How useful was school to your IT career?
Article by John Michelcane
I read comments by comedian Billy Connolly recently saying that he didnt learn anything useful after primary school.
He said that he would rather have learned something useful like how to make money and how to chat up women rather than learn algebra which he said that he has never used since he left school.
It left me thinking about the subjects that I learned and school and how useful they were to me in my career of IT. I looked at the subjects one by one.
Mathematics
I dont recall using anything that I learned in Maths beyond Primary School. Learning adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying have been useful.
However, I dont recall ever using algebra, geometry, calculus, sines, cosines, tangents etc. since I left school either at work or in my personal life. Ive been trying to think if there was anything in my 6 years of secondary school at Maths that I have ever used again and I cant think of anything.
Perhaps there is something that I have forgotten.
Career Usefulness Factor (Secondary School only) 1
Ive perhaps used them in online IQ tests but that is not quite the same thing as real life.
Geography
I cant say that Ive ever used geography at all in my career at least anything that I picked up past Primary school. I have a good knowledge of where most places are in the world, but thats mostly of use in Trivial Pursuits and Pub Quizzes.
Ive long since forgotten what are the major products and industries of far flung places like Burma.
I suppose that having some idea of where places are is useful when listening to the news in my personal life.
Career Usefulness Factor – 1
Statistics
Ive used Statistics a bit more in my life, although because it is Business languages that we use, Ive not used much of it in my IT career. Ive found Statistics useful in my personal life especially Probability but mainly in trying to outfox the bookmakers.
Career Usefulness Factor – 3
English
This has been far more useful. It is of great importance in IT to be able to communicate clearly and in a similar way to those that you work with. Anyone who has worked with someone from another country who speaks some other kind of English will agree with that.
Also, as a Business Analyst it has been useful as a tool of communication. Using the correct sentence formation and the correct grammar syntax and learning how to use it is a great advantage when it comes to writing logical computer languages.
Career Usefulness Factor – 9
French
Learning French was useful in two ways. Firstly it taught me how to learn languages which would come in useful later.
Secondly, I managed to get a contract in Paris because of my knowledge of French (less good that I said it was at interview, but thats another story).
So that was worthwhile to my career.
Career Usefulness Factor – 7
Physics
It was good to get a knowledge of how things work. Perhaps working out how to do experiments was good schooling for the later debugging and problem solving that I had to do later in my IT career.
However, I am clutching at straws here. I cant think of anything that came in useful later that I have ever used in my IT career.
Career Usefulness Factor – 2
Chemistry
Even in my personal life this has never been any more use than for Pub Quizzes, where the chemical elements tables are always popular.
I cant think of anything at all that helped me in my IT Career.
Career Usefulness Factor – 0
Latin
This is supposed to be good grounding for a later career in computing. Supposedly the fact that it is a structured and logical language manes that those that were good at Latin in school would be good programmers later.
I think that that idea was mainly put about by those who wanted Latin to be kept on the syllabus in the modern era.
I suppose it is a language though and I have to give it something.
Career Usefulness Factor – 3
History
I always enjoyed History and always watch history programmes when they come on TV. Im glad I did history at school.
However, I dont recall ever using History at all in my IT career even though I once watched a programme on Charles Babbage.
Career Usefulness Factor – 0
P/E
I learned here how to hate regimented exercise. I would still much rather play sports rather than go down to the gym which I equate with the school P/E lessons meted out to us by a sadist. It would probably have been better if I hadnt done P/E in school at all. It was a total waste of time.
If they want the children of the nation to learn how to keep themselves fit and healthy, why do they put sickos in charge of P/E?
Career Usefulness Factor – -2
Conclusion
I suppose that one could say that by learning different subjects at school gives us career options. It also shows us what we are good at and what we enjoy and helps us choose our careers.
It also shows potential employees what we are good at.
However, I still think that there is something in what Billy Connolly is saying and I could have got more out of learning how to make money and how to chat up women.
It seems that the Chancellor Gordon Brown has the same idea and wants to bring more of it into the schools (the learning how to make money bit anyway).
Useless Info
It all seemed so important at the time as we studied and worried about exams cramming so much information into our heads most of which would be totally useless to us in both our lives and our careers.
I wonder if people who are studying hard for their final exams in Chemistry at school realise that the knowledge that they have gained will only be of any further use in Pub Quizzes.
I wonder if those studying Geography realise that most of what they will ever need can be got by buying an atlas.
I wonder if all those studying sines and cosines in Maths, as well as logarithms and calculus, realise that these arent even of use in a pub quiz, and that the last time they will ever use them will be at school or university.
I wish I hadnt wasted so much of my life by going to school!
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Based on my experience in IT, I’d like to give a guideline on which career paths you may choose. I made this presentation as the part of my IT series cause I’ve had many chances to see people who wanna know which jobs in IT are suitable for them. I hope my guideline can give some help for IT colleques in other countries as well as in Korea. Best Regds, CHOLHO, JONG
