| > Let the mail room or call center people apply for the cobol training program and become developers. That is exactly my story ('85 or thereabouts), with the added caveat that I didn't learn anything from the Cobol training program. The bank where I worked did not even have a way for mailroom people to get into IT, it was mostly because they got sick of my continued applications to IT jobs for which they though I wasn't qualified that I got the chance to do the course (with the qualifier that if I didn't succeed they never wanted to see me again). So, I passed (and was the quickest person to complete the course) and ended up making a very rapid career in the IT department and after that started my own company. Some observations: - the entry level IT job paid four times as much as what the mail room job did - work went from 5:30 am to 2 pm to 9'ish to 4'ish (ish because nobody ever checked who appeared when and when they left again whereas in the mailroom attendance was very strictly policed) - in the mailroom you felt part of critical infrastructure, in IT there was zero pressure to perform - bringing the mailroom attitude ('let's get some work done') to the IT department was not appreciated by the rest of the department - the mailroom had zero office politics, if you stepped out of line you would get chewed out and that would be that, by comparison the IT department was a huge web of intrigue, and quite a few of the people there were downright mean and backstabbing each other all the time - the mailroom was all guys, the IT department had exactly two women programmers on a total crew of about 120, the only other woman was a secretary to the head of IT - There were a few talented people there but on the whole the talent level was rather low, but they were big on process and that really helped to get stuff out the door |