[olug] Opinions of MSCIS program at Bellevue

[Jacobs, Robert A.]

> I have to agree with Jaymz. During the time I was a part time Instructor
> at Metro Community College there were the two distinct groups of students.

<snip>

> But this is more than lazy students, this definitely has to do with lazy
> people who expect quick fixes done for them.
>
> Again - your education is what you make it.

Well said *and* you hit a hot-button topic for me.  

<rant on>

YOUR education is what YOU make of it.  You will find lazy students at
every institution.  I ran into my fair-share of lazy team-members - I
even remember successfully protesting the work accomplished by a 
team-member in my graduate studies at BU.  This team-member did not 
uphold their share of the work, the presentation was crap as a result
and I appealed my grade to the professor and won easily and without a
lot of hassle.  The professor had seen my previous work and knew that
the work presented was a far cry from the work I had presented only a
few weeks before.

The professors are not stupid and, unlike some professors I have had
throughout my academic career, I have found the professors at BU to
be more fair-minded.  I waited until the entire class had left and I
confronted the professor about the awful presentation my team had
given; she was well aware of who was putting in effort and eschewed the
"team succeeds as a team or fails as a team" attitude (which in academia,
in my opinion, always translates to the people who care about their 
education getting shafted by the ones who do not).

One of the nice things I saw in my graduate work at Bellevue was a 
tendency of the professors to provide the students an opportunity to
rate the members of their team.  If everyone on a team was not pulling
their weight, it would either become apparent or the peer evals could
be used to raise a flag for further inquiry.

If you are after a piece of paper, get a certification.  If you want
a DEGREE, and the responsibilities that can flow from that DEGREE, 
then take RESPONSIBILITY for your own education i.e. prove that you 
are responsible enough to handle the responsibilities that may follow
from having the degree. Make the effort and embrace the reality that
a degree is no guarantee of a position (and as you rise through
graduate school and post-graduate studies, it can become a hindrance -
"Oh, you're way over-qualified for this position.  Sorry.")

As far as the "guy with the degree trumps guy with gobs of experience"
argument goes: this is not always the case.  Unless the guy with the
degree is hired right into the position without anyone having 
witnessed his abilities or work-ethic, I believe the guy with 
experience has an equal or greater chance of promotion.  IT is one of
those professional fields that still works a lot on merit: what have 
you done for me in the past and, more importantly, what can you do for
me right NOW (with an unspoken: I *expect* you to do things for me in
the future).  Without a degree you may never reach the highest levels
of your organization but you can still be quite successful (case in
point: I  have a friend whose income and position are about equivalent
to my own - the last time we talked about the subject, I think I was a
bit behind him; I have a MSCIS and he has no formal degree - he has 
some college work but has not completed a degree - I don't begrudge 
this man his income; he is a very talented programmer and an excellent
troubleshooter (his strongest suit, if you ask me).  Would I make him
a Software Development Manager (SDM)? I don't know. Would he make 
himself an SDM? He doesn't know either - because he recognizes that 
his lack of formal education is hindering his ability to work with 
people above a certain level.  Its not that he lacks the skills, its 
that he lacks the terminology and practice that were gained in college
i.e. the rest of us talk in "short-hand" comparatively because we 
have a common background in theory and programmatics that he does not.

The most essential skill you learn in university is how to learn.  I 
think a lot of dead-beats could be eliminated from the CS/CIS world if
the introductory courses - beyond some basic logic and perhaps a 
single language course in C, C++ or Java (upon which to base further 
studies into programming languages) - would ask their students:

    How many of you love to, or at least are willing to, read 
    technical manuals for long periods of time?  Better put:
    How many of you understand the frustration that leads to
    answers like "RTFM" in online discussions?

    How many of you would be willing to learn language X 
    completely on your own - with only the internet, whatever
    books you are willing to acquire for yourself (out of your
    own funds if necessary) and your peers to help you?  Better
    put: thrown into unfamiliar territory, are you willing to
    find your way out with only a map and a compass or are you
    going to give up, sit down and take no action until directed?

    How many of you are willing to read at least two to four
    technical books a year or subscribe to, and actually read,
    at least one techical magazine or journal relevant to your
    position a year? Better put:  why did you come into IT?  For
    the money? For the right to be thrown out on your ear because
    of layoffs, outsourcing and H1Bs? For the love of some aspect
    of this mind-bending, puzzle-solving art?  If you aren't
    willing to constantly update your skills and stay at least one
    day ahead of obsolescence, the money you may receive today may
    stop dry up, without warning, tomorrow.

Cynical? Perhaps.  I'm as tired as the next guy of picking up the 
slack for those who are unwilling to do the work they have been 
assigned and, perhaps more importantly, those who are unwilling to 
continue to develop their skills; eliminating these people would make
my job a whole lot easier.  And the truly relevant part of this entire
rant is:  None of my peers, or subordinates to date, have ever been 
graduates from BU - the problem has nothing to do with what school you
go to.

A degree is a key to a door - those without this key can still jimmy
the lock to get inside; its just easier to do it with the key.  Once
you are inside the building, it is your behavior that will determine
whether you are allowed to stay or not.  The assumption is that the
guys who have the keys will behave predictably; sometimes the guys 
who have to jimmy the lock, however, are the guys who *want* to be 
there and are willing to make the effort to be the ones who deserve
to remain there.  You never can tell.