Position posting

[Temple Hoff]

Carolyn Wilson said:
>But to suggest that someone can be self-taught in computing and acquire 
>the same level of expertise as someone with a formal qualification is as 
>insulting to computing professionals as the same suggestion would be to 
>librarians.

Oh, What you said!  And its monday morning too.  What better time for 
good old fasion flame fest!  But, I won't.
	I will counter you though.  Your sentiment is good, and you have 
every right to be proud of your degrees.  Having a degree does imply that 
one has achived a certain level of mastery.  Where I hiring someone, I 
would tend to look harder at non-grad applicants and assume that those 
with degrees must know something.  However, to get snooty about it, and 
claim some superiority that cannot be attained by mere mortals is, well, 
laughable, and shows some amount of insecurity in your own skills.
	I work with a library assistant that was been with our library 
for 22 years.  There isn't a library on our staff that would question 
where library skills.  She has no degree.  I have heard from some of our 
librarians that they feel their library skills are not up to her level.  
Not being a librarian, I can't judge her.  I can only say that her peer 
librarians feel that she has "acquired the same level of expertise" as 
they have, or greater.
	Personally, as I have said before, I have not degree.  However, 
I believe my networking, Internetworking, and systems analysis skills are 
atleast of the order of an undergraduate if not a Masters level.  I won't 
attemp to list skills here, but if you'd like to get more of an idea of 
the level of professionalism a non-grad can achieve, check this URL.  Its 
the Telecommunication and Electronics Review, an on-line ALA periodical 
for whom I review high end technology books.

 http://gold.ohiolink.edu/ter/ter-3-6.html

	Degrees are great, but they are not the end-all-be-all, at least 
not in the technology field.
-- 
Temple Hoff                  E-Mail:temhof at mohave.lib.az.us              
   
Library Services Coordinator           Phone:(520) 692-5703  
Mohave County Library District           Fax:(520) 692-5788