On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:34:43 -0400, you wrote:

><Mike Harrison observes
>
>
>> ...in this business, experience of producing real products is WAY more
>> valuable than any amount of letters after your  name.
>> Pity that some Suits don't understand that.
>
>I'll bet the successful ones do.  The middle layer, however, tends to shy
>away from hires that may threaten their job security.
>
>> "Those that can, do; Those that can't, teach....."
>
>Ouch!  Some of the bench folks here teach in evening school.  Apparently,
>people who already have work experience populate the evening schools.  The
>institutions know it and try hard to get instructors who are also working in
>the field.
>
>Also, many tenured professors get a title, an office, and a teaching load,
>but not much else.  They have to earn their living by consulting, hitting
>the lecture/book circuit or hustling grants.  IMHO most succeed in keeping
>body & soul together by being a reliable accurate source of the latest
>information in their field.  To me, at least, that's "doing"

This may be different in the US, but I don't remember any of the teachers on my
electronics/computing course (that I droppped out of) having much of a clue. One classic that sticks
in my mind is when we were told that eproms hold data using a chemical process....!

After dropping out, I worked as a technician at another college, and a large proportion of the
teaching staff were 'career teachers' who were happy to coast along in a job they essentially
couldn't get fired from - those who did have some real-world experience were often laughably out of
date - one habitually referred to memory as 'core' and dismissed microcomputers as useless toys.....


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