Hello *Future Computer Jobs* What should I Learn?

[Buildology]

I am new to the the Mr Excel Forum and what a great resource.

I am considering going back to college or a computer tech school. I am 49 with little computer experience dating back to window 3.1.
The home building business has been played out for 30 years.
So my question would be; What type of computer specialty would be in the most demand down the road. I think MY skill set would not accommodate programming. But if I where to go back and retool myself, what would make the most sense. I would have to do something that would allow me to be
in demand and therefor quickly get a good job upon finishing training.

Any advice will be very much appreciated Thanks
Bill

 

[NateO]

Hi Bill,

Programming on a non-software distributed means, tends to be a means to the end. So the trickier part is figuring out what the end-game is, and which tool best suits your needs as the means.

I build financial models, Excel works for me. That could change with personalities. What do you want you want build?

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the Board!

I'd first ask what you enjoy doing. If you have a background in homebuilding, what was your (to use a buzz-phrase) core competency? How can you make that come to play? You probably won't have any fun learning something new just for the sake of learning it, then trying to make yourself saleable based off of that.

How about taking what you know and enjoy and basing your new career off of that?

For example, I got to play with a Microsoft program called Visio this year and designed complete floor plans for our new office. I was later called on to build more plans for other offices, because our current facilities guy (very old school) does it all with pencil and ruler with renderings the landlord/realtor sends him.

I dug that, although it took me away from my Excel stuff for a good four months, but I realized that some of my past work as a nail pounder really helped me with design/reality aspects. E.G. some dipshoot architecht called for a break room 45' from the nearest drain, so I relocated it next to the ladies' bathroom and saved $20+k in plumbing work.

If you can figure out what you like doing vs. what you think is in demand I think you'll be a lot happier. For as campy as it is, check out a book called "What color is you parachute?" by Richard Nelson Bolles. It's well worth the read, and sure made me think a lot about what I'll do next and who I'll choose to work for.

Good luck and I hope that helps,

 

[Buildology]

Hi NateO & Smitty

Thanks for your info. I ordered the book on Amazon and looking forward to the fresh ideas.

As a builder I do very much enjoy job cost accounting. I have demoed many construction specific accounting programs. I have found many problems with just about all of them.
1. Logical order of data entry
2. GUI in most cases very plan and confusing
3. Reporting is difficult to interpret or is lacking any useful info at all

This is just a very small list. Quickbooks for instance, a great user interface easy enough to use for most small contractors. BUT the job cost reports are ridicules, and that's after spending much time tricking them out.
One idea I had was adding some animation to some of the tasks, not over the top but just enough to make the user experience enjoyable.

I have desiged some simple spreadsheet with drop downs but am a long way from all out design. My current project is to Make a data Entry Form and have the data transferred into a data base without useing VB or Access.

Well you guys got me thinking now! Now I just have to figure out how to get payed to do this.

Thanks Again
Bill

 

[Smitty]

I have desiged some simple spreadsheet with drop downs but am a long way from all out design. My current project is to Make a data Entry Form and have the data transferred into a data base without useing VB or Access.

You might want to look into VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), which is the programming language included with almost all Office programs, and is a subset of VB. It is hugely powerful and will allow you to build custom user forms, that can write to an Excel database structure, text file, Access, etc.

Here's a good primmer: http://www.contextures.com/xlUserForm01.html