An aptitude test started my programming career

Starting this blog

Several months ago, members of the Houston Adobe User’s Group, HoustonAUG, were asked to present some of their work to the group. As an incentive, presenters were given the chance to win a copy of Adobe Studio 8. Past meetings had been held at the Art Institute of Houston in a vacant classroom but this meeting was in a live classroom with students who were about to enter the job market.

Like most grandfatherly speakers with a young audience I began using historical references pulled from my 40 year career. However, the students steered me away from my unprepared presentation. We ended up talking about what it was going to be like to be a programmer. For me, it was a very enjoyable evening. I think they enjoyed hearing about some of my experiences.

That experience awakened something in me. I found I really enjoyed sharing some things with the students. I know I can’t become an instructor. I understand you have to have advanced degrees to teach there. I hoping that I can use blogging to vent my new found interest.

Recently I read “Dreaming in Code” by Scott Rosenberg. The author, a reporter, was allowed to follow a software project from the onset. I thought the book was unique and very good but I was relieved to finish it. It brought back many of my purposefully hidden memories about past projects. It seems my most fulfilling projects were also the most stressful. I guess the fun of starting and the relief from finishing projects gets us through the middle. I have no choice anyway. I am compelled to write programs. I can’t imagine what I would have been if I had been born a generation earlier.

I’m not starting this blog with any expectations that someone will actually read it. Maybe if my grandkids stumble across it one day they might be interested to find out about the other life of their grandfather.

My Beginning

I had been working as a laboratory technician at the PPG Industries Chemical Division Technical Center in Corpus Christi, TX. It was a pretty good job for a college dropout. It was great place to work and I was very lucky to get the job but it didn’t really seem to be a career for me. In 1966, management announced they were going to offer a computer programming job to one of the non senior level technicians. They gave us an aptitude test and I “won”. I didn’t even know what computer programming was.

Aptitude tests seemed to disappear after that. I believe they became politically incorrect at some point. From my own experience I think companies should bring them back; especially when recruiting entry level programmers. I did a quick little web search on “aptitude tests”. It seems the meaning has become somewhat convoluted. For example, I saw references to aptitude tests for different programming languages. Those tests are an attempt to measure someone’s skill in a programming language. I believe those kinds of tests are not very effective at finding a successful employee. The test I took assumed no knowledge of programming.