Even on the small scale, when you look at any programming organization, the programmers with the most power and influence are the ones who can write and speak in English clearly, convincingly, and comfortably. Also it helps to be tall, but you can’t do anything about that.
From Joel on Software – Advice for Computer Science College Students
I came across this article while reading my ACM careers newsletter. Programming is such a wonderful, varied, field. Also suggests that programmers should get blogs. I remember my English teacher told me that back in the day he was offered a job at Corel because he could put a sentence together. I also like this quote:
But I keep hearing that enrollment in CS departments is dropping perilously, and one reason I hear for it is “students are afraid to go into a field where all the jobs are going to India.” That’s so wrong for so many reasons. First, trying to choose a career based on a current business fad is foolish. Second, programming is incredibly good training for all kinds of fabulously interesting jobs, such as business process engineering, even if every single programming job does go to India and China. Third, and trust me on this, there’s still an incredible shortage of the really good programmers, here and in India. Yes, there are a bunch of out of work IT people making a lot of noise about how long they’ve been out of work, but you know what? At the risk of pissing them off, really good programmers do have jobs.
If you have the time, give this article a read. Especially if you’re in CS.
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