[could be: "Passion in IT" ;-)] Whenever someone I talk to gives the impression they think IT is boring I try to give them an idea of the impact you can have doing it -- mostly because that's what drives me. I'm no rockstar programmer, but there are two little stories I like to tell, and I mostly tell them to the non-IT folks since the people I work with know what it is about without the need for stories.
Story number 1 is about breadth: one of the systems I designed is a routing/dispatch system for the telematic solution of a large German car manufacturer. That means that in future years whenever a car of that manufacturer breaks down (at least the high-end models) it'll phone home and talk to the backend servers by way of some software and protocols I was heavily involved in. So in a small way I helped thousands of people to figure out why their car broke down faster. Story number 2 is about depth and much more important for me. It's about jobbing as a student and helping some guy who was blind due to a lack of oxygen supply while being in a coma. That was 2 years after his motorbike accident causing the whole story. I helped him setting up his computer with speech synthesis, scanner, OCR and customized Word templates so that in the end he was capable to fetch his mail from the postbox, scan it, write an answer, print it, stick it in a windowed envelope and bring it to the post office. Being able to manage his own mail again was a major step for him and I still get teary thinking about the way I felt about helping him improve his life. I believe that if we start thinking about it we probably all find some stories where we felt we had a real positive impact on someone. And I believe that is a good way to get people into our field: in the end it is not about bits and bytes, it is about improving someone's life. You might never meet that person, but you still know you did it. What we do is awesome and it's time we tell people :-) See http://barefootmeg.multiply.com/video/item/56 for some more examples of how IT changed our lives -- and that is a bit of a hijack :-) Peter Dianne Marsh wrote: > Hi all, > > There have been a lot of great posts on this topic. Thank you for > that! I hope that the dialog continues. > > I agree that children should not be pushed toward software > development. They need to find their passions. But I do think that > the "fun" in our jobs isn't necessarily obvious. How can we show them > the endless possibilities that surround what we can do? How do we > explain if we do get bored, we can be energized by a new and > interesting application domain, about which we need to know something > in order to do our jobs effectively? Or the new technologies that > emerge? How our jobs as software developers really encourage a > lifetime of learning, not only because the industry moves quickly but > also because there is a seemingly endless stream of applications > screaming to be written, by our customers and/or our current or future > employers? Boring? Only if you let it be. > > What resonates with my 5 year old daughter is my interaction with > customers. She is fascinated by the idea that I have "customers". > She likes to hear what they do and how software helps them do their > work. The researchers seem to be saying that CS is too solitary for > girls, that they crave the interaction. And of course customer contact > is NOT what is taught in colleges (how could it be?) and it's not > really how we talk about our profession either. > > I agree with other posters that Alice and KPL go a long way toward > getting our kids interested in what we do. At CodeMash, we've > introduced "KidzMash" geared toward fun (computer-related) activities > for kids at the conference. It's been a huge hit, with parents and > kids alike. I want to expand it throughout the year, and I'm trying > to figure out how best to do that. > > As for the "why do we care in light of shrinking demand": > Is there shrinking demand? Companies are still applying for H1B visas > (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/01/microsofts_h1b.html). > > Jobs that went overseas in the last wave are coming back. We're seeing > it locally, and evidently this piece on NPR discusses it as well (I > haven't listened to it): > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100131296. Will > this be true 20 odd years from now, when our kids get out of college? > Why knows? Heck, I graduated over 20 years ago, and people were > predicting the demise of software development then. > > Having said all of that, my daughter changes her idea of "what she > wants to be" frequently. She's 5; she should. One day it's an > airplane pilot. Another day she wants to be a teacher. It's all > good. I want her to be exposed to different professions. INCLUDING > mine. > > True story: I overheard a neighbor "talking her 5 year old out of > being a doctor" by telling her that she would have to work long hours > and not have time to spend with her children (yes, she was discussion > hypothetical children with her 5 year old). She quickly told her mom > she would be a daycare worker (her mom's job). Yes, seriously. That > child is now 16. I have lost touch, so I don't know what she's doing. > But I hope that she's allowed to discover her passions without adult > reasons for "why not". > > Dianne > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
