Re: [ossig] (Fwd) STI News: Firm discovers good IT help hard to find

[Seah Hong Yee <hongyee@polyscientific.com.my>]

> 
> not directly, rightly that should not be the case ... What I am saying is that many "IT 
> Courses" teach students little more than how to use windows or windows admin or 
> windows based software development tools.
> 
> They should be teaching IT principles...the scope is so huge, you cannot learn really 
> learn IT in one or even two courses.

	I think some of the basics low level stuff would really be good. i.e OS
concepts, details networking concepts. 
 
> Example....Comp Sci people are software oriented, they become programmers, 
> systems analysts, software designers etc

	I think that pretty much is up to the school. Some schools in the US
routinely teach OS concepts and design as part of their requirements. In
fact MINIX was a teaching tools where students go through the code. Some
CS people also go through cryptography class (some basic concepts).

> 
> Comp Eng people are hardware oriented, they make the chips and design computer 
> systems etc
> 
> Even these two don't cover so many other topics in IT...data communications, 
> networking, security etc etc

In a lot of cases data communications are part of a telecomminication
degree. Although IT professionals have to deal with it from time to
time. 

> So when someone is a graduate in "IT Studies" - what have they really learnt ? 
>  
> > > We live in a place where "programmers" are the lowest level of IT
> > staff...hmm, what does that
> > > tell you ? Seems like no one is proud to be called a programmer.
> > 
> > You are wrong. I regards all of my programmers highly, and I respect all of
> > them, regardless of their skill level. 
> 
> In many Malaysian corporations a programmer isn't even considered executive staff.  
> In a very large company I worked 11 years for, fresh degree holders are executive 
> staff - with the title systems analyst !! who have never written a line of code in their 
> lives. Qualifications required to be a programmer is a diploma, non executive staff 
> usually becoming operators - ie people who keep the printers well fed with paper and 
> to call the engineers when something breaks.
> 
> I have a question for you, do you ever see any of your best programmers earning 
> RM10,000 per month ? not immediately, but say he is your top programmer, 15 years 
> experience, will you be willing to pay him RM10,000-15,000 per month ? I know many 
> dipstick General Managers who earn that much after working 10 years who can't 
> even come up with a simple business plan.....answer this question and you will 
> understand why being a "programmer" in Malaysia doesn't pay.
> 
> >And programming is more than a rocket
> > science. Have you ever spent an entire night chasing lost memory? When you
> > code, what sort of data do you hold in your head?
> 
> oh yes, I remember those days fondly....trying to get code to run just a little bit faster 
> :) I would be proud to call myself a programmer but I was never very good at it :(
> Never got the hang of C or C++, been a Turbo Pascal programmer all my 
> programming life.
> 
> > Sadly, even experienced programmers are also lacking the basic. Most of them
> > work for the sake of getting a project done. I've interviewed 10 C++
> > programmers, but none of them can get even a fundamental question[2] right.
> 
> yep, no wonder India and China are eating us and pretty much the rest of the world 
> for lunch 
>  
> > Secondly, some even think that they are good - none of the Java programmers
> > that I've interviewed can get even a simple question [3], fresh or
> > otherwise.
> 
> I know some very talented programmers, pity that in Malaysia they will never earn the 
> kind of salaries they deserve as programmers.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Meng
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
> with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message



------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message