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After a brief sojourn in the Merchant Marine, I became a computer operator (on the LEO III/6[^]), went on to become a programmer, then a support engineer. Tried being a manager and failed miserably, so I went back to support and was reasonably fulfilled for the last 15-20 years of my career.
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After having been in the industry (engineering, software, healthcare) for nearly 20 years ...
... thinking of going into teaching my original discipline (a Mechanical Engg subject) in a local engineering college, towards the end of 2015.
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Me too thinking about teaching, but after law changes I need to acquire a degree of teaching - knowledge not enough anymore...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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I have a Ph.D. degree, so that counts, I think 
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Not here: you have to have a paper called 'teaching certificate' for getting a license to teach...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Classroom or part-time?
Virtual/online certification possible?
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Classroom...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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I had just got my PhD and was looking forward to being formally addressed as "Doctor ..." when I ended up teaching and was called "Professor ...". However, I then went on a teacher training course to learn how to "teach" rather than how to "study" a subject. A lot of people think they can miss out this important step; sometimes they can; usually they shouldn't have!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Yes - it becomes necessary to sit in the student's shoes, and see from the learner's viewpoint, and that's often an art.
Long back, had the opportunity to teach juniors near my house (free coaching classes for undergrads, championed by a local social worker); my first year of teaching was a disaster, but students of my second and third batches were happy (as I perceived ).
IMHO, it is always better to start from scratch, while teaching a topic. May cause some boredom to a brighter student, but is likely to be more understandable to the average one.
Over the years, have seen a range of people from excellent-researcher-but-poor-teacher to excellent-teacher-but-poor-researcher.
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Quote: Over the years, have seen a range of people from excellent-researcher-but-poor-teacher to excellent-teacher-but-poor-researcher.
It is surprising how often that correlates. It seems the required, and sometimes natural, skills don't often coincide in the same person. You can have one or the other but not both.
I quit being a professor about 32 years ago and got a proper development job. Back then the bachelors degree syllabus I was teaching was mandated by the national education board and was heavily biased towards the "History of Computing" and knowing things like the read and write speeds of tapes and those newfangled discs (we still spelled it with a "c" in England back then - "disk" was an American spelling and therefore frowned upon!) and it didn't change much from year to year despite the leaps and bounds in computer technology during that time. I just got bored out of my brains going over the same (useless) stuff for three years running! Hopefully that has improved.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I didn't do it, but one of my best friend was a QA Engineer for over 10 years, but dropped the job and opened a bakery of bread without yeast...
He is in the business for 13 years now and looks very happy...
And my father too...He was a chemical expert in various hospitals for over 35 years and then became a 'housekeeper' for local school...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
modified 10-Jun-15 6:03am.
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My dad left teaching to do property maintenance after 25 years. He said teaching wasn't about teaching kids any more, but was just all paperwork and he didn't like that. He's never been happier.
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He done it twice ?
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Heh for some reason when I clicked post it didn't post, then it did 
modified 10-Jun-15 6:23am.
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The hamsters probably (or do you have parkinson?)...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Possibly 
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Chances are it was picked up by the automated spam system for some reason. These go to moderation instead of being published immediately, and stay there until someone notices and says "this isn't spam" - at which point it is published.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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There could do with being some sort of notification when you post that that is what is happening, I posted three times thinking something was broken last week then they all turned up.
And yes, I know this is the wrong place to post this.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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Not sure about that: if there was, then it lets the spammers know what's happening and that they need to fine tune their posts until they aren't caught.
It works as is, with not too many false positives - and it certainly has dramatically reduced the amount of spam we get here! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I was on a path to being a career soldier, but got out, went back to school, the rest is history. So yes, I have done a "reset" on a career.
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My brother was a financial adviser (seller) with many different companies in the UK for over 10 years, it was results driven, high pressure, then he got made redundant a couple of years ago.
He now works for a company that installs and maintains those little machines that give toys or sweets either out of a slot or with a grabber that you find in pubs and supermarkets (in the UK at least).
He drives around the country in a van, installing them and ding simple maintenance or swapping when they are broken.
He has never been happier in his work and the party bags at his kids' birthday parties are awesome.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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I used to be a World Conquering Super Villain, but switched to development due to the high cost of shark food, and the wear and tear on white cats.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Before you switched did you get find a way to get freakin laser beams on their heads? 
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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Be no point in feeding them if they didn't!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Yes - I spent one year working shifting boxes in a warehouse in the early part of my IT career.
This was purely on the basis of not having a good work balance at the time, spending hours and hours coding and not much else - I wanted to do something physical and the company I worked for paid all staff equally so I was not taking a pay cut.
It was the right choice - I had a year of heavy physical work(I was less tired in the evening than when I was at a desk) and I also got an appreciation of how uninteresting that type of work was, eventually returning back into the IT team.
Sure if you want a 'career' doing this sort of thing is probably frowned upon - however I have no desire to be in management or have a 'career'...
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
modified 10-Jun-15 8:02am.
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