Re: Employers' Mistaken Job Requirements

[Jill Burgchardt <jburgcha -at- PESTILENCE -dot- ITC -dot- NRCS -dot- USDA -dot- GOV>]

Eric followed up Andrew's post with the following question:

<Other thoughts? How do you learn new stuff on the job?>

I like to get in and play with whatever it is I'm trying to learn. I was always
a take-it-apart-and-see-how-it-works kind of kid and I think it helps me learn
quickly. Not that I ignore books and online instructions, but I do tend to go
for reference materials over tutorials. Unless something is very complex or way
outside my sphere of knowledge, I start using it and then use the reference
materials for finding things that aren't obvious.

My other favorite method:  Teach someone else.  My 14-year-old is my favorite
guinea pig. Teaching someone else forces you to look at things from the
viewpoint of people who help you.  Recently, I helped her learn HTML and put up
a web page.  I'd done several web pages myself and posted them on our intranet
or the internet, but never had to deal with too many of the server-side issues.
We have several people more involved in that end at work.

However, for her to post through our ISP, she had to understand more of what
they'd accept, the ftp process for sending them. server side includes/extensions
they could handle, etc.  I had to think about the WHY of many things I'd been
doing at work and transfer that knowledge to a new situation.  When I put myself
in the role of teacher, my knowledge grew from process only to process and
conceptual understanding.

I'd like to hear more ways people learn.  Any other methods people have found
effective?

Jill Burgchardt
jburgchardt -at- pestilence -dot- itc -dot- nrcs -dot- usda -dot- gov
UNISYS, 2625 Redwing Road, Fort Collins, Colorado


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