In my experience getting a bachelor's degree in SOMETHING will open many
employment doors that will otherwise stay shut.  This is especially true in
a downturn economy.  While I use very little of the actual factual stuff of
my EE degree on a daily basis and haven't for years, I would not be working
where I am now at the salary I have now without the paper.

Studies show that when a potential employer picks up your resume to review
it, he or she will decide in 7 seconds, on average, whether or not to keep
looking at it.  Many times that 7 seconds is spent looking at education and
certifications.  If they don't like what they see, the resume goes to the
"round file."

In many ways all a degree proves is that you can follow a set of rules.
But, many employers won't even look at you seriously unless you have that
blessed piece of paper.

However, YMMV.

Alan

At 11:57 AM 3/21/01 -0700, you wrote:
>I am going to disagree on one point. You don't necessarily need to get a CS
>degree. Go to college for something you want to learn, and that you can't
>easily teach yourself. I got a microbiology degree and after I graduated I
>was hired as a Unix sysadmin. If you are going to do computers as a job then
>go to school for it. If computers is your passion and you want to get paid
>for it, go to school for another one of your interests and gain work
>experience (school help desk, etc). Just my opinion though and I am sure
>that many will disagree.
>
>Joel Dudley
>Unix System Administrator 
>DevelopOnline.com
>----------------------------------------
>"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the
>story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is
>about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock,
>he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for
>centuries."
>- Dr. Robert Jastrow, Founder Goddard Space Flight Institute 
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Deepak Saxena [mailto:deepak@csociety.purdue.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 11:07 AM
>To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
>Subject: Re: Advice
>
>
>
>My opinions (which i will probably get flamed for)
>
>1) Get some cheap hardware and start learning how to do things on your
>   own as was mentioned before
>2) With those skills get an entry level job somewhere
>3) Save money and get a degree in CS, but while getting a degree in CS
>   make sure you take some classes in low level stuff like architecture.
>   Or if a full college degree is not what you're interesested in, just
>   take the relevant classes or pick up a book.  The key is don't
>   just learn how to setup a network and a web server, etc, learn how
>   this stuff works.
>
>   Why step 3 you make ask? b/c IMHO having a good understanding of
>   how computers work from top to bottom instead of just how to 
>   use the tools to do the job will let you do your job much better.
>   It will also make you much more flexible down the road and I 
>   think it makes it easier to pick up new technologuies.
>   People may disagree with this, but I have seen enough IT people
>   (both Windows and Un*x) who have NO CLUE about how computers actually 
>   works that I would highly reccomend as much as you can about 
>   computers, not just high level networking stuff.
>
>~Deepak
>
>On Mar 21 2001, at 10:02, Tyler Hall was caught saying:
>> Greetings,
>> 
>> I need your guy's advice,  I'm hoping to get into the field of networking
>in the near future.  Such as, managing a school or a company's network.
>I'm going to school right now at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, to get
>this stupid degree in "Microsoft Networking"  I think it's a waste of my
>time and money.   I'm looking for someone that is in that field, and would
>be willing to tell me, what steps I should take.  I currently just graduated
>from high school, so i'm still young.   Any advice would be helpful.   
>> 
>> Please reply privately, so we don't disturb the public list :) 
>> 
>> Tyler Hall
>> 
>> "Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow
>me!" 
>> - Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe (Guadalcanal, January 13, 1943) 
>
>-- 
>Deepak Saxena - deepak@csociety.purdue.edu - phone://602.790.0500
>
>Code Monkey, MontaVista Software, Inc. - THE Embedded Linux Experts
>
>call me 'evil' call me 'tide is on your side' anything that you want
>anybody knows you can conjure anything by the dark of the moon
>  - Tori Amos, "Suede"
>
>________________________________________________
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>to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
>
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>http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>________________________________________________
>See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't
post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
>
>Plug-discuss mailing list  -  Plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
>http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>
>
/------------------------------------------
|Alan Dayley             www.adtron.com
|Software Engineer       602-735-0300 x331
|ADayley@adtron.com
|
|Adtron Corporation         
|3710 E. University Drive, Suite 5
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