[olug] [OT] IT degrees

[Dan Anderson]

I'll throw my 2 cents in...

Self-study then go get your Redhat certification.  It is a pretty well
regarded cert that includes hands-on labs that validate that you
really can do a few things.  A vmware cert would probably be a big
plus these days too.

Then I'd do sys admin work somewhere and let them pay for a degree
from a traditional college.  I'd probably do the first 2 years at a
community college (very affordable) and then transfer to a 4 year
public university (check in advance and make sure that your counselor
knows your plan so your credits transfer.)

CS versus MIS versus CE, EE, etc all depends on your ultimate goals, a
couple years as a sys admin will make you a better programmer anyway
and pretty much no one really cares which degree their sys admins have
as long as it is kind of related.

I would not recommend a tech school degree, you usually can't transfer
anything and they are kind of expensive compared to public colleges.
Also a college degree looks better on a resume IMO then a DeVry or ITT
or Kaplan, etc (if the person you are interviewing with has a tech
school degree they won't look down on a college degree, but if they
have a college degree they might look down on a tech school degree).
The whole "I get to work faster because I don't have to take math,
speech and english" is a short-sighted position, ultimately, you will
need good skills in these areas if you want the option of moving up
the career ladder at some point in the future (not that you can't get
these skills other places, but now is convenient - you'll be going to
school anyway).  I spend more time writing and speaking these days
then I do playing with technology.

I would also avoid online only colleges - pretty much the same issues
as tech schools, but if you have the self-discipline (online can be
tough for some people) there are some good online programs from
traditional universities and your degree shouldn't say "Online" on it,
so opinionated people like me will never know that it was online.  ;-)

I went back to school when I was pushing 30.  I went to UNO for MIS
and don't regret it at all.  I didn't learn anything new about
technology (to be fair I had 10+ years of experience at the time), but
economics and accounting have been useful, as has comp, math and
technical writing.

This year is a great time to start with the various stimulus packages
available...

Good Luck!

Dan