OT: Anything Goes 40

[BK]

It’s not overly difficult but it can be daunting knowing where to start

A computer is where I would start.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Do you really have PTO if it's not guaranteed though?

Mostly yes. For me anyway. Just not when you want/need it. Like I said it's needlessly complicated and different from yard to yard which is different from craft to craft.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Do you really have PTO if it's not guaranteed though?

Also, would the deal that guarantees 7 or 14 days PTO actually be functionally worse?

These would be extra sick days that we'd be able to use freely at our discretion. For us anyway. No tier one railroad has ever had sick days for any craft that I've ever heard of.

Like I said, needlessly complicated and it depends on what you do and where you do it. Would be an extra week off. The union didn't even ask for them to be paid days off just time off we wouldn't be punished for.

 

[TLEH]

I'm assuming school? A cert if not a degree?

Yeah can do that, but software you can do it so many ways. School yes, but that’s 4 years and somewhat unnecessary. Can pick a certain language or two and learn using a camp/cert program and be on your way.

I did the school route but that was because I liked software but I wanted to fly military aircraft and you needed a 4 year degree. But then COVID happened and now I’m a software engineer. Life’s weird.

Never too late though, hired a guy recently who was 52 and a former construction worker.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Yeah can do that, but software you can do it so many ways. School yes, but that’s 4 years and somewhat unnecessary. Can pick a certain language or two and learn using a camp/cert program and be on your way.

I did the school route but that was because I liked software but I wanted to fly military aircraft and you needed a 4 year degree. But then COVID happened and now I’m a software engineer. Life’s weird.

Never too late though, hired a guy recently who was 52 and a former construction worker.

The next time I'm off work with a major medical condition I'll look into it. Where were you in February?

 

[Putt Pirate]

Yeah can do that, but software you can do it so many ways. School yes, but that’s 4 years and somewhat unnecessary. Can pick a certain language or two and learn using a camp/cert program and be on your way.

I did the school route but that was because I liked software but I wanted to fly military aircraft and you needed a 4 year degree. But then COVID happened and now I’m a software engineer. Life’s weird.

Never too late though, hired a guy recently who was 52 and a former construction worker.

That makes 2 of us. that would have been my dream job but the Marines had other plans for me.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Yeah can do that, but software you can do it so many ways. School yes, but that’s 4 years and somewhat unnecessary. Can pick a certain language or two and learn using a camp/cert program and be on your way.

I did the school route but that was because I liked software but I wanted to fly military aircraft and you needed a 4 year degree. But then COVID happened and now I’m a software engineer. Life’s weird.

Never too late though, hired a guy recently who was 52 and a former construction worker.

School isn’t strictly necessary but the “teach yourself” approach isn’t as realistic as some in the coding community make it out to be. This is still difficult material to learn and anyone learning it will have 1,000,000 questions. I found the classroom setting to be slower but much much more effective to nail down key concepts and have your questions answered.

I almost did an online boot camp at the tail end of the pandemic. I forgot which one but it had mostly great reviews and it was a year long. Then I saw it was a $14k program, THEN I read more reviews and was seeing a lot of horrific complaints like…

-the people teaching these classes had just finished the program themselves
-the “networking” opportunities they advertised were entirely overblown
-the classes were entirely virtual (and still may be the case today) so when you have issues you have to email a “professor” or aid and wait for a response. It was apparently very time consuming and frustrating
-i think you were scheduled for 8 hours a day of classes but most of that time was time spent with the class screwing around, taking coffee breaks, and needlessly getting to know each other…not worth $14k and a year or my life

So I ultimately decided to just get a degree in it instead. Technically yes I could’ve taught myself but even then there’s a barrier for getting a job in the field without a degree. If you get one or those certificates that’s great but now you’re just one of thousands of people with the same low-level/junior programmer skill set and there’s no incentive for someone to hire you.

@DisgruntledHawkFan if I were you I would look and see if your union/company will pay for you to go to school so you can do something to be further educated in your field. It’s seemed like the best way for upward mobility in my loose engineering experience so far.

It’s not uncommon for a company to pay for your education and then lock you into a contract to work for them. You become very valuable to them and you won’t be pigeon holed into what you’re dealing with now.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

School isn’t strictly necessary but the “teach yourself” approach isn’t as realistic as some in the coding community make it out to be. This is still difficult material to learn and anyone learning it will have 1,000,000 questions. I found the classroom setting to be slower but much much more effective to nail down key concepts and have your questions answered.

I almost did an online boot camp at the tail end of the pandemic. I forgot which one but it had mostly great reviews and it was a year long. Then I saw it was a $14k program, THEN I read more reviews and was seeing a lot of horrific complaints like…

-the people teaching these classes had just finished the program themselves
-the “networking” opportunities they advertised were entirely overblown
-the classes were entirely virtual (and still may be the case today) so when you have issues you have to email a “professor” or aid and wait for a response. It was apparently very time consuming and frustrating
-i think you were scheduled for 8 hours a day of classes but most of that time was time spent with the class screwing around, taking coffee breaks, and needlessly getting to know each other…not worth $14k and a year or my life

So I ultimately decided to just get a degree in it instead. Technically yes I could’ve taught myself but even then there’s a barrier for getting a job in the field without a degree. If you get one or those certificates that’s great but now you’re just one of thousands of people with the same low-level/junior programmer skill set and there’s no incentive for someone to hire you.

@DisgruntledHawkFan if I were you I would look and see if your union/company will pay for you to go to school so you can do something to be further educated in your field. It’s seemed like the best way for upward mobility in my loose engineering experience so far.

It’s not uncommon for a company to pay for your education and then lock you into a contract to work for them. You become very valuable to them and you won’t be pigeon holed into what you’re dealing with now.

Upward mobility isn't the problem. Managers have more off time but even stricter attendance expectations. They promote from within in a lot of departments because very few people with options coming out of school are choosing on site management with rotating off days and going from days to nights every three months.

College isn't really an option until my daughter is able to drive. Guess I'll just keep going through the motions for now.

 

[TLEH]

The next time I'm off work with a major medical condition I'll look into it. Where were you in February?

Hahaha.. well f***!

 

[TLEH]

School isn’t strictly necessary but the “teach yourself” approach isn’t as realistic as some in the coding community make it out to be. This is still difficult material to learn and anyone learning it will have 1,000,000 questions. I found the classroom setting to be slower but much much more effective to nail down key concepts and have your questions answered.

I almost did an online boot camp at the tail end of the pandemic. I forgot which one but it had mostly great reviews and it was a year long. Then I saw it was a $14k program, THEN I read more reviews and was seeing a lot of horrific complaints like…

-the people teaching these classes had just finished the program themselves
-the “networking” opportunities they advertised were entirely overblown
-the classes were entirely virtual (and still may be the case today) so when you have issues you have to email a “professor” or aid and wait for a response. It was apparently very time consuming and frustrating
-i think you were scheduled for 8 hours a day of classes but most of that time was time spent with the class screwing around, taking coffee breaks, and needlessly getting to know each other…not worth $14k and a year or my life

So I ultimately decided to just get a degree in it instead. Technically yes I could’ve taught myself but even then there’s a barrier for getting a job in the field without a degree. If you get one or those certificates that’s great but now you’re just one of thousands of people with the same low-level/junior programmer skill set and there’s no incentive for someone to hire you.

@DisgruntledHawkFan if I were you I would look and see if your union/company will pay for you to go to school so you can do something to be further educated in your field. It’s seemed like the best way for upward mobility in my loose engineering experience so far.

It’s not uncommon for a company to pay for your education and then lock you into a contract to work for them. You become very valuable to them and you won’t be pigeon holed into what you’re dealing with now.

Yeah I get it. It’s not fool proof and having some random cert isn’t enough. But many coding boot camps are cheaper than 14k(by a lot) and give you pretty solid knowledge. You won’t roll into google but going to some random company like doordash or toast is probably possible just by passing their coding interviews.

That makes 2 of us. that would have been my dream job but the Marines had other plans for me.

I had an OTS( Air Force version of OCS) date and everything. I also was living at my parents with my
Girlfriend. Then they delayed my OTS date due to COVID and i got tired of living at home with my girlfriend while I waited for my OTS date. I got a job writing JavaScript and never looked back.

 

[Putt Pirate]

Yeah I get it. It’s not fool proof and having some random cert isn’t enough. But many coding boot camps are cheaper than 14k(by a lot) and give you pretty solid knowledge. You won’t roll into google but going to some random company like doordash or toast is probably possible just by passing their coding interviews.


I had an OTS( Air Force version of OCS) date and everything. I also was living at my parents with my
Girlfriend. Then they delayed my OTS date due to COVID and i got tired of living at home with my girlfriend while I waited for my OTS date. I got a job writing JavaScript and never looked back.

Life has its way of working things out a lot of the time. Congrats!

 

[Malaka]

Linked an article about the why.

Lmao Lincoln absolutely hated natives more than anyone I’d bet.

Relevant tangent to hate — what is it with famous Chicagoans and thinking hitler had a lot of good ideas? Have Bobby Hull and Kanye been hanging out?

 

[Pez68]

Lmao Lincoln absolutely hated natives more than anyone I’d bet.

Relevant tangent to hate — what is it with famous Chicagoans and thinking hitler had a lot of good ideas? Have Bobby Hull and Kanye been hanging out?

Zero chance of that.

 

[Malaka]

Zero chance of that.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Continue here:

OT: - Anything Goes 41

Continued from here: https://forums.hfboards.com/threads/anything-goes-40.2885298/ My son is recently back into Sesame Street, and I am all for it.

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