On Aug 11, 5:00*pm, Han wrote:

I have no idea what kind of work you do. *Please tell me a little, or a
lot grin.

Been there, done that. *I never had a teaching job (students that is,
perhaps unfortunately). *I had to formulate a hypothesis, design

Han,

I work for a for-profit company. Always have. Granted, I never had
to write a grant paper but isn't that asking people for money??

I work in IT. I still sorta-kinda work on a mainframe and have been
in IT since 1978. This is an incredibly rough area to work because
there are always more than enough young bucks coming along who "know"
the latest and greatest everything. Many of them couldn't code
themselves around the corner but since they have written source code
in a particular language of the month, they get the job and the
dinosaurs are left out.

I have been in programming, operations, a DBA, EDI, project
management, you name it. I have had to re-educate myself at least a
dozen times over the years and all on my dime. I had to re-invent
myself twice as many times. The latest thing I have been cramming for
is Oracle. Personally, I the database sucks and the software suite is
even worse, but they wined and dined the people who write the checks
here, so it is what it is.

I have been forced to teach people my job on more than one occasion so
I could be shown the door. This is a fairly recent phenomenon with
offshore outsourcing. Let me tell you, the seething anger the first
time you talk to a smiling idiot who is harvesting all the knowledge
you have so he can have a job and feed his family while you have
nothing but uncertainty in front of you.

I am not complaining (much) because this is what happens in the field
I chose. I know it and I have grown to accept it. The fact of the
matter is that I will do whatever it takes NOT to take a handout from
anybody. I have never bitched and complained about anybody making
more money than me. And the only times I have ever whined some is
whenever I had to make a brain dump,er, i mean, knowledge transfer to
somebody else who isn't nearly as qualified as I was but is willing to
work for a lot less than I do.

Teachers have been insulated from this real world stuff for the most
part. I am not saying that teaching is not hard work. To be good at
anything takes hard work and dedication. But throwing money at
everything solves nothing.