Coding and Kids

Headhunting is fun.  There's nothing like getting a search assignment and going after the deal.  You can smell the blood in the water.  But, I'm sad to say it's not enough.  Work isn't enough for anyone.  If anyone has read 7 Habits of Highly Effective people (http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0743269519) you'll see that everyone has different roles.  People are often many things.  You can be a business owner, a father, a husband, a son, etc. 

The other half of Highlander Solutions is still in its infancy stages -- perhaps even a twinkle in our eye.  We're looking to take on a big problem in America: jobs.  The job landscape is changing, but you know what we don't have enough of in this country?  Programmers.  Ask any startup or software company if they have enough technical talent and the answer will be a resounding "no!"

Good people are hard to find.

That's why I'm in business.  I tap people on the shoulder who are at one job, and introduce them to a better job.  Headhuners and companies alike will move people across the country, from one state to the next, all because the position is hard to fill with the local talent they have around them.

Let's make better people.

Better is not the right word.  Let's make more employable people.  There's a CNN article that talks about the issue a little bit: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/12/opinion/rushkoff-write-code/index.html

McDonalds starts getting kids hooked on Happy Meals early.  This is a trend that lasts a person's whole life.  All I'm saying is, let's get kids hooked on other things: like software development.  It's kind of like hooked on phonics, but let's get them hooked on software engineering.  Let's get them hooked on game programming.

Most software engineers I talk to say they got hooked on computers pretty early.  So, let's encourage that little habit around the U.S.

Both my parents are teachers.  I spent a lot of time as a substitute teacher and teaching sailing and involved in after school tutoring programs.

Teaching is hard.  But, you've got to do it.  And you've got to push hard and think of new ways to engage and inspire the youth.  So, we'll be tackling things like that.

I have a vision of this very similar to Dave Eggers' and McSweeney's 826Valencia.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the program, it's pretty awesome.  They have these all over the United States: http://826valencia.org/

What 826 is doing is amazing and inspiring.  Go and do Likewise!  We're gonna see if we can't take what they're doing and put a little technical spin on it.

That's what's coming up!