Re: The future, what employers look for, and degrees

[Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst () gmail com>]

Hi Adrian,

I will be starting my final year in September doing an undergraduate degree
in Ethical Hacking for Computer Security (
http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=UUSETH1) in England.

* Have I learnt much from the course thus far?

Id say yes. I admittedly think that the security side of the course is out
of tune with the real world however I have gained all sorts of other skills.
Such as time management, communication skills, working in a team, research
skills as well as programming, networking and other computer related topics.

* Do I think it will help my employability?

I think so. I think it proves my dedication to the topic of Information
Security by specifically choosing the course itself. I would also like to
think an employer would recognise the non-technical skills I had acquired at
university.

There are plenty of students on the course itself who moan about the fact
that they aren't being taught how to write shell code or find buffer
overflows and do nothing else about it.

In short I think getting your name out there is important and will land you
a job. But in order to be able to keep a job you need to prove you have the
relevant skills required.

Ryan

On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 10:50 PM, Adrian Crenshaw <irongeek () irongeek com>wrote:

>     Ok, I was speaking with someone today from a different field today that
> has a masters. I alluded to the fact that I'm loosing interest in the
> "Security Informatics" masters program I'm in because of lack of perceived
> applicability, time taken that I could use learning other things, and it
> seems like there is a huge disconnect between academia vs. what I see in the
> industry (through my admittedly limited experience listening to podcast,
> reading forums/mailing list, going to conferences, etc). His take was that
> I'd be competing with people in the future, and the masters degree could
> likely be the deciding factor. Do you think that is really true? Or do you
> think employers will start to see academia as it has become to be a largely
> wasteful exercise vs. getting your name out there and learning/getting
> experience on your own? When I hear about people going into great debt to
> get something that amounts to a union card in many cases (a degree), it kind
> of makes be hope the whole system can be reformed. For what I've seen in the
> industry, it seems to mater more what people know you for than any degree
> you have. Am I wrong? Anyone got a different way to look at it?
>
> Adrian
>
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