Counselor Screw Up
All during high school I wanted to be a computer programmer. Although my best subject was biology, I really didn’t want to be a doctor like everyone else wanted me to be. My father was a computer operator for the USPS for about a year or so while I was a Freshman. I got to see the large CDC machines in action. He even let me punch up a tape on the ASR-33 to print out a picture of Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house. Besides, this was 1970-1972. Computers were the in thing. There was money to be made as a computer programmer. So, in my Senior year, I visited my guidance counselor to select colleges and majors. I told her I wanted to be a computer programmer. She looked over my school records and said, “Steve, your math grades are good (I was carrying about a 3.4 in math), but to be a computer programmer, you must be a super-wiz in math.” I was heartbroken. So, I decided to make everyone happy, and I declared my major in pre-med at Northern Kentucky University. After about two months in pre-med, I decided that I didn’t want to be a doctor. The reason was that I didn’t like the idea. The rationale I told myself was that I didn’t want to be in school the rest of my life. (So, what did I pick? Computers. I spend at least three weeks per year in formal training, and countless hours reading to keep up.) So, I changed majors to chemistry. I liked chemistry. It was fun, and there was money to be made as a chemical engineer. My new chemistry advisor helped me lay out my schedule for the next 3.5 years. Chemistry required one geology course, and the school offered this course only once every two years. My advisor told me the wrong course number. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this until I completed the class. The Dean of the school would not grant me a waiver for this course. He didn’t care that one of his teachers made the mistake. Rules were rules after all. At this point I decided to dump chemistry, and I declared math as my major. I guessed I could become an actuarial for some insurance company. During my second semester I noticed many of my fellow math students playing with the computers in the math lounge. I asked, “What’cha doin’, guys?” They told me they were programming the computers. I thought to myself, “Don’t give me that bull. You guys are no better at math than I am!” (Remember what my High School counselor told me.) Instead of saying this I asked, “How did you figure that out?” They told me to take MAT-260 Introduction to BASIC Programming. So I took the course. You don’t need any math skills other than knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide in order to be able to program a computer! My high school counselor didn’t know what she was talking about. My advice to students is that you talk to someone who works in your field of interest. See what they think the qualifications are for that field. My second piece of advice for those interested in computer programming is that you need to both like and be good at geometry. Programming computers is an exercise in applied logic. Geometry teaches a system of logic. If you hate geometry, or are not very good at it, then I suggest you stay clear of computer programming. |