At 01:34 AM 9/20/2003 -0500, you wrote: >other junk. I didn't realize it at the time, but those courses help me >more everyday than i would have ever imagined. If you want specific >examples, i can give them. > >I think a CS degree is more about teaching you concepts and fundamentals. >Once you have that foundation, you take it with you and build on it for >the rest of your career. That's why your degree doesn't expire when the
There is nothing that I can add that Ray hasn't already said here, but I'll try anyway. I have met a number of people without any degree that I have a profound respect for both professionally and personally. However, if I need to hire someone, and one candidate has a degree and another doesn't while all else is equal, I'm going with the person with the degree. It shows that they have the ability to slog through a four year program, have a broad base of fundamentals, and already know how to work on small and medium-size projects in a 2-3 person team setting. Also, on *average* someone with a computer science degree simply has a better grasp of computer science fundamentals. This isn't necessarily a good example, but if I want a software developer I'd like to know that she understands how to design and implement a hash table instead of just knowing enough to use someone else's. Sure, in a real project she better damn well use an existing and tested implementation, but she should have the background to think through the design on her own. I think you can slack a bit for system administrators, but not much. I'd still prefer a computer science graduate if all else is equal in the candidates. P.S. I've found that people without degrees tend to be programming language bigots far more often than those with degrees. One of the nice things about most computer science graduates is that attitude of "Hey, it's just another language." --- Dustin Puryear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Puryear Information Technology, LLC <http://www.puryear-it.com> Providing expertise in the management, integration, and security of Windows and UNIX systems, networks, and applications.
