My Local Pizzeria Guy Wants to Be a Computer Geek...

[wnied]

Long Story Short, I goto pick up our weekly order of Chicken Parm Dinners and My pizzeria guy asks me to sit down with him and give him some advice on changing careers into computers. This man is completely computer illiterate. After a few moments I told him I would get back to him on Monday. I have no idea what to tell this man. I was thinking of pointing him in the direction of Software Development school, since the hardware end of Computers seems to be at an all time low for employment.

Any advice on what to tell this guy?
~wnied~

 

[fatbaby]

Well make it one of your life's to do list.

4. Get 20 year old illiterate guy to graduate from Caltech/MIT with a masters degree in computer engineering

 

[ugh]

You can prolly start by asking him whether he'd like to sit down in front of the PC and look at code all day long or prefer working with "physical" stuff. That should give you some idea of what he prefers. Once that's done, I suppose you can zoom in on that.

 

[spanky]

i would tell him to get some books and start reading. if he really has any interests at all... then maybe take a class or go to school.

 

[wnied]

Hes closer to 40...not 20. His idea is he wants a "sit-down" job where hes not on his feet for the whole 8 hours a day. He has a hip replacement from a car accident hed had a long time ago. I'm thinking of telling him to goto school to become computer literate, then once he actually sees what it takes to work with a computer, maybe he can decide whats best for him.

Helluvathing to do, change careers at 40.
~wnied~

 

[Ime]

Originally posted by: wnied
Hes closer to 40...not 20. His idea is he wants a "sit-down" job where hes not on his feet for the whole 8 hours a day. He has a hip replacement from a car accident hed had a long time ago. I'm thinking of telling him to goto school to become computer literate, then once he actually sees what it takes to work with a computer, maybe he can decide whats best for him.

Helluvathing to do, change careers at 40.
~wnied~

No it's not. My father went from being on a destroyer in the navy to a desk job at a shipyard when he was 40. He did it no problem.

It's all about drive, if the guy has it he can do it.

 

[Atvar]

I say good for him. He should get some books, and a good system to practice with. He could work on it in his free time, see how he takes to it. At best, he could end up in a new career that would keep him off his feet. At worst, he will still have his pizza place along with some computer literacy.

Atvar

 

[Cuda1447]

I agree, changing careers at 40 can be done. Rather easily for my dad. He used to manage a golf course in his 30's. One day he started building barns. After that he had a T-Shirt buisness. After that he worked for Primestar installing satelites. After that he did random other stuff. Now he's finally setteled down in one career for the last 7 years in the Mortgage buisness. He's doing pretty well, just moved to Florida making 6 figures. It can be done, and my dad does it every decade it seems.

 

[wnied]

No it's not. My father went from being on a destroyer in the navy to a desk job at a shipyard when he was 40

And thats a big change ..how?
~wnied~

 

[everman]

Just point him to one of those depressing articles about outsourcing IT jobs to foreign nations

 

[onza]

No it's not. My father went from being on a destroyer in the navy to a desk job at a shipyard when he was 40. He did it no problem.

It's all about drive, if the guy has it he can do it.

ya that sounds pretty much like the same thing

 

[Cerb]

Have him go to whatever the best tech school around is. If he wants to do it, it really shouldn't be that hard.
My dad was a hobbyist and changed from electrician to sysadmin, but really, get a couple basic courses in hardware and working the OS, and he can learn quite a bit at home before he decides where to really go to.

Many of us went and took things apart, but going that route revolves around having a way out when it all goes TU. Luckily, my first messing around machine survived fully and is now a web and mail server for 4 sites. Ah...from Quake2 and Tribes to Apache and Xtreme Mail.

 

[Shockwave]

Print out about 150 pages of code. Give it to him. Tell him to read it all, regardless of is he understand it (He wont obviously).
Get back with him in a few days. Ask him if he would want to do it the rest of his life.

If he says yes, software. If he says no, hardware.

 

[joohang]

Originally posted by: Shockwave
Print out about 150 pages of code. Give it to him. Tell him to read it all, regardless of is he understand it (He wont obviously).
Get back with him in a few days. Ask him if he would want to do it the rest of his life.

If he says yes, software. If he says no, hardware.

Umm...

 

[ReiAyanami]

give him one of those "Computer Software for Dummies" book and once he finishes it he'll be able to find any job in the public [government] sector since those also gather the deadwood. but seriously he's rather too old to start now and in this bad economy tech jobs are tuff

 

[ReiAyanami]

alternatively u can tell him to hang around at ATOT and pretend to be a tech guy all he wants

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

If he really doesn't know the first thing about computers he should fit in just fine as Dell first-line helpdesk employee.

 

[brtspears2]

Tech trade school like ITT or DeVry?

 

[Cerb]

Tech trade school like ITT or DeVry?

That could be a good way to go. Being me, I'd suggest something locally administered(sp). However, I am close to Macon Tech (er, "Middle Georgia Technical College"), which is actually a very cheap and excellent tech school. Whatever gets a certificate, though. Hands-on training and work is needed, but if you can get the cert, you know enough to start that on the job, most likely. It could also be beneficial to work for a little while at a govt. place as civil servant and then try to get hired as one of those slimy old contractors .

 

[0roo0roo]

drop a couple calc and higher math books on him and watch him scream

 

[sciencetoy]

First, if all the dude is looking for is a change from stand-up to sit-down, why don't you point him to places where he can sit down and be a cashier or something - lots of stores out there that you can sit on a stool while you work.

Second, the dude is totally computer illiterate, doesn't even own a computer? Find out if he has any skills - reliability, sense of humor, whatever, and tell him to look for an entry level office clerical position. That's about what he's qualified to do. Once he gets exposed to working with machines, then he can start asking better questions.

Third, if he's serious about a long-term IT career, tell him to move to India .