Hi Brandon. I thought I'd watch the responses to this thread before weighing in with an opinion. I was interested to note that none of the responses appear to have come from hiring managers. So I thought you might benefit from an opinion on that side of the debate.
In my career I have hired over 100 different developers on a wide number of projects. And in my experience, the paper qualifications only matter in the first 3-5 years after school. Once you have those first few projects under your belt, it is your experience that matters, far more than your formal training. (In other words, it takes from 3-5 years of experience to catch up to the pack.) Although it is hard to generalize about companies and employers (since they are all run by people, and people vary widely) I can say that in general terms, the more liberal hiring policies tend to be in the smaller and more "progressively" managed organizations. Larger, more institutional employers have a much more formalized, and rigid hiring practice. The first screening of resumes in such places tends to be done by professional HR people, who are generally only qualified to screen for check-list items. (The job says A, B and C are required. Here's a fabulous resume with A, B, D, E, F and J thru N. But he's missing C. Reject.) So here are a couple of really important decisions for you to consider: 1) Do you prefer the mayhem of start-ups and small companies to the security of large institutional employers? 2) Do you already have, or can you be reasonably confident in getting those first few years of experience? If you said "yes" to both of those, you may be able to successfully avoid the school thing. If you said "No" to either one, school might be a safer bet. For what it's worth, in the last company I ran, the guy I promoted to Chief Architect did not have a degree of any kind. He was primarily self-taught. But he got the job because he was dedicated, articulate, responsible and clearly understood the technology and the needs of the company. In my book, those are far more valuable than 4 years of sleeping through lectures. Jefficus ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brandon Goodin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 1:09 PM Subject: Does a degree matter? Hey all, I'm trying to make a decision as to what I am going to do. I am sucking wind on profitable work. So, I was thinking about going to school and getting a BA in Comp Science to make myself more attractive in the job market. Is it really worth doing? I've been doing development for 5 years professionaly. 2 years Perl and ASP, 3 years Java. Prior to that I was hobbying in those languages on my own. My knowledge is competitive with anyone else in my realm of experience. Anyways, I was just wondering how important you all think a BA in Computer Science is for a family man trying to give his career a boost. Brandon Goodin --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
