Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Coding isn't the end, it's the means. My spouse and I both clear 6 figures each as well as our colleagues, in totally different IT fields, not because of the programming languages we know, but because of our abilities to put everything in context, translate the issues and solutions to others, put them into action, and NOT use AI for security, copyright, and other reasons. AI doesn't really exist, it's machine learning, and sorry but it still really sucks for anything complex.
Python isn't just for "old companies" because it's versatile and robust across different tech. Java is declining but .NET is prolific. Your ability to learn (aka IQ) is a better determinant of your success than what languages you know, although you still have to get through a terrible HR screening first, so pump up your resume. Get certified in a variety of stuff, join a consulting group and get contract work under your belt before going for a full time job for best pay. Use them to get experience in a spread of industries.
In the end, your ability to solve INTERFACES - between tech, systems, and people- will get you farther than creating content or games. Data science is another big space that machine learning has failed utterly in, because existing data isn't clean and machines have no clue about context. For example, big business needs to know where the slowdowns in their manufacturing lines occur and why, or which suppliers are not delivering good quality or on time, real questions. But bad data impedes the reporting, and machines can't figure things out. Sometimes it really takes an actual visit to a place, observing, talking with the people, to work out what to do, but that's not coding, it's learning and applying to the code.
Any advice for me on what I can do to get my foot in the door? In case you didn't catch my username, I'm deaf and I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in I.T. and I have a couple of certifications that I taught myself, without going to school/boot camp to earn them. I also worked for a big box retail store, servicing computers and I have worked with a company on an internship (CO-OP was actually the name of the program). At the big box retail store, I got best employee of the year 5 years in a row due to my ability to get computers out of the store quickly enough and most of them didn't come back for further repair.
15 years later, no one wants to hire me, despite them telling me I'm a perfect fit for the job. I've noticed that they said that before they found out that I'm deaf.
Soon after finding out I'm deaf, "Whoops! My supervisor went ahead and hired someone else! We will keep your resume on file for 6 months. After that, feel free to apply with us again!" and not a word from them since.
Applied to over 1,500 jobs since then, both in two different states, one state with a top 3 cities (where I'm from) and one in a red state (where I'm currently living now) and no luck.
I've revised my resume so many times but all of them looked great as I've had some former HR employees and job coaches check them out for me. They said there's nothing wrong with my resume and it's very attractive, enough for it to be noticed by HRs.
I'm in my 40's now and it's very discouraging that I'm unemployed and unable to work with computers, which was (and still is) my dream job since I was 8 years old when I fiddled around on my Amiga computer.
To add, I had the worst luck of going to college, where they said they will teach us 10% (the essential stuff we need to know for entry level) then once we're hired, the company will teach us the 90%. Then 9/11 happened and everything was in chaos, which delayed my job search for some time until everything was "normal" so I can apply.
I hate to say it, but put your deafness out there first, because the HR trolls can use it to fill their quotas of minorities/disabled with less risk of a disruptive employee.
I was already in the workforce when 911 was perpetrated upon us, and have been lucky to never really have had a raw job search. College connections pulled me into my first job, and business links bridged me from there. If you don't have any friends developed from your past, start making new ones. I think I mentioned contractors, which are more important than most people understand.
Financially speaking, companies don't want to hire FT because the taxes and benefits are costly. (Same reason they'd rather lease than buy, taxes punish ownership.) So get into a consulting or contacting firm and work projects and gigs for them; try to find one that has benefits and treats it's people like real FT employees. When working gigs, do not ignore the value of learning from your colleagues and the company people, connecting with them and never burning bridges. Companies will hire contractors away, they pay a headhunting fee so it's equitable. But if your firm pays well and keeps you engaged, you can start a long time. You are valuable for your skills, and for your perspective- you know that there are projects (gov/state) that require specific development for people with disabilities, and you can "represent!" (We've got a friend who's blind and he's a great advocate for reasonable accommodations and product/service improvement for the disabled.) You can play things either way, but use the hand you've been dealt to get your foot in the door.