what do you think???

[JasonGS]

I am a 19 year-old programmer employed as a junior programmer (dba,vb/sql/oracle/html/asp/com) for a very large ISP. After high school, college just didn't seem like the thing for me because I hated high school... but I was wondering what an AS degree in application development from a tech. college and a few years experience at a very large ISP would do for me?

OPINIONS PLEASE, life at stake!

[HDR]

From my experience, a two year degree is about the same as no degree. Most jobs require either a four year degree, or experience to equal about a four year degree.

[billrogers]

I agree with HDR. The isp experince is nice, but a four year degree with that experince would be really nice.

[dvst8]

why don't you consider a computer/software engineering degree? with your experience, you should be able to get it no problem. all it will take is some time commitment, but then you will reap the rewards!

i'm 20, in electrical engineering, doing ASP/html development for the summer, and must say that the stuff i learn at school is a lot more interesting than this...

i can give you more info if you want.
gl
d8

[Edited by dvst8 on 06-06-2000 at 02:40 PM]

[Technocrat]

In a perfect world it works kind of like this.

You and another person are in line to fill one position. You have 5 years of experience and so does he. But he has an AS or an BS, and you dont. So most likely it would go to the other person because they have a better education and so on.

But of course in the real world it doesn't always work that way.

Usually the person that interviews the best and shows the most knowledge and drive gets the job.

Bottom line: Might help.

But having a degree will affect the decision greatly. It's also a reputation sort of thing. If you were up against someone who had 5 years collage and you had none, you're hopes might be pretty low.

[Crazy D]

I think a good boss has to look at what you can, not what any paper says you can. I prefer experience... much much much much more usefull then some college degree (at least, I can say that from my own experience. With my last work, I worked with guys who did the university, and actually they were not usefull, they know the syntax and rules but miss the experience (that was my luck! (I don't have any degree at al) ;-)

But it also helps "scare" your opponent away. If all your competitors all have 5 year degrees and you have none, who do you think they would want to have on their team?

Yes, sometimes, University isn't necessary, but it sure helps in the long run.

put in the effort and get a MCSD, (Employers love that thing). At your age go one better and do a MCSE as well.

University degrees do help in scoring that job, quite a few jobs down here ask for University qualifications. To do with business knowledge. You might be the best programmer in the world, but if you caren't understand a Balance Sheet, and have no drive to move into Project Management and above, an employer is not going to be over impressed with you.

Which gets me to my number one bug bear. I took a degree in Info Systems because l didn't want to be an accountant, yet in this game your expected to know as much about book keeping as a fully qualified accountant. As well as Sales Management, Inventory Control, Forecasting aaargh!!!!!!!!

[JasonGS]

I think I will start with an AS now because I have the time and then see where that gets me, if I need to; I can always go throw another two years in... I also think that the experience will look real good on the resume, mainly because of who the company is... being a dbe/programmer for *them* should impress just about anyone. I am also going to get my MCSD in addition to my MCSE that I already have.