Posted on 06/14/2023 5:55:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I never realized how valuable technical writers were until I worked on a project where we had a team of technical writers and how easier they made our job.
I was a contractor and the customer required Engineering Work Orders (EWOs) get created and filed for every part of the project, this generated literally hundreds of EWOs.
The way we did them was the use of MS Excel and Word, the Engineer would fill out the spreadsheet, open the appropriate Word document and run a Macro that would read the spreadsheet and populate the Word document, the word document was the body of the EWO and data from spreadsheet filled in the variables.
Without really good technical writers, the time to create the EWOs would have been enormous.
I remember years ago I was looking for a job. I worked on Nortel (copper) switches. Did the installation, programming and testing.
There was a new technology that came out (I forget what it was) where recruiters wanted 3-5 years experience with it.
In talking with other programmers who were looking for jobs, we laughed at that ad simply because the technology itself was only 6 months old (maybe) at the time. There was no way anyone could have 3-5 years experience.
So yes, I fully understand requirements, certifications and other credentials are required and constantly changing. However, anyone that had them all usually spent their work time keeping up with what was needed and got very little, if any, practical experience with utilizing the technology in an operation data center.
One of my daughters has a degree in software engineering. Her first job was at McKesson. Last year after a year of work, her whole division was laid off. McKesson was hiring contractors from India to do her job, and they asked the people who they were laying off to train their replacements.
My daughter then got a job in the IT division at her local school district. She got married a few weeks ago, and she thought a job at the school district would be more stable. She had co-workers who had been there over 10 years.
Well, 2 weeks before her wedding her whole department was laid off.
My other daughter has a master’s in data analytics. Most jobs are remote, and she just lost her job. She is struggling with remote work.
It has been enlightening to learn to live a completely different lifestyle and completely new mindset. Really underscores the true cost of a career in corporate America.
I’m been on the education side of IT for 25 years. All the Ph.D.’s in “education” are some of the most clueless users ever. Teachers are a little better, but not much. You would think that the younger ones, who I know have had access to computers for years would know stuff....NOPE
With the current business fad of “equity hiring” there should be no problem with filling any positions as long as quotas are met.
As to the USA, except for elite software engineers, many highly qualified Americans avoid the software business, because the pay scale has stagnated since 2000, and because millions of immigrant Asian code writers are chasing Green Cards.
Python came out 32 years ago (1991).
What is happening is that there has been a big resurgence in popularity for Python lately because it is the language of choice for AI programming (e.g., ChatGPT).
You not only need to know Python, but you also need to be adept with PyTorch/TensorFlow. The latter requires a pretty deep math background.
I still do what I call embedded software development. Different from IT. An example is software inside a phone. We’d all probably agree that programming was more fun in the old days because back then the mountain of existing software you were supposed to crack into wasn’t as large.
I had a similar experience to you. I was laid off just a few months before Covid hit.
Good luck finding a job in IT when you’re in your early 60’s. Fortunately I was financially prepared to retire.
I don’t miss it at all. It was a great career for the most part but I’m glad my kids choose other fields and would not recommend it to other young people.
Amen, Brother!
As someone who spent 38 years in IT, I’ve been in the same boat many times.
The last 18 years of my career I ditched the full corporate, government agency job for jobs as an IT contractor.
That would be my advice, it’s hard for young people to grasp, they are an asset that can be disposed of at any moment. You have to look out for yourself and can’t depend on any company or organization that offers temporary stability often times at lower pay.
Contracting work is not for everyone, for me it was much more profitable when I became an hourly employee with overtime and allowed me to pick and choose the jobs I was interested in, I went out and purchased my own insurance, never signed up for company benefits except for any 401K program that was being offered, it was a much more rewarding environment.
“CMM level 1”
Sadly, most people have never heard of CMMI. It is why I do not accept college degrees within the past 20 years that is not a doctorate. Only until that level do students even study such things as CMMI.
I’ll take a guy that started his career decades ago and is self taught over any college degree today. Most of the best software engineers came from that era. Byte magazine and Steve Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar were their references.
A guy like that would sail through today’s college programs. Students, today, don’t even study assembly language or know how a computer works at the electronics level. Logic gates and transistors are foreign to them. Even the system clock is nothing but a relative number to compare to other systems. The purpose of the system clock is unknown to them.
AI is nothing but averaging using very large datasets. There is no intelligence. It cannot think and create. It can produce nothing but what it is programmed to do and what is in the data it ingests. Using a simple math concept, that means it excludes and continues to exclude data until it, too, races to the bottom just like we humans are doing. AI is not the adding of information but the exclusion of it.
I call such things and people Knowledge Parasites. They take very little information to perform a function, add nothing to the body of knowledge, then proclaim themselves experts, while knowledge becomes lost.
As you said, liberalism is killing science and technology.
“None of us is as dumb as all of us.”
For many of my most successful projects, a technical writer was recruited as part of the core team from day 1. A good tech writer provides valuable feedback. I wasn't real thrilled with the "process" oriented approach e.g. ISO9001 that my customer required on another project, but we delivered product and earned the certification.
I call bullshit. After decades in various areas of IT, and looking for work during the past 14 months I’ve been invited to an initial interview exactly zero times. If these companies are hurting, I don’t see their pain. Programmer (including embedded), diagnostic programming, system quality assurance, product testing, and a strong technical writing background with a publicly accessible portfolio, I should be able to fill any number of requisitions. Consulting? Don’t make me laugh. The only feeler I’ve seen has been for RPG maintenance programming.
My daughter with the computer science degree is thinking that way. She just got on her new husband’s insurance. They can survive on his income. She’s already got people wanting help from her. She’s very independent.
My other daughter in data analytics needs medical and disability insurance. I also think she wants to work in an office.
Its going to be so weird at first not to have the daily frustration and chaos.
If you can I urge anyone who can take advantage of IT contract work, I had one contract for about 3 years, guaranteed 40 hour work week @ $40/hour plus time and a half for overtime including travel time.
In the work I was doing required a decent amount of travel all around the country.
Routinely I would earn 20-30 hours per week at $60/hour.
The $2800 to $4000 per week makes that the job financially rewarding
The most I got paid per hour was $75 for a 9 day contract and $5400 in addition to the other job was really good
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