ForumsHQ

Dude, do the degree and if along the way ya can get certs, go for it! This country is still based on the Good Ol Boy system, and all the good ol boys have degrees and figgure to be able to communicate, work, and play on their level you need to have a similar background. If for no other reason, it shows a perspective employer that you can stick with something until completion.



As for myself, I am a HS grad, Militay trained, all PC and software skills I have learned OJT. I currently work for the State O Texas as a systems analyst, network manager, and systems administrator on a a 16K PC network with 500 Novell servers, 130 NT/W2k servers, Mainframe, and various and sundry Linux and Unix platforms.



I should have gotten My degreee yrs ago, but hell, I'm a lazy shit.



Hanover Fist

DO THE DEGREE

I know someone that has a degree in Literature or something of the sorts who's also MCSE certified and working towards Cisco certs. He makes a great salary for his knowledge, but the cert certainly helps. If you can learn like he did and get the certs, you can maybe land a job with a small company to build up your experience. He spent 10's of thousands of dollars on equipment to set it up and experiment with what he needed to know though.

Hanover worded it best.

Certs use to be more worth something but the market got flooded so now companies are looking for experience.



Certs have turned into a way of increasing your value to a company and higher pay

His raw knowledge helped him more than certs did though. It helps when you practice what you learn from the books and whatnot for the cert tests, but without any real practical application it's not very worthwhile.

nod, Im going to a tech school where I get cisco certified and get a degree from the college...Costs alot though but its worth it

Any kind of education you can get is not wasted. This includes certifications. The problem with certifications is that they are merely tests that can be memorized and there is no discipline needed to pass one and a skill is not learned in the process (except by those who actually played with the SW required for the cert) OJT still remains the best way to actually learn (in my opinion) as it forces practical application in a real world senario. Lets face it, how many people actually use the OSI model?

How do you get OJT? Ya got a PC? Ya got Access to the SW and/or HW? PLAY with it, Break it, fix it, and then break it again!



The majority of companies and business executives have really not that much knowledge of what IT professionals do. Its magic to them! But the trends of the late 80's and through the 90's was to trust that MS and all the other certifications were a stamp of approval to turn these people loose on their networks. This was a horrible mistake, as most of these certified dolts learned the SW and Infrastructure dos and donts at the expense of the first company that hired them. This had the effect of causing managers and executives responsible for IT to examine closer who they were hiring and what they had accomplished that would enable a perspective employee to actually DO the job. Hence the return to experience. This however causes a dilema, how do you get exp if you cant get a job in IT? College gives ya that edge, it puts you on the same footing, it shows you can do reports, talk the talk, and understand what YOU are being told. Certifications are nice but that alone cant teach you How and What to do when tring to explain it to people who have no idea what you use and how you use it to do your job.



Hanover Fist

Take my word for it, do the degree!