Re: Career questions: databases

>> I think the point was that some felt that you were full of cow excrement
>> for
>> putting those things on your resume. So, the question is: at what point
>> can
>> one put things on one's resume? Does one have to be expert in a
>> technology
>> in order to put it on one's resume? Or does a proficiency in some areas
>> of a
>> technology warrant putting it on one's resume?
>
> I don't care to what extent others might stoop to and it's clearly not
> my problem. I have questions and I'll try my best to get my answers.
> I'm not here to make friends with people so that they'll invite me
> over for a cup of tea. Since most people around here are more bothered
> with levels of proficiency and who the upstart I might be, here's the
> questions again:

I think you're taking it all wrong (and making too much of yourself, to be honest with you). DA Morgan gave you some advice based on his experience, with the intent of helping you. At the end he wrote, "Lists like this create an immediate negative impression except in HR departments staffed by former shoe salesmen. <g>" He was trying to give you some friendly advice to help you be successful with your resume. The conversation then snowballed into an abstract discussion about what is or isn't proficiency.

No one here really cares if you're proficient or not. We don't think you're an "upstart." You're just a guy posting in a newsgroup. No one is threatened by you. This whole discussion was not about you at all. It was about what is or isn't proficiency, in general, not about whether or not you're proficient. No one really cares if you're proficient. It doesn't affect us at all.

So I think you need to take yourself a little less seriously, if you want some friendly advice.

>>>(okay, I'll buy it but I don't have a credit card
>>>so even if I had the money it would still be
>>> unattainable)
>>
>> Open a PayPal account. Then you can obtain it.
>
> Read: "even if I had the money". I.e., I don't. Sorry to disappoint in
> so many areas.

I did read that. But I think you were taking the "woe is me" thing a bit too far by saying that "even if you had the money" you couldn't buy it because you "don't have a credit card." I was showing you that you can buy over the Internet without a credit card if and when you ever get the money. Just correcting your false statement that you wouldn't be able to buy it "even if you had the money."

>
>> So much is on the web these days. And with Google Books, it's just
>> growing
>> by the minute.
>
> Sure, but you should come and checkout the bandwidth over here. Again,
> sorry to disappoint.

Listen, you're not disappointing! Why would I be disappointed? Like my life is wrapped around whether or not you have bandwidth?? Amazing.

Anyway, yes, you're at a disadvantage. I realize that. But people do get by with disadvantages. It might take you longer to browse. Or you might have to download what you're going to read or wait for it to buffer. A little more difficult, but doable.

> With so many drawbacks I'm mentioning, and with
> the persistence that I am consistently asking the questions only
> prove: I'm desperate, I really want to find my line. Might no seem a
> complex problem to many, but for me it's an issue that might turn
> around my life.

Here's my advice to you: get out there and do something. Once you start doing something related to programming, you'll find other stuff to do, and other stuff to do. And wherever you work, they'll probably have technical resources available for you to use and (gasp!) maybe higher bandwidth, etc. Just get out there and do something, and doors will open (if you're half as good as you say you are, that is... ;-) ).

None of us started out saying, "OK, I'm going to specialize in this and that and that. And I'm going to learned these technologies and then use them for the next 10 years." None of us did. What we did do is get out there and start using the technologies that we knew, and, from there, learned more technologies. Just get out there and start doing something. :-)

>> A word of advice: I hope you can code more succinctly than you write!
>> (Just
>> kidding.....)
>
> Nah, I don't, unfortunately. I have 3 books and over hundreds of
> articles published.

Well there you go. So you should be able to find a job. If you can't, then I don't know what to say.

Neil Received on Mon Jul 02 2007 - 19:32:24 CEST