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My dad's resume and skills from 1980
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Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#92He lists telemetry on his resume. I haven't seen that on a resume before. I bet Microsoft (and the other FAANGs) would really value that experience.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#93When I first entered the working world as a programmer and administrator of an "academic computing center", in the early 70s, you met men like Ray - ex-military, GI-bill educated, learned computers from the electricity on up in their mid-career, rather frequently, either as customer engineers for one of the big mainframe manufacturers (there were 7 or 8, depending on when and how you counted), or from the minicompute…
A few years ago in school I had to read a paper that was written by a guy who happens to also be a part of my local electronics hobby group. I mentioned this to a friend and he noted that, unlike a lot of fields, Computer Science is still young enough that many of the pioneers are still around.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#94The interesting bit about this post is that with that resume, you can still feed a family in 2022 (okay, you won't need any assembler, and one from the set { Fortran, COBOL } will do). I wonder if Python and JavaScript will get you that far 50 years from now?
One day, long after I'm gone, people will finally accept that Python and JavaScript are no longer young languages. JavaScript is 26 years old, Python is 31. They both continue to grow in importance year-on-year, JavaScript because there is nothing on the horizon which will plausibly replace it, and Python because a large number of industries and programmers genuinely love it. I think there's a nontrivial chance they'…
Why did Python win the war with Ruby? Was it purely the math community deciding this is where we throw our weight and left Ruby the runt of the litter?
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#95When I first entered the working world as a programmer and administrator of an "academic computing center", in the early 70s, you met men like Ray - ex-military, GI-bill educated, learned computers from the electricity on up in their mid-career, rather frequently, either as customer engineers for one of the big mainframe manufacturers (there were 7 or 8, depending on when and how you counted), or from the minicompute…
It reminds me of "Mel"in 1983 which was in response to "Real Programmers write in FORTRAN."
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#96Can we bring back this form of resume, please? Information is clearly organized, easy to read, easy to remember. No need for 5-star skills ratings, dual-colored backgrounds, unreadable fonts, and whatnot...
Something I was surprised by was the amount of white space and the straight to the point job descriptions. Whenever I send my CV to recruiter I'm always asked to add a little more about some language or skill. Over the years my CV has become super dense with text, not because I have more experience to list but because I've been told repeatedly to list all the languages I've used and details of the projects I've worke…
I think that's correct method. Being a software engineer at Google could mean anything, so job titles alone don't communicate enough by today's standard. In 1980, this guy's job titles alone told you enough to know if you wanted to meet him for your job opening. There's probably a volume aspect too. The hiring manager in 1980 wasn't getting 1,000 resumes that looked like this where project information would help differentiate.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#97> My dad is 92 and we just put him in a home.
Can you stay healthy enough to die of old age in a regular home? “Put him in a home” sounds so ominous and forceful.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been to a military museum few days ago and I was surprised how incredibly small some of the cockpits are. I'm 6'3" and wouldn't fit in most of the fighter jets and other vehicles. Not that I wouldn't be comfortable with my legs pushed to something - my shoulders are literally too wide to get in, my thighs/ass are too wide to even try sitting there. Might be a problem for aerospace tech. And don't get me started…
Your comments made me wonder if there were height restrictions, found this verbiage on US Airforce site: "For pilot and aircrew positions, height specifications vary by aircraft and most applicants can successfully pursue a career in aviation with the U.S. Air Force. Applicants who are significantly taller or shorter than average may require special screening to ensure they can safely perform operational duties. Appl…
When I was an undergrad I thought about seeing what it would take to be an astronaut. Turns out that the largest spacesuit they made back then was 6', so even if I had Buzz Aldrin's CV I wouldn't have been able to go.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#99The interesting bit about this post is that with that resume, you can still feed a family in 2022 (okay, you won't need any assembler, and one from the set { Fortran, COBOL } will do). I wonder if Python and JavaScript will get you that far 50 years from now?
One day, long after I'm gone, people will finally accept that Python and JavaScript are no longer young languages. JavaScript is 26 years old, Python is 31. They both continue to grow in importance year-on-year, JavaScript because there is nothing on the horizon which will plausibly replace it, and Python because a large number of industries and programmers genuinely love it. I think there's a nontrivial chance they'…
> people will finally accept that Python and JavaScript are no longer young languages
> JavaScript is 26 years old, Python is 31
I can't speak for Python, but Javascript has changed¹ massively in recent years, more so (I expect) than Fortran or COBOL every did in their active history. It could be argued that what we have now is a younger language with the same name.
> but I'd bet my bottom dollar that they'll at least remain as relics yet needing support
This I definitely agree with, though I suspect less so than Fortran/COBOL/similar. It is much cheaper to rebuild these days, and so many other things change around your projects², and there are more forces pushing for change such as a legion of external security concerns. That will add up to there being far fewer projects³ left to be maintained that haven't been redone in something new, because they fall into the comfy gap between the cushions of “it still works, don't touch it” and “it is far more hassle to replace than to live with as-is”.
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[1] the core language is still the same, but there is so much wrapped around it from the last decade or so that I suspect someone who learned it fresh recently would struggle initially on EcmaScript 3 or before/equivalent.
[2] where a Fortan/COBOL project might live for all its decades on the same hardware using the same library versions.
[4] no absolutely fewer of course, but relative to the number of people capable of working on them – much of the price commanded by legacy COBOL work is due to very few having trained on the language in decades and many of those that did earlier being fully not-coming-back-for-any-price retired or no longer capable at all (infirm or entirely off this mortal coil), so those remaining in appropriate health and available are in demand despite a relatively small number of live projects.
Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980
#10096 years old and still cooler than the current kids. Who else can say they used a computer with two ROUND screens?
> Who else can say they used a computer with two ROUND screens?
Hmm, that takes me back, heheh. I remember using some spanking new equipment in the late 60’s with round screens. I was just 8 or 9 then so my recall is unsure but think it was Digital. I do recall learning how to read and enter memory locations with toggles so I could cheat at Lunar Lander.