[wplug] Best mid-life career advice

Jonathan Billings billings at negate.org
Sun Sep 2 12:04:39 EDT 2007


Tom Rhodes wrote:
> "Scientists discover the world that exists.  Engineers create
> the world that never existed."  I've always used that comment,
> from college, to remind myself of some differences.  Personally,
> I don't like terms like "network engineer" and "systems
> engineer."  

I like that quote, I'll have to pass it on to the engineers in my 
family.  :)  (I actually started off as a scientist, but fell into 
system administration along the way.)

> Hell, at times I think some people just like having
> "engineer" on their card when all they really are is a sys
> admin who occasionally writes a perl script.

I suspect this is often the case.  My father and brother, both of them 
engineers by degree, certification and job, have complained about the 
use of 'engineer' in the IT world.  From their perspective, the only 
person who can call themselves an engineer are those who have the 
official certification of their field.

So, if there was a "network engineering" certification along the lines 
of electrical or mechanical engineering certificates, I imagine it'd be 
more in favour by the rest of the engineering crowd.


-- 
Jonathan Billings <billings at negate.org>


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