I acheived a great deal of my early experience with CF on a read-it/do-it
basis, and heavily picking the brain of those who knew the product. I knew
nothing about programming, almost. As time rolled on, I began to be
increasingly interested in gaining best practices knowledge and I saw to it
that I attended Advanced CF and Spectra classes. There are any number of
CF developers better than me, but I have been able to attain "Senior CF
Developer" status and I currently get paid in the upper reaches of what CF
developers normally get.
The biggest single factor in becoming a professional is the person's desire
to become one. The mechanics of how you get there are secondary.
In terms of the Net tanking, well, we had to come back to earth. I saw a
goodly number of people who were "faking it until they made it" as CF
developers and getting paid good consultant rates, even though they knew
only the most basic aspects of CF. Companies were desperate for resources
and paid them. The code was ugly and often had to be re-written by those
who knew better. All the talk of the "new economy" I consider to be mainly
hype. It isn't as though the laws of gravity and economics and life itself
were somehow overridden. Frankly I am glad to see that sort of arrogance
and outright stupidity take a fall.
One can navigate these waters so long as one is dedicated to advancing as a
professional and does not become complacent and focuses on delivering an
excellent product. In fact, IMO, that is the only way.
Jeff Battershall
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: CF-Jobs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2000 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Off-Topic] Net Tanking?
> Yea I agree with Judith. I'm in college right now, going for my BS
in
> Computer Science, and trying to make some money on the side. Since I
can't
> work full time, there aren't a lot of opportunities open to me. Even most
of
> consulting is full time.
>
> I have a lot of programming experience. Some from school, most from
reading
> books, and not a lot of work experience. This summer I got an internship
> that allowed me to get my hands on CF in an enterprize environment. Since
I
> was an intern they didn't give much care to what I did, so I focused on
> learning CF. I did a couple of projects and learned it well enough to
> consult after the internship was over in September.
>
> Now I work out of my own bedroom, and I love it. I dont' have to waste
time
> getting to and from work, I can get up later, more refreshed, instead of
> going to work and drinking coffee for 2 hours to wake up . I work on
project
> basis, so how much I make, depends on how fast I work. So there's none of
> that sitting around the office surfing the web and getting paid for it. I
> don't know ColdFusion on an expert level, but I've passed a BrainBench
> Certification at a master level, and if I could afford it, I would take an
> Allaire Certification.
>
> So I too, am proud to call myself a professional.
>
> It's the other people who are not professionals. The ones that graduate
from
> college without any kind of experience, and go into the workforce.
College
> is not such a great educator now. I know that I've learned 10 times more
at
> work and learning myself then I did from school. Maybe training courses
> would teach me something, but they'd have to be pretty good ones. And
those
> would cost a lot of money. I've taught at some courses, and the
curriculum
> is pretty weak. But then again, how much can you really learn, until you
put
> your hands on the keyboard and do a real project?
>
> When I apply for a job, I don't lie and pretend to have 3 years of CF
> experience. Although I could, and I could probly handle the job
afterwards
> (I'm a pretty quick learner). I just don't think that's professional.
>
> Ruslan Sivak
> Freelance CF Developer
>
>
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