I did that

Post #35,819 by tuberculosis 4/17/02 7:58:36 PM Reply	I did that I got a degree in Petroleum Engineering - scheduled to finish it in 87 but the oil market crashed in 85 which had me in no hurry to finish college. Instead I joined a couple rock bands and had a great time playing around the Albuquerque bar circuit until my parents got fed up and insisted I finish any degree - marketable or not. So I finished the PE degree and promptly spent 1.5 years doing menial jobs until I broke into a programming gig after a year taking heat for screwball hackers on a help desk. College is only useful as an objection killer as its an arbitrary filter that gets used by HR doing a first cut on a stack of resumes. What you learn is usually not that valuable. A quick survey of adults out of college more than 5 years shows that maybe 10% are working in the field they studied in college. The average hunter gatherer works 20 hours a week. The average farmer works 40 hours a week. The average programmer works 60 hours a week. What the hell are we thinking?
Post #35,828 by inthane-chan 4/17/02 9:55:43 PM Reply	Difference is... ...I have a wife hounding me to produce some income. :P Otherwise, I'd take a few years off, join a band or two... :) "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #35,830 by ChrisR 4/17/02 10:21:21 PM Reply	If I hadn't married in my 5th year of college... ...I'd probably still be going to college. I'd have probably never had the motivation to actually get a piece of paper saying I had a degree. Of course, once I got out of school, I found that being in the jobforce was actually less work than studying. :-)
Post #36,414 by tuberculosis 4/24/02 3:45:14 PM Reply	keep applying The 3 years (it used to be 2 I think) is a number recruiters pull out their ass to mean "not entry level". Write up all your work experience - send in your resume - you might conveniently leave your grad date off. FWIW, when short time, emphasize accomplishments - do a topical set of things you've worked on and where you worked on them, then make a tiny little minimal chronology at the bottom. The idea is to divorce time spent from experience gained. The average hunter gatherer works 20 hours a week. The average farmer works 40 hours a week. The average programmer works 60 hours a week. What the hell are we thinking?
Post #35,877 by SpiceWare 4/18/02 10:58:03 AM Reply	So I'm a ten percenter? A few of my computer courses in college basically taught me the proper names for things I'd already figured out on my own, such as linked lists. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

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