It's not always the case. I'm 21 now and I am in charge of the network for a 250-300 User publishing company running UNIX and NT machines (I've renewed most of the network over the last 4 years). If you choose to do it the hard way without CS degrees and such however, you should be prepared for the sarcasm, having to work 5 times harder than anyone else to get recognition and people looking down their noses. Also, you should stay with one company for as long as possible. After four years, I'm finally looking for another employer. Even though I'm 21, (the age I would have been if I'd got a CS degree), there are opportunities that are open to me that would never be open to a CS graduate at this age.
However, I do wish that I'd done things the conventional way and done the degree. There are some companies who will ignore you if you don't have a degree whether or not you have the skills/professional qualifications/experience. I'm rather thankful that most of those companies are the kind of companies I'm not keen on working for at the moment. That, of course in the future, may change. All of this of course applies to my experience in the UK. Attitudes may be radically different in other countries, or maybe I just got lucky. As I've stated to you off-list, good luck in your quest. Regards, Mark Ng (CCNA) >The problem is your age probably. I'm 22 now and working in a hardware store >(i don't know the english word... just call us dealer for now, we sell to >other stores not end-users). I started out here when I was 18 building >systems and testing defective components. Most of our customers where very >sceptical about me, because I was young (was? still am :-)) a
