patrick.net

CRAIGSLIST!

It's where I found a couple jobs, many contracts, my boat, multiple vehicles, and my wife, but that was a long time ago. It may be different now.

Yes, Craigslist is still pretty good.

Less bullshit than the commercial jobs sites anyway.

Patrick says

Yes, Craigslist is still pretty good

I don't think you can find a wife there anymore.

Anyone have any feed back about the ladders dot com?

www.linkedin.com
Most of hiring and connections happen through this site especially for tech sector.

Onvacation says

Patrick says

Yes, Craigslist is still pretty good

I don't think you can find a wife there anymore.

You can rent one for a night!

farmer2021 says

www.linkedin.com
Most of hiring and connections happen through this site especially for tech sector.

I am familiar with this site. I just don't like putting out all my information out there.

You don't have to put your info out there, just look at the jobs they post and email those employers.

Patrick says

You don't have to put your info out there, just look at the jobs they post and email those employers.

Gotcha. This is all I need.

I am looking for something with more dough even though I don't need dough to pay my bills or don't need healthcare benefits.

If you don't care about benefits, you may want a contract job. The pay is usually higher than permanent.

gabbar says

I am familiar with this site. I just don't like putting out all my information out there.

Lost my login years ago but I still get an occasional message from companies interested in one or another of my certifications. Especially my ancient "A+ Hardware and Software Technician" cert.

Onvacation says

gabbar says

I am familiar with this site. I just don't like putting out all my information out there.

Lost my login years ago but I still get an occasional message from companies interested in one or another of my certifications. Especially my ancient "A+ Hardware and Software Technician" cert.

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

Patrick says

If you don't care about benefits, you may want a contract job. The pay is usually higher than permanent.

Contract job will work, I will see whats available for my qualifications.

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

First job was hard to get, and after that, I realized it was pointless to get a degree. I hardly use it. Learned some interesting math, understand some interesting BS about how circuits work, but I never actually use it.

gabbar says

I am familiar with this site. I just don't like putting out all my information out there.

Then don't. I didn't tell my current company my last name until they told them they were extending an offer. They certainly do NOT have my phone number or home address(few do).

I'm always surprised by how honest people are when it comes to filling things out.

richwicks says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

I agree.

Certifications are almost useless in the computer field anyway. I've noticed over the last 20 years that the number of programmers with a relevant degree has dramatically declined, to the point where they are now a minority.

Managers of programming jobs just want to know what you can really do for them and don't care about certifications much at all. Many people are completely self-taught at first, and then as they gain work experience they get better and better jobs - but they have to keep proving they can do the work.

Not true if you're in security, or devops. Certs are definitely still relevant for those positions, although which ones can be a bit tricky.

I dunno, I had a devops position and no one even asked about my degree.

Definitely not degree. One of the guys at my last job in devops started his career in a machine shop. Head of devops at my current job is the only other tech person I've met with a degree in history. Certs are different though. I know most of the guys at my last place all went through AWS, and Kubernetes training. In fact, it seems like those guys spent about 20% of their work time taking classes just to keep up.

I just used AWS at work and got familiar with it. That was enough. But I'm sure different companies vary in their requirements.

richwicks says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

First job was hard to get, and after that, I realized it was pointless to get a degree. I hardly use it. Learned some interesting math, understand some interesting BS about how circuits work, but I never actually use it.

What kind of math and circuits?

NuttBoxer says

Definitely not degree. One of the guys at my last job in devops started his career in a machine shop. Head of devops at my current job is the only other tech person I've met with a degree in history. Certs are different though. I know most of the guys at my last place all went through AWS, and Kubernetes training. In fact, it seems like those guys spent about 20% of their work time taking classes just to keep up.

What's AWS and Kubernetes?

gabbar says

What's AWS

I can answer at least that question - Amazon Web Services.

Basically, you setup your company to be entirely dependent on a predatory asshole billionaire that has complete access to your data on a virtual machine run on a set of servers, which they have complete and unfettered access to, and for which they have a huge contract to contain the data of all 17 intelligence agencies - because you're a fucking moron.

AWS is FINE, for stuff you totally don't give a shit about, and that's it.

If it's on AWS just assume it's public information, no matter what you place there.

gabbar says

richwicks says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

First job was hard to get, and after that, I realized it was pointless to get a degree. I hardly use it. Learned some interesting math, understand some interesting BS about how circuits work, but I never actually use it.

What kind of math and circuits?

Well linear algebra was fascinating, because once you understand how to do matrix math, the way data is represented to make an object, and how it's projected onto a plane is obvious. 3d graphics I understand and then I know ray tracing as well, which used to be interesting. Basically you can make a computer object look entirely real with ray tracing even better than real because everything is in focus. Simulation is also fascinating - VERY fascinating. Neural networks were mind blowing, because the initial thought was that if we could really truly accurately simulate neurons, we could make life. Even if we couldn't simulate them exactly, we could STILL make life.

The most interesting part of circuits is the easiest one - digital. I understand entirely how a computer chip works. I also understand data transmission, error recovery, why digital is FAR superior to analog for data archival and transmission. Could I build a computer chip that was the equivalent of a modern ARM - hell no, but I could (not easily) build a crappy 32 bit machine. It would be something out of 1980 perhaps, you wouldn't want to use it but I understand how to do it, and at one point, I really really wanted to understand it.

The fun of engineering was learning to understand things. The awful thing about it, is when you understand all you want to understand.

I really think we're near a dead end. Even if chips are 10x faster in 20 years, and storage 10x cheaper - who cares? I carry around a super computer in my pocket, that can store 2 weeks of 1080p movies - and I mean, it could play films for 2 weeks SOLID. All the crap we were working on 20 and 30 years ago, all the "won't it be cool when we can do X" is here. I can talk to a Russian now for 0 cost, in real time. I can play a video game in an environment that seems almost real. I can store every single song I EVER want to hear on a $20 SD Card. Every video game I played or WANTED to play up until 2000 I can - I have all the roms and all the simulators.

Technology has ceased to be interesting at every level.

It seemed like a cool idea to go to space or colonize Mars at one point, now I realize that it would suck. In a ship, you're stuck inside all the time for god knows how long, and even if you had artificial gravity, and it was huge ship, it's still just a giant prison. Same with a colony on the moon or Mars. It would just be awful. Imagine never being able to go hiking again. Imagine being locked into the largest building ever built, but that's where you spend the rest of your life. How long before you get bored of maybe the 10 square kilometres you can live in? 2 months? It would be a nightmare, no matter who you populated it with or what you filled the colony with. Living on another planet in this solar system would be awful.

All the interesting stuff about technology is behind me. Anything that was truly interesting, we've done. Anything that wasn't is not worth pursuing.

At one point the concept of a general AI computer intelligence was fascinating, but I don't think it can be done now. Such a thing would become either a god or a devil anyhow and we are no closer to understanding self awareness and consciousness today than we were 30 years ago. It's a complete mystery. Consciousness may be an illusion, and if it is an illusion, is there any reason to make a machine that believes it's conscious but really isn't? Is intelligence and knowledge worth so much, it's worth pursuing at any cost? 30 years ago, I would have said "of course", today - no way. We'd just be another dead world, populated by purposeless, meaningless machines that just acquire information for no reason and for nobody.

See, I used to be a hard atheist materialist, but as I age, I can't help but feel innately there's a lot more to existence other than being a meat robot that exists for 70-90 years. Maybe we are meat robots, but I'm suspecting we're not. Let evolution take its course I'd argue today, 30 years ago, I was perfectly willing to supplant it. Take a copy of my mind, dump it in a machine, put that consciousness in a paradise. The thing would FEEL like me, perhaps, maybe even believe it's me, but is it really a consciousness or just a meaningless simulacrum of what I actually am?

I've gotten more philosophical as I got old and it's not because I'm close to death either. If I cease to exist entirely in 30 years, that doesn't worry me. I'm just reconsidering if life truly is just purposeless. Maybe it isn't.

richwicks says

gabbar says

richwicks says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

First job was hard to get, and after that, I realized it was pointless to get a degree. I hardly use it. Learned some interesting math, understand some interesting BS about how circuits work, but I never actually use it.

What kind of math and circuits?

Well linear algebra was fascinating, because once you understand how to do matrix math, the way data is represented to make an object, and how it's projected onto a plane is obvious. 3d graphic...

I have a high school senior, what should I advise him with regard to a career? He loves math.

gabbar says

I have a high school senior, what should I advise him with regard to a career? He loves math.

I'd say my advice is worthless. It's a personal decision. I'd argue he just continue to pursue knowledge at this point. As for a career? I'm an electrical engineer by training but I hated it, and preferred to code, because it allowed for a great deal of creativity. I'm even bored with that now.

He ought to talk to people in careers that he's thinking about going into. I will never forget a marine biologist at a talk in front of a bunch of kids telling us, it's a crap job, and he hated it.

I'll give one very useful piece of advice, don't let him think the world is doomed. There is no global warming catastrophe on the horizon any time soon - or probably ever, we may have far more energy reserves than we are led to believe, we aren't approaching a population top out - Soylent Green was entirely wrong, there's no Population Bomb, we are not poisoning and destroying the planet. That's all bullshit I used to believe.

Pripyat was the town that Chernobyl's meltdown destroyed. It's an animal sanctuary there today, because people can't go there. Humanity nearly drove Przewalksi's Horse to extinction (that's a rare untamable breed of horse) but it thrives in Pripyat. Even in a nuclear wasteland nature can handle it no problem.

richwicks says

gabbar says

I have a high school senior, what should I advise him with regard to a career? He loves math.

I'd say my advice is worthless. It's a personal decision. I'd argue he just continue to pursue knowledge at this point. As for a career? I'm an electrical engineer by training but I hated it, and preferred to code, because it allowed for a great deal of creativity. I'm even bored with that now.

He ought to talk to people in careers that he's thinking about going into. I will never forget a marine biologist at a talk in front of a bunch of kids telling us, it's a crap job, and he hated it.

I'll give one very useful piece of advice, don't let him think the world is doomed. There is no global warming catastrophe on the horizon any time soon - or probably ever, we may have far more energy reserves than we are led to believe, we aren't approaching a population top out - Soyl...

I forwarded this post by email to him.

I am a civil engineer. Not my chosen career but this is the card I got. Immigrated from India because there were no jobs then. I am lucky to be even alive. God and the US has been extraordinarily kind to me and I am truly grateful. But I feel a bit sad about how things seem to have deteriorated in the past 3 decades.

richwicks says

gabbar says

richwicks says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

I don't know if you're in a technical field, but I can tell you that nobody has asked for my educational history EVER, they only care about my work history.

First job was hard to get, and after that, I realized it was pointless to get a degree. I hardly use it. Learned some interesting math, understand some interesting BS about how circuits work, but I never actually use it.

What kind of math and circuits?

Well linear algebra was fascinating, because once you understand how to do matrix math, the way data is represented to make an object, and how it's projected onto a plane is obvious. 3d graphic...

This is an excellent post.

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

If he doesn't have gumption, then no cert or degree will help.

When you're starting out experience isn't going to be your strong selling factor. So what is required, is a strong can do attitude and resolve to provide solutions to problems.
Able to talk the talk and walk the walk is much more important than credentialed pedigrees.
The workforce is full of recent grads, taking up desk space sucking up fresh air, and resources. But very few of those are self starters, who took it upon themselves to set up a programming lab at home. And download and install OS and programing languages, that were not required as part of a course they took. Most of them, expect the course they took, and their aloof emotionally divested professors to provide them with everything they'll ever need to know.
If he's a genuine nerd, and has a thirst to understand and tinker with technologies, that he's not getting a grade for, and writing sketch programs that he's not getting paid for.
He'll walk into job interviews and fall ass backwards into any job he applies for.

Gumption is the greatest Cert of all.

Tenpoundbass says

gabbar says

Are there any certifications that a high school senior can try to acquire?

If he doesn't have gumption, then no cert or degree will help.

When you're starting out experience isn't going to be your strong selling factor. So what is required, is a strong can do attitude and resolve to provide solutions to problems.
Able to talk the talk and walk the walk is much more important than credentialed pedigrees.
The workforce is full of recent grads, taking up desk space sucking up fresh air, and resources. But very few of those are self starters, who took it upon themselves to set up a programming lab at home. And download and install OS and programing languages, that were not required as part of a course they took. Most of them, expect the course they took, and their aloof emotionally divested professors to provide them with everything they'll ever need to know.
If he's a...

I agree. Going to a top high school hasn't taught him this. He did work as a research assistant in a university lab but I don't think learned any gumption there either.