
job if you know SAP; SAP has just been bought by Brisbane City Council, and
by the time you get out of uni, everyone in the world will be running SAP.

I don't think the course being promoted was titled "Bachelor of SAP", but
the ACS shill never, to the best of my recollection, referred to it as
anything but being a prime vehicle for learning SAP, which was itself a
prime vehicle for getting a cushy, well-paid job straight out of uni and
never having to worry about work thereafter.

I'm now stuck in a job with people who were suckered in by such talks - not
in SAP, thankfully, but the same kind of promise in other technologies.
Almost none of them know anything about IT other than the one specific
product they've had training in, and in some cases up to 15 years exposure
too. None of them could capably identify the best tool for any given job -
they only know one tool, and that's the tool they'll use for everything, no
matter how small.

I'm incredibly grateful that I didn't fall prey to the ACS' shill's siren
song. I don't think I'll be wasting my time at this 'debate' over a false
dichotomy, either.

Oh, and the other upside of the Degree In SAP being promoted was that it
qualified graduates for entry to ACS. Wheee! Gosh darn, so sad that I missed
that one!

(as an aside, I've got close friends at both Squiz and EDI; both use or
create open source products as part of their commercial work. Both use or
create commercial products as part of their commercial work, too... weird
choice of a false dichotomy for a 'debate'; equally weird choice of
participants.)

(This rant has been bought to you by job unsatisfaction, the fact that it's
5:30pm on a Friday and I want to get out of the office, and possibly a lack
of blood sugar making me grumpy).




-- 
There is nothing more worthy of contempt than a man who quotes himself -
Zhasper, 2004
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