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I'm just wondering if any others are taking the path or have taken the path in a career of IT. What did you do to get there? I've had various opinions regarding the matter, and I'd like to read some more opinions.
One way of looking at this is that certifications are straight to the point in what you know, while a college in degree in "computer whatever" is too broad.
A lot of my friends got jobs in IT. The key is internships during the summer when you're in college.
edit: do NOT try to get in the field, any field, without a college degree. Nowadays you need a degree to advance anywhere, go to Monster and look up Senior ______ and see what they ask for... even if its 10 years of experience they want they still want a degree. Baby Boomers were probably the last people that could advance deep into a profession without college. College degrees arent about teaching you the exact shit you will need on the job anyway, thats what on-the-job training is for.
I took the college route and earned a Bachelor's in Computer Science. One of my college buds referred me to a small consulting startup company, so that's how I got my first job upon graduation after turning down an offer by ComEd. Six months there, I wasn't digging it and wanted out, but they referred me to one of their large corporate clients. So, I started there entry level as a Software Engineer making $50k in Oct of '98, and two years later was making $62k.
At the interview with the CTO, he didn't even bother looking at my resume. I pulled it out to hand over and he's like, "Nah, I don't need to see that..." I was thinking to myself, "But but, look, I wrote a compiler even! All the cool things I did are on it and you don't even wanna look!! Waaaah! :(" So yeah, I'd recommend college simply because you broaden yourself and work on the foundational stuff. If you network and make good contacts while there, a good referral will the get ball rolling for you, so there's that too. Referral >>> resume. I couldn't get over that... Heh. He just brushed my resume aside like that.
But yeah, that's just what worked for me. I actually didn't want to go to college at first. With lack of direction/uncertainty as High School was ending, enter my mom who kept pestering me about going, so that's what I did. She never got to go back in her home country and wanted to be damn sure someone in the family here did. I did briefly think about a job in the Heating/AC Repair industry because someone I knew from High School went into that and told me those jobs were $50k to start also. I signed up for home training in that field, but I couldn't keep my motivation up in it, so I dropped it after a while. No regrets there.
Don't waste your time/money with certifications.. As the others said, just get a degree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinobi128
I spent my last two years in college working in the IT department for a chain of college bookstores, before graduating with a CS degree in 98. I've stayed in the IT field in a couple of different jobs, until setting into my current one where I'm a tech lead for two seperate projects.
A pack of certifications may show you have the "how" of how to do something, but a degree in computer science can show that you at least have been through a system that teaches you the "why". Of course it all depends on the person, but a prosepctive employer doesn't know you or how hard you work, or how good you are at picking up concepts.
Like diffx was saying, it's not about learning exactly what you need for a job. It's teaching you how to learn things, particuarly things that relate to the field that you've chosen to study.
I work in IT, and I have a college degree. It has worked out well so far for me. I agree with NightWolve though in that referral > resume. It really is who you know.
I think it all depends on what exactly you want to do. I started to go to school for Computer Science, but I dropped it after a few semesters. I physically like putting together/repairing computers, but aside from that I don't really like the IT field. So for me a certification would be better. On the flip side, if you want to work for a corporation (ANY corporation, any field) you need a degree (any degree, doesn't much matter) to be able to move up. Of course, if you are working for a small business or better yet own your own, obviously this doesn't matter as much.
If money is important to you, the IT jobs you'd get with a degree generally pay much more than those you'd get with certifications. On the down side, the job market is FLOODED with people who "just" have a computer science degree. I know a few working at Wal-Mart now.
I got bored with computing all together and am in sales now. I'm working towards becoming a sports car mechanic. A hell of a lot can happen in 10 years, I go from wanting to do programming, to computer repair, to sales, to grease monkey :D
I have a degree in Information Technology from RPI, with a minor in Technological Entrepreneurship.
Here is the deal: Don't go to a school that offers a mediocre IT program. It is a waste. Go to a school that knows that IT isn't just being a systems admin in a lame company. If you go to a school with one of the better IT programs, you can set your focus of what you want to do, even if it isn't IT. Hell, I didn't start any companies, I don't even do IT work. The point is, they had us writing so many RFPs, doing so much high and low level programming, complex math, projects, team work, large group work, management, finance, accounting, tech-history, human-computer interaction, physics, etc. etc. etc.
When I switched from a Math major to an IT major (I was tired of reading esoteric Math Theory books while other students actually DID things, no offense to my Math Major bros.) it was a fantastic change.
If you get a well-rounded education, you can do ANYTHING.
I work on games full time and I couldn't be happier.
If you want to be a Information Systems major and be in charge of making sure servers don't crash, that is completely different. I would say go the certification route and climb the ladder.
PS: RPI let us choose our concentration, a.k.a. what you wanted to apply IT towards.
Here is the list offered at my school (from http://www.rpi.edu/dept/IT/undergrad/curriculum.html)
I'm not saying you should go where I went (I'm glad to be out of middle-of-nowhere upstate New York), but you should go somewhere that has a program that lets you focus on what you are interested in.Quote:
The IT undergraduate curriculum consists of core IT courses, IT electives, and IT concentration courses. The concentration provides an opportunity for in depth study of an IT application area. A student selects a concentration from the list of concentrations below. Alternatively, a student may choose his or her own courses with faculty advisement to fulfill concentration requirements and explore a special interest. To see IT core and elective courses, visit IT Degree Requirements.
Current Concentrations:
Arts
Building Science
Civil Engineering
Communication
Communication and Networks
Computer Hardware
Economics
Electronic Commerce
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Industrial Engineering
Machine & Computational Learning
Management Information Systems
Mechanical / Aeronautical Engineering
Medicine
Pre-Law
Product Design and Innovation
Psychology
Science and Technology Studies
Science Informatics
Web Technologies
I remember reading an article on AOL a bunch of years ago, as the bubble was starting to get big that said "Computer Science Majors/programmers make the most money" and I knew it was the beginning of the end. When I started college, IT was just starting to get big and had JUST become a major. IT will be the next big thing to go downhill once the market becomes over-saturated.Quote:
Originally Posted by GohanX
BEST. ADVICE. EVER.Quote:
Originally Posted by diffusionx
If anybody younger than college age is reading this, before college is even better. I did internships in Highschool and actually included a copy of a game I worked on in my college application "packet". I had to do something to offset my shitty highschool grades.
PS: I didn't make grades in college either, but I did get out early by taking as many courses as humanly possible. If you can't make grades, get by with a C average and internships and get out in 3 years if at all possible.
Thanks for advice everyone.
I've done some research a lot of people seem to have good points on both sides of the argument. I'm getting ready to graduate with by A.A. degree in a few months, and I should have my A+ certification by then as well. Other people seem to be doing well with both a degree and some certifications, but then there is the problem of being "overqualified." I have much research to do.