Settling In...
If you're not into boring, reflective posts, navigate away from here now!!!
Hello? You all gone? Thought as much! Well, here I go anyway...
I have spent the last twelve years working in IT, slowly building up my skills but totally lacking any kind of formal structure; a case of learning what was needed to get the job done (thank you, Google!). This has meant that on paper I look good, but when I have the interviews and get asked techie questions, I fail miserably because I can't use the words or demonstrate the techniques that employers want to hear. The end result is that you become so dejected about your skills that you stay in the same place and stagnate ... both in skills and in attitude!!!
When I first seriously considered coming to University, it is totally fair to say that I didn't really think things through as much as I should have done; if anything, it was more of a reaction to the situations I found myself getting into at work, but I felt that if I didn't escape I would go insane ... assuming I haven't already...
It has been roughly six weeks since I officially became a student and it is only in this past week that I have started to feel that I have done the right thing by coming here. Some of this is probably because of the decent scores I have been getting from the first batch of tests - yes, we have already been tested and there are a whole load more tests to come!!!
As far as the programming is concerned, I will be absolutely gutted if I don't get 100% at this level as it is very basic stuff; if I lose any marks here it will be through complacency, so I need to be sure I read things properly. For the rest of the modules, much of it is totally new to me so it feels good to know that I am understanding it ... though I am dreading it getting harder. There are plenty of younger minds here that, once geared up to this, will overtake me in no time and it will be me struggling to keep up!!!
Anyway, the sharp folk amongst you have probably spotted the word 'programming' and put two and two together to ask the question: but if I worked in IT, why am I now doing an IT-related degree?!
It's a fair question, so here are a small handful of myexcuses for running away arguments:
Hello? You all gone? Thought as much! Well, here I go anyway...
I have spent the last twelve years working in IT, slowly building up my skills but totally lacking any kind of formal structure; a case of learning what was needed to get the job done (thank you, Google!). This has meant that on paper I look good, but when I have the interviews and get asked techie questions, I fail miserably because I can't use the words or demonstrate the techniques that employers want to hear. The end result is that you become so dejected about your skills that you stay in the same place and stagnate ... both in skills and in attitude!!!
When I first seriously considered coming to University, it is totally fair to say that I didn't really think things through as much as I should have done; if anything, it was more of a reaction to the situations I found myself getting into at work, but I felt that if I didn't escape I would go insane ... assuming I haven't already...
It has been roughly six weeks since I officially became a student and it is only in this past week that I have started to feel that I have done the right thing by coming here. Some of this is probably because of the decent scores I have been getting from the first batch of tests - yes, we have already been tested and there are a whole load more tests to come!!!
As far as the programming is concerned, I will be absolutely gutted if I don't get 100% at this level as it is very basic stuff; if I lose any marks here it will be through complacency, so I need to be sure I read things properly. For the rest of the modules, much of it is totally new to me so it feels good to know that I am understanding it ... though I am dreading it getting harder. There are plenty of younger minds here that, once geared up to this, will overtake me in no time and it will be me struggling to keep up!!!
Anyway, the sharp folk amongst you have probably spotted the word 'programming' and put two and two together to ask the question: but if I worked in IT, why am I now doing an IT-related degree?!
It's a fair question, so here are a small handful of my
- To re-develop confidence in my skills
- To provide a formal structure to my knowledge
- To advance my skills to something more than ad hoc knowledge
- To improve employability
- To increase my changes of emmigrating
- To escape the standard business systems IT development work so that I can work on far more interesting projects
- To re-kindle the passion for technology that has been sucked out of me over the past ten years
Comments
AT
The first few weeks were really hard - you know what I'm like at meeting new people - but there are some great guys I've gotten to know. I haven't socialised with any of them yet, but that is probably a good thing knowing what I get like when I'm drunk!!!!
Have a good weekend :-)
OT