Friday, February 5, 2021

On Newbies

I feel like I should explain my comment on the IT industry a little more.

My first job after college was in the military, and I've come to appreciate that the military is really great at breaking down large and complex topics into chunks clear enough that anyone can understand.

Yes, you may have 'death by PowerPoint'. Your teachers may not be very engaging, may even read the slides verbatim in the most boring way possible, and some courses are like drinking from a firehose. But quite a bit of what you need to know is broken into a clear lesson plan. And there's a ton of manuals (that most soldiers never bother to read 😂) that you can refer to if you have any questions.

And when I was a shipping supervisor, I had to learn what my people knew (can't manage what you don't understand. Plus helps with the whole 'lead by example' and 'lead from the front' thing.) so yes, I learned how to pick orders and drive a fork truck (Badly. They make it look so easy). And an order picker.

And we had ISO standards and audits and inspections and had to document all the tasks, and training, and make sure our trainers were certified, and a whole bunch of other things. 

So when I say that IT seems terrible at training new people, it's because I have something to compare it to. 

And from what I hear from others outside my company, it's pretty much industry wide. 

I get not wanting to have to spoon feed people who should show some initiative and figure it out (via Google, or the classic RTFM). I guess they're trying to select for people like that? Idk... But there's probably a ton of other people who could be valuable contributors with just a little bit of support.

I'm kind of glad I came into this late in life, and with my previous experience. 

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