RE: Student-Degree valuable or not?

[Hans_Newton/cpfcu () cpfederal com]

I was recently in the same predicament, although I waited a long time to
finish my degree so you have the advantage of age on your side but as I was
interning at a local automotive plant, my supervisor and I were talking and
this exact subject came up.  He brought up a great point in that the actual
people you work with, i.e. your IS department or network department want
experience.  The more experience you have, the better.  Degrees are just
formality for promotion.  If you can get the job accomplished without
breaking anything or taking down the network, you'll go far.  The flip side
of that coin is that in most of these work places in order to get your foot
in the door you have to have a degree, which is established by the
company's HR department, who incidentally have NO idea what it means to
rebuild PC or track a bad line of cat 5 cable, but since they're the
gatekeepers, they won't let you in without a pass.  The more degrees and
certifications you have, the bigger your pass will be.  My opinion would be
to continue getting your certs and any thing else you can degree wise while
you can still afford to devote so much time to this, because I just
finished my degree and with taking care of a family, working full time,
going to school full time and studying for certification tests, I nearly
went CRAZY!!!!!!  The other thing I would recommend would be to get an
internship.  Company's are a lot more willing to let someone in when they
don't have to pay for you, this is your opportunity not only to get
experience, but also to possibly prove yourself to the management and end
up with a job with that company.  Also get as many professional referrals
as possible.

Hope this helps.

-Hans
Network Administrator





Paul Ledin <paul_ledin () yahoo com> on 10/01/2003 11:43:11 AM

To:    security-basics () securityfocus com
cc:
Subject:    RE: Student-Degree valuable or not?


Dude I think Micro$oft is "the man", or at least a
very dear close personal friend of his. ;-)  Seems
like a bit of a contradiction to be so passionate
about law and a company that's been in such blatant
violation of it, not to mention buying its way out.

Anyway I have to say again that I think your in a very
advantageous place in life right now.  You might well
elude that recent grad catch-22 that one of the
previous poster's eluded to ie can't get a job w/o
experience and can't get experience w/o a job.  The
current economic enviroment might be exagerating it
somewhat, but I think this is true most of the time
regardless of economic conditions.  Granted I didn't
live in Silicon Valley or one of the other former IT
hot spots, but when I graduated in 1999 I played the
same game then, although only for a month or two
instead of 6-12 which is probably the norm now.



--- DANIEL SIMPSON <DANSIMPS () uat edu> wrote:
> After graduation of high school I moved to Silicon
> Valley and worked for
> Napster (3 months), Hi Five (8 months), a local
> consulting firm and a
> large private school doing IT related stuff. I got
> laid off (at age 22)
> and really had to reinvent myself. I traveled
> around, visited friends
> and family and talked to as many older people as I
> could for suggestions
> (lasted about 6 months). After everything people
> told me, I knew what I
> had to do. They told me the one thing nobody can
> take from you is an
> education. I have passion in technology and law and
> everyday I want to
> do something new. I'm in my 4th week of school and
> wonder if I made the
> right decision. After all, I had to move away from
> California and leave
> all my friends and family behind. I already realize
> that I don't want to
> work for "The man" but I would like to work for one
> of my favorite
> companies for at least a couple years so I know I
> MUST get a degree to
> fulfill this dream. I'm getting a powerful degree
> from a school that is
> fairly unknown but has the best program I have ever
> seen (Yes they are
> regionally accredited) and some of the best access
> to latest technology
> any school can provide. I didn't do so hot in high
> school so my access
> to public schools was extremely limited, I was
> forced to spend the bucks
> and allow to private schools. Who can complain? I
> don't plan on sitting
> during my 4 year stint; I already have some
> certifications and plan on
> getting more. I'm doing an internship right now and
> applying for a
> summer intern at Microsoft.


=====
I can't die until the government finds a safe place to bury my liver.
  -- Phil Harris

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