When I was teaching "Data Processing" ("Computer Science" had not been
invented yet) we had a lot of students who "wanted to work with computers"
and had no idea what a professional life was like in doing that. They
were attracted by advertisements on matchbook covers (yes, it was that long
ago) that promised a good job, big house, fancy car. In those days they
had only seen computers on TV or in the movies.
They came into my class and found out that the computer was not going to
think for them. Two-thirds dropped out.
Today it is not quite as bad, but you still have a lot of "kids" that
think computer science is writing a bit of HTML.
To answer the issue of Ottavio, our school normally used two years to teach
an associate's degree in data processing. We did have a separate one-year
program called "Women in Technology" that was for women who had obtained a
bachelor's degree in some engineering field, then took time off to raise a
family, and now wanted to re-enter the field. We acknowledged the
education and skills they already had, but brought them up-to-date with new
technologies and skills. The program had a 98% placement rate.
I do not know what skills Octavio had as an "Open Source Evangelist", but
Evan is right in saying that is mostly a Marketing Job. Inside of
Marketing there are positions for Marketing Communications (MARCOM) and
often Technical Marketing. The latter is the position I had when I met
Linus Torvalds. It was my job to take highly technical aspects of the
products and explain their usefulness to customers, among other things.
If Octavio was a systems administrator AND an Open Source Evangelist, then
the LPIC certifications are the fastest way for re-training and to re-enter
the workforce. If Octavio was a COBOL programmer, but wants to re-enter
the workforce as a systems administrator, the path is a bit harder, but
still a good path. If Octavio was a programmer and wanted to re-enter
programming, then there are paths for that too and probably the DevOPs Cert
is a place to start.
In either case you are not starting from scratch, and do not let anyone
tell you that you are. You learned things from "your prior life" that may
be very applicable even though it has been twenty years or more.
o Logic flow
o Data types
o Programming Constructs
I could go on for hours.
But you also have soft skills, very important to professionals. How to
work in a team, how to produce a piece of software on time. How to
determine the customers requirements.
All of these are also necessary for "professionalism", but sometimes as an
"older person" you have to remind people of that.
Warmest regards,
Jon "maddog" Hall, Board Chair
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