Academic exercises (was: Re: [lug] File modification)

[sdlockhart at bigplanet.com]

Rob,
How about this quote, which I picked up from a potential employer during my first set of interviews for a job after I graduated from college:
"The only thing that I learned in college was how to get from the Frat House to the Shi* House".  
So much for busting my hump to boost my GPA!!!

Teachers steeped in academia really don't have a clue what employers want or need.  Unless the teacher has actually worked in industry in the past 5 years as a REAL employee, take their platitudes with a HUGE grain of salt (like the size of the Great Salt Lake).

Just the opinion of a working stiff,
Scott Lockhart
Oracle Database Administrator
I-Link
Draper, UT


><snip>
>Unfortunately, school just doesn't really seem to promote developing
>quality software.  I remember being quite disappointed in my first
>programming class (AP Pascal).  The instructor asked at one point for ideas
>for our final project.  I suggested that throughout the semester we develop
>components, and the final would be assembling them into a text editor.
>That suggestion was immediately discarded.  Which was unfortunate...
><snip>
>
>Some quotes from people in my life concerning this situation:
>
>People who can, do;
>People who can't, teach.
>--My dad
>(There are a few exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, he was
>dead on.)
>
>
>What I needed in the real world, 
>CU-Denver didn't teach me.
>What they taught me, I can't use.
>--My college roommate
>
>-Personal experience-
>When I was in O-Chem, the instructor spent 3 weeks explaining one type of
>NMR, and 1 day teaching us about another major type. When asked which
>process was used most frequently in the workplace, the prof said the
>process that she covered in one day. When asked why it was more popular,
>she said it was because that process was more accurate, faster, and cheaper.
>
>My question... Why did you waste my time telling me about something that is
>very rarely used when you should have been concentrating on what gets used
>in the real world.
>
>-Another experience-
>When I was taking calculus, I was told that I had to provide computer
>print-outs of the math problem. When I asked the prof how to get the same
>results by hand, he told me that he wanted us to use the computers and not
>learn to do it by hand. 
>
>He said that employers pay for results and that you had better have a
>computer to do your work. I asked him a very simple question: what happens
>if my PC crashes and I have to have the results to my boss the next
>morning, what am I gonna do? My employer is paying for results...
>
>When I told him that I had a Macintosh and that the particular software
>package wasn't available for the MacOS, he told me to buy a PC.
>
>
>As far as the school not being interested in developing quality software, I
>think that is probably true-just look at the bloaware coming from Redmond.
>
>--->Rob
>
>---
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