Re: Experience VS Ability[how to learn tools]

[Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM>]

I know no one will read the stuff I post on the weekend, but I do have a
point, and I hope it will support everyone's position <smile>

Buck wrote:

>For those beginners .... please buy, borrow, or steal [snip] the four most
>important
>packages in current TW ads.  They are .... [snip]
>....  Buy the "Dummies" book for each of them, then go home and spend
>24 hours on each package.  You're now qualified to put the names of that
>software in your resumes.
>
>Cost?  If you don't consider it important enough to spend $2000 for a
>proper start to your career, then you should try teaching.  You know
>what they say; Those who can't, teach,  etc... .

But it costs about $4000 to get certified to teach these days....<grin>

And then  Nora Merhar said (before I could say something similar):

>Whoa, Buck!
>
>As a broke and in-debt graduate student, I had NO resources with which
>to buy software--nor did I have a PC on which to put that software.

As one who's pathologically incapable of *choosing* which hill to die on, I
tend to die on lotsa different hills every couple of years. Perhaps as a
result, I haven't actually *seen* $2000 in one place sin ce I got out of
the Army (at which time I spent everything on clothes toys and housing).
[please keep reading...]

Earlier, someone else mentioned that it might be necessary to "break out
the credit cards and pay $900 to get Frame."

Credit Cards?

Anyway, there's a way out of this:

Community College!!!!!

When I went back to school (with the last wad of cash I had left over), I
learned about two-thirds of the tools I needed to get my start in "Open
Entry/Open Exit" classes, and then volunteered for all sorts of STC
projects and documentation projects on campus... where I gained practical
experience with those tools....

I *just left* a gig at a community college, and I can assure you that they
still have these classes as well as full-scale courses for the "97"
versions of these tools (being so much more complicated).

They generally don't teach Frame or ILeaf there, but you can at least buy
Frame fer about half price at the Campus BookStore (and all the "Dummies"
books).

I'm not suggesting that you go and get another degree, nor that you sign up
for 18 credit hours (for non-US readers, that's a "Full" load of classes).
You can keep working, and go to class for about a third of what the
"technical/vocational" schools charge.

This also works for those of us who need to upgrade/revamp our skills....
(said the man who giggles uncontrollably when recruiters ask him if he's
had much NT experience).

Happy weekend!
dan'l


-----------------------------------------------------------
Dan BRINEGAR, CCDB Vr2L INK

Leveraging Institutional Memory through  Contextual
Digital Asymptotic Approximations of Application Processes suited to
utilization by Information-Constrained, Self-Actualizing
Non-Technologists.

vr2link -at- vr2link -dot- com

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