[thelist] Teach Old Programmer New Tricks

[Fred Jones]

I have a friend (yes, surprising, I know, but wait it gets better) who
used to be a programmer and "systems analyst" (whatever that is/was)
and says he worked in Cobol, PS1 and ADSL Those second two I never
even heard of. He anyway has been out of computer work for 20 years or
more (he's pushing 60 man). Now he is looking to get into it because
his other "career" has fizzled out. I told him I could advise him
regarding web work, but my advise would probably be to forget about
it.

He would have to learn HTML and CSS for starters. Then PHP (at least
that's what I use) and maybe JS. Then he asked about getting an
internship or a junior position, but telecommute. He wants to know how
much such a starting rung job would pay per hour.

This guy calls me sometimes to ask questions about how to deal with
his PC, like why is it so slow or how do I figure out why my hard disk
is so full and how do I remove things. So while maybe he once knew
Cobol, he's nobody's genius with a PC. Far from it.

But he thinks it could work.

Any other thoughts before I tell him it doesn't sound to me like it makes sense?

Thanks,
F