> Let the mail room or call center people apply for the cobol training program and become developers.
That is exactly my story ('85 or thereabouts), with the added caveat that I didn't learn anything from the Cobol training program. The bank where I worked did not even have a way for mailroom people to get into IT, it was mostly because they got sick of my continued applications to IT jobs for which they though I wasn't qualified that I got the chance to do the course (with the qualifier that if I didn't succeed they never wanted to see me again).
So, I passed (and was the quickest person to complete the course) and ended up making a very rapid career in the IT department and after that started my own company.
Some observations:
- the entry level IT job paid four times as much as what the mail room job did
- work went from 5:30 am to 2 pm to 9'ish to 4'ish (ish because nobody ever checked who appeared when and when they left again whereas in the mailroom attendance was very strictly policed)
- in the mailroom you felt part of critical infrastructure, in IT there was zero pressure to perform
- bringing the mailroom attitude ('let's get some work done') to the IT department was not appreciated by the rest of the department
- the mailroom had zero office politics, if you stepped out of line you would get chewed out and that would be that, by comparison the IT department was a huge web of intrigue, and quite a few of the people there were downright mean and backstabbing each other all the time
- the mailroom was all guys, the IT department had exactly two women programmers on a total crew of about 120, the only other woman was a secretary to the head of IT
- There were a few talented people there but on the whole the talent level was rather low, but they were big on process and that really helped to get stuff out the door
That is exactly my story ('85 or thereabouts), with the added caveat that I didn't learn anything from the Cobol training program. The bank where I worked did not even have a way for mailroom people to get into IT, it was mostly because they got sick of my continued applications to IT jobs for which they though I wasn't qualified that I got the chance to do the course (with the qualifier that if I didn't succeed they never wanted to see me again).
So, I passed (and was the quickest person to complete the course) and ended up making a very rapid career in the IT department and after that started my own company.
Some observations:
- the entry level IT job paid four times as much as what the mail room job did
- work went from 5:30 am to 2 pm to 9'ish to 4'ish (ish because nobody ever checked who appeared when and when they left again whereas in the mailroom attendance was very strictly policed)
- in the mailroom you felt part of critical infrastructure, in IT there was zero pressure to perform
- bringing the mailroom attitude ('let's get some work done') to the IT department was not appreciated by the rest of the department
- the mailroom had zero office politics, if you stepped out of line you would get chewed out and that would be that, by comparison the IT department was a huge web of intrigue, and quite a few of the people there were downright mean and backstabbing each other all the time
- the mailroom was all guys, the IT department had exactly two women programmers on a total crew of about 120, the only other woman was a secretary to the head of IT
- There were a few talented people there but on the whole the talent level was rather low, but they were big on process and that really helped to get stuff out the door