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Subject:Re: Technical development From:Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 21 Sep 1993 08:30:57 -0500
Jane Torpie wants to become more of a techie, and less of a writer:
[...]
> Ultimately, I'd like to become much more technical than I am
> now ... if I could magically pull a CS or Engineering degree and knowledge
> out of my hat, that would be the best.
[...]
> Does anyone out there have experience with this aspect of professional
> development? Can anyone suggestion any resources?
Many have already provided several very good suggestions. Since that's
never stopped me before, here are my two bits.
Learn what you can about object orientation, in design and analysis, in
data base management, and as implemented in any one of a dozen
languages. This appears, to me, to be *the* hot area in data processing
for at least the next few years (until the *next* hot thing comes
along). Community colleges have courses you can take, and if your
company is buying, take one of those seminars 8-).
Become involved in learning the standards and procedures associated with
developing quality user interfaces. This is *another* very hot area in
applications development, and believe me, the demand for *quality*
interface design far exceeds the supply. You can buy books on this topic
and teach it to yourself.
You can expand your technical capabilities and still capitalize on your
writing background by becoming as much of an expert as you can with cc
courses, seminars and books on hypertext and online doc techniques,
authoring tools, delivery mechanisms, and so on. Very big demand here,
too, and as technical as you'd ever want to get.
And, as Chuck Banks suggested, a lot of people will be hanging on to
their mainframes for a while. Client-server technology is also a big
item, especially from the mainframe side (where the talent pool is aging
and dwindling). Study you binary numbers, learn how computer systems
store and exchange data, and you'll be up to ears in protocols, nibbles
and registers in no time at all. Keep that EBCDIC to ASCII chart handy!
Oh, and keep your eyes open for the *next* hot thing. You won't have to
wait long, I assure you. Good luck!
|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |"I may be banal, but I'm not |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA| juvenile." - Yours Truly |
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