Last month we announced Opportunity: What is Working. It's a partnership with businesses, foundations and education to find real solutions to the problem every American faces: Joblessness. This is not some abstract, hidden or relative problem. The lack of jobs means that we're all one economic crisis away from economic disaster. Even you think you are immune, because of your skills, professional experience or nest egg, you are not. A large number of Americans out of work puts our whole consumer-driven economy at risk. Just look at how listless the stock market has been.
At the Huffington Post, we're not just reporting on the job crisis. We're doing something about it. But if you are looking for work, or in danger of becoming out of work, there are concrete steps you can take to improve your situation. You can learn to hack.
I'm not talking about Hollywood hacking, which is more about looking cool while thieving. I'm not talking about doing anything even slightly illegal. I'm talking about upgrading your computer skills, but not as a user of computers. I'm talking about learning to administer and program computers. True hackers are deeply knowledgeable about computer hardware, operating systems and software. (And they don't use their knowledge for evil.)
You can start today and you don't have to go to school or even spend a dime! (But it helps to have a few bucks to invest in yourself.)
First, start learning about the hardware that you use everyday on your desk and in your pocket. The best way to learn is by doing and undoing. If you're cheap, like me, to go a garage sale or look in your own garage and find an old computer, take it apart and Google each component and chip that you find. If your teardown was not too destructive, see if you can put the computer back together and power it up. If you have a few bucks to spend, order some new parts online and upgrade it. There are dozen of DYI sites on the web to help you out. I like to build gaming computers for my kids and Build-Gaming-Computers is a great resource. Another fun way to learn is to visit LittleBits and buy some kits.
Second, get to know your operating system of choice. I recommend you start with and go deep on UNIX. I know there are still millions of Microsoft Windows machines out there but Mac OS X, iOS, Android and Linux all trace their heritage back to UNIX and new flavors of Windows are heavily influenced by UNIX.
Take that old computer you just rebuilt and install Ubuntu on it. A user-friendly version of Linux, Ubuntu gives you a shiny consumer experience with a hacker's heart. Learn basic UNIX commands using the terminal window. You can start with Learn UNIX in 10 Minutes and graduate to Indiana University's Introduction to UNIX. Create some directories, edit some files, customize your command prompt, and learn how to start, stop and configure a web server.
Third, study web programming using your rebuilt computer and Ubuntu. Web programming is relatively easy to learn and in demand. (There are very few web developers out of work right now.) I recommend that you start with Code Academy. For maximum employability, learn the basics of Javascript, HTML5, CSS, JQuery and Python (or PHP). Once you know the basics, go to the next level: JQuery is a great technology for a web developer to master.
Learning applications like Microsoft Excel or Adobe Photoshop is useful but puts you in competition with tens of millions of other people who are merely users. The demand for web developers continues to out pace the supply of qualified web developers. There are over 5,000 open web developer jobs (in my network in the United States) on LinkedIn right now.
I know this formula for improving your employment options works: I did it myself 30 years ago. I graduated from art school with an open mind and student loan debt. Potential employers laughed at my BA. (Yes, that actually happened.) So I did the pre-Internet equivalent of a DIY computer science education: I invested $60 on the three volumes of Inside Macintosh, bought a Pascal compiler and an original classic Mac computer (on credit). I was just following my curiosity, hacking, and it did not kill this cat -- it created the career I enjoy to this day.
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Dan Froomkin: Obama, Romney and the Low-Wage Future of America
1). Taking charge of being unemployed and creating your own destiny.
2). Software is really the lingua franca of the future. Getting in now can't hurt
3). You just might create the next startup after all...
I'm on my way with all three, but here's a twist. I started OLD. I'm 47 this year, and have finally become an advanced PHP/MySQL/Javasrcipt/HTML/CSS programmer, building my dream app by myself. This is after having been a highly paid Vice President, earning a PHD, and living a pretty full life. I went back to software to "do it right" after realizing that I'd spent a lifetime in the technology industry not knowing what the heck I was talking about...
Now I understand what our VP of Development meant so many years ago when he was talking about "getters and setters"....
FUN!!
Case in point: My wife grew up in a dirt-poor family. With the help of a an earned scholarship and part time work she graduated from university. Her major was English literature. At the end of her junior year a counselor suggested she take a computer programming class because there would probably be no jobs in her area of study.
With one computer class and an English degree she got a job writing computer system documentation. She progressed to a group supervisor role and a second job in a financial institution. Those jobs paved the way to an MBA. The MBA opened the door to an entry position in a major accounting and consulting firm. Her next move was to a high level position in the IT department of one of the largest industrial corporations in the world. While there, she studied for a second masters degree in information technology. Eventually she left the large corporation and now has a position as partner in another consulting company.
It's been a wild, unpredictable ride. She regularly thanks the guidance counselor. Her story illustrates what can happen with effort and willingness to risk taking an unconventional path. She was given nothing other than a strong work ethic. Government assistance was not part of the package.
I took a programming class, scored in the 99th percentile in math advance placement tests....aced chemistry, trig...with a very tough Scottish professor in my school in Europe.
But I do not enjoy for a single minute the tasks associated with programming. It takes a certain personality type. And I'm tired of all the career advice suggesting we are all square pegs and can therefore all fit into all the square peg jobs out there. some of us are round.
BTW, good Pascal compilers are Free Pascal and GNU Pascal. GNU Pascal is a bit outdated (being a front-end of the constantly-changing GCC) and not really widely available in distros, but Free Pascal is. It's even in BSD ports. I have a Pascal program I strive to compile in both, but keeping it compatible with GNU Pascal is a chore that I wouldn't recommend for most people doing Pascal programming; it's because of GNU Pascal's limited OOP and its strings are based on the ISO standard (using schemata instead of reference-counted pointers).
I know none of that stuff makes me even remotely employable, though.
For learning the *nix stuff, start with something like Arch or Mint, skip Ubuntu. It's been dumbed down too far.
If you're looking to get into more lower level stuff, look up the Raspberry Pi. It's a small computer that you can put a Linux distro on and do all kinds of experimental programming.
But thankfully there are video tutorials for virtually every technology under the sun on YouTube, and iTunes University. There are also vibrant online communities that can answer questions when you get stuck (see: http://www.stackoverflow.com).
Back in high school, I taught myself HTML and CSS by using "Inspect Source" in a web browser. And today, there are tons and tons of open source projects/apps where you can view the source and learn how the pros get things done.
Be curious!
Got an old PC lying around? Wipe the OS, and make it a Linux Web Server to tinker with. Great learning tools. Taughy myself PHP and MySQL this way, and still attempting to learn Javascript.
"find an old computer, take it apart and Google each component and chip that you find."
That may be the easiest thing in the world for you to do. But for many, that is a very daunting step to say the least.
"There are dozen of DYI sites"
"So I did the pre-Internet equivalent of a DIY computer science education:"
I gues I can start my education right there: What is DIY and what is DYI ? Are they the same and we're merely dealing with a typographical error?
Why?
Nurses spend all their time typing away like md on computers while their patients languish lying in their own youknowwhat pushing the call bell without relief.
:-)
dull
system dump x1k4.4/ssxt.v.w
I found the "For Dummies..." books quite helpful in sorting out the acronyms and helping me to grasp the concepts.
I don't know if they're still good or not, but you could see if the local library has any and look one over to see if you think they'd be right for you.