[Edu-sig] real advice to a real student (comments welcome)

[Laura Creighton]

Can you suggest your student watch this video?
http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-drive

It is Dan Pink's _The Surprising Truth About what Motivates Us_

After he or she has done so, I have this added bit.

Turns out, in test after test after test, what people want in order to
be happy with what they do is Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.  (It's
also what you need to give them if you want them to do that job well.)
I would add, not on Dan Pink's list, that the opportunity to work
with interesting and good people also is a factor.

This means that when you go out and consider what do I need to do or
learn in order to have a job in IT, it is important to work something
out so that you will end up doing something that you find worthwhile.
Otherwise, you will just quit and find something else to do ...

People who are about to study something are at a bit of a disadvantage
when it comes to making sure that they get autonomy, mastery and purpose.
After all, by deciding to talk to Kirby you are demonstrating idependence
and autonomy, and whenever you decide to learn something, like Python
you are working on Mastery.  The Purpose of 'I am going to transform
myself into a Skilled Python programmer' handles the Purpose part rather
well, and learning things on your own handles the autonomy part about
as well as it can be done.  With all these aspects being well handled,
it is easy to fool yourself into thinking that all life as a Python
programmer will work this way.

But once you have done sufficient learning as to be able to get a job,
it is quite possible to end up doing something that isn't autonomous
(your boss rides you all the time about the work that needs doing),
isn't challenging (we aren't paying you to learn around here, just to
do things that you already know how to do) and thus doesn't increase
your sense of mastery, and is fairly pointless (if I weren't getting
paid to do this, I would never do anything like this at all).  As
Dan Pink mentions, the thing to do about money is to pay people well
enough that it no longer becomes a motivating issue, because people
who are paid far too little are always thinking about money and not
about the job.  Now, if you are in the position of being dependent
on your parents for any money you receive, you may be deep in the land
of 'not getting paid enough for your effort' because you are not getting
paid at all.  And, indeed, your life will be greatly improved once you
start earning a decent wage ....

But at this point the other factors start becoming the most important ones,
and if you haven't understood this, you can end up in a pointless (but
decently paying) job that doesn't allow you to grow, controls you and
stresses you out.  By understanding the problem you can make sure you
do not end up there.

Best of luck in life, whatever you choose to do --
Laura Creighton