The four things one needs (imho) for this (and other skilled technical jobs)
are

-Analytical thinking
-Persistence
-Fascination with the matter at hand
-Being efficient in finding the information you need (There is no need to
know information that is in danger of being stale there is  the need to be
able to find it fast)

I think that a school can at best help a little in the three first ones
and teach techniques for finding information.

All other things learned are soon forgotten.... obsolete before being taught
or are irrelevant to the job itself. learning to speak, write and read a
second, third or fourth language is nice (was kind of annoying to me) but
really doesn't do that much if they are not c, Pascal or forth.

I deal with trying to train people in the technical field on a daily basis
and rather have an enthusiastic hobbyist than someone with a degree who went
to school to get a better paying job. It's gotta be in your blood.

Someone without a passion for electronics and programming will have a hard
time understanding why we will poor so much time in this (hobby)

As you can all guess now , I do not have a formal education , at least not
in a technical field. each will have his own opinion based on his/her
experience and background

Peter van Hoof pvh@vertonet.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vincent Deno <denovj@EMAIL.UC.EDU>
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 1999 9:57 PM
Subject: [OT] Re: Multi tasking instructor-tangent


>Dennis Plunkett wrote:
>
>> 13/5/'99
>>
>> I have been watching this with great interest. (Flame suit on) Isn't it
>> funny how we can miss the point and drift of into a tangent (Flame suit
>> off),
>
><CLIP>
>
>I realized what a mess I'd made by making that initial comment about
consulting
>work.  I've tried several times now to switch the topic to [OT] so those
with
>filters (or blinders) on could skip the noise.  However, I find it most
>interesting to get input from people outside of academia and hope the
thread
>doesn't die.
>
>One of my professors told me the thing college really teaches is, "a few
useful
>tools for engineering, persistance, and survivability."  The more contact I
>have with the outside world, the more I believe this to be true.
>
>At my last job, I was working with a natural electronics genius.  This man
>could design an extremely complicated analog, digital, or mixed signal
system
>in a day or so easily.  He has had basically no formal education.  He is
renoun
>for being THE best in the business.  Point being:  People are born with
>different levels of intillect... you can't teach or learn mental capacity.
>What you can do is work to achieving your potential.  I'm done now before I
get
>kicked off the list... hehe
>
>Regards,
>
>Vincent Deno