Re: tracking shipments, inventory

>> IMO - IT is nowhere near a profession yet - more a trade or at best
a guild! <<

A Guild was a group which would make good any actions of its members: Guild member "X" fails to deliver the
silverware/goldware/upholstery/ironwork/whatever promised, the Guild finishes his contract and puts the Guild's hallmark on the pieces.

But I see your point...

The stat I use to scare people is that it takes SIX YEARS ON THE JOB to become a Union Journeyman Carpenter in New York State, but only SIX WEEKS in a MS certification cram course to be a "database/C#/VB guru" by comparison. That was Journeyman, not Master.

Who can kill you, or bankrupt your company faster? A carpenter or a DBA? I am really pissy on these newsgroup. Because my name has been out there for about 20 years, I get the disasters. Because my wife worked on a "cancer ward" for 13 years, non-profits know I consult for free (but not for long). This year, some newbie violated 1NF in a design of a database that sends medical supplies to Africa. The wrong quantities were packed. You do not run down to the corner drug store to fill a prescription in a war zone. People die due to a lack of fundamental database design errors.

Because I am an atheist, I do not believe in Big-E "Evil" -- devils, supernatural monsters and that kind of thing. But I am an engineer/geek and I do believe in Big-S "stupidity" -- newbies who will not hear any criticism of their work, self-taught programmers who read a book entitled "Learn SQL in 10 Days" and now know everything on the 11-th day.

Talk to me when you have a decade of work, education and experience behind you, kid.

What scares me is that even the IT college courses are weaker than when I went to school in the Stone Age. No undergrad database courses, very little math, no business courses, etc. Received on Sun Dec 26 2004 - 22:45:16 CET