How do we educate our next generation of technologists?

As I was sitting in a meeting at Metro State College in Denver last night, I was thinking about this.  How can we educate the next generation of technologists?  This concerns me as a technologist myself.  As an employer.  As a parent (of some rather tech-savvy teenagers).  As a consumer of all this technology.

How can we prepare graduates to be both valuable employees from the day after graduation AND sustainable for the long haul?  How can we train for jobs and technology that have not yet been invented?  The jobs and technology that exist in our wildest exaggerated dreams?

We need to teach a life-long learner mentality.  Heck, non-tech people need that mindset, but techies even more so.  Our careers depend on us being able to move quickly to whatever is next.  So here’s my list of important life skills to have in order to be sustainable in your techie career.  This assumes you have little to nothing to draw upon already.

  • Learn a programming language, the actual language is negotiable.  I am partial to C#, it’s what we do around here, but this is your ticket to employment TODAY, so pick something that is current right now, knowing that it won’t be useful on its own in 5 years, or less.
  • Take some business classes.  If you can easily drop into any software need and understand WHY you are needed based on that particular business model you are employable today and tomorrow.
  • Spend time with like-minded people (user groups plug comes next).  Seriously, you will learn so much from them and them from you.  There are so many out there, spend a little time find one that will give what you need and that you can in turn give back to.
  • Take an enterprise approach and view of your solutions.  This not only helps you today, but it gives you big picture experience and allows you to quickly move to more and often larger projects for the long haul.
  • Know enough about intellectual property to stay out of trouble.  Read the EULAs you agree to, don’t blindly click yes all the time.  The laws on this are changing virtually daily, have an awareness, you will be invaluable to your employer.
  • Have an awareness of all the moving parts that are required to make a good solution.  When we hire a new developer I will often have them spend a few days as a tester before they get to touch any code.  When you code to your user you are a better coder.  Know why we have DBAs.  Know how much attention YOU need to pay to security. 
  • Find a mentor whose work ethic you admire and copy it, flat out, do what they do.  You probably won’t be taught how to be a good employee in any class, so this is on the job training.  A good employee that needs to learn a few more tech skills is worth more to me than someone that is smart but always late on projects and a pain to work with.
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Comments

Grant

Julie,

I would say that's it's not too difficult to become more technologically apt - once there is a desire to do so.

The challenge, as I see it, is getting more people to want to learn these things.

Hellboy

"Find a mentor whose work ethic you admire"

Some choose Mohammad, Some choose Jesus, Some choose Buddha.

Some choose BUSH, Some choose Osama,Some choose Saddam. Some choose Estine

Their value is different.

Employ those who will bring your company MORE money. that is the point.


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