Just throwing my hat in the ring and don't mean to offend anyone with my comments here:
I haven't lived in Utah for 10 years now. I do think there is sort of a bubble and different mentality around getting a degree in Utah versus other parts of the country. From my experience, it is more accepted to not have a degree in Utah because other things in life get in the way -- Mission / Marriage / having to work a full time job to support your family all before graduating college. The average age of college graduates in Utah is *MUCH* higher than other parts of the country. It always felt like getting your degree was 2nd to other life priorities there. I have interviewed hundreds of people for jobs for my current employer and I always give preference to someone with a formal degree from a recognized school. TBH, when someone listed an online school or some other school on their resume, it would actually do more harm in my mind versus not having a degree. While you can get a job making a decent wage without a degree, it will hurt you in the long run. How many high level executives do you see without a degree? Sure, name off the exceptions like Bill Gates etc but those are exceptions, not the norm. -- gs On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Derek Caswell <[email protected]>wrote: > I am not a hiring manager so I may not be the person to ask about this but > there is one thing that hasn't been brought up that I have noticed about a > college education. I have a BS in Information Technology from BYU and I > don't regret getting that at all. There are a few things that the education > gave me that I really appreciate. They are a better overview of how the > entire system works and the confidence in the fact that I finished the > program. These have already been brought up. The last one, however, is > something that has not been brought up. That is my increased ability to > think and learn. This is something that I noticed as I went into the > workforce. I have worked with a few people that went to Stephens Henager or > UoP. What I have noticed is that GENERALLY, it took them a lot longer to > learn new concepts or a new system then it took someone that went to a > college like BYU or UoU. Please don't get me wrong, I know that these are > generalizations and there are plenty of exceptions out there. However, > going through the educational experience that you get at a place like BYU, > forces you to improve on your ability to learn. Obviously, the hard skills > needed for the job are going to be the most important but soft skills like > this are also very important and having the degree from a more rigorous > program can only help to show that. Don't forget about needing to be able > to live up to the expectation though. > > My last comment is directed toward anyone who is trying to decide to get a > degree. The question was brought up about if someone should get a job or go > to school. I would say that if you can afford to do it without going into a > bunch of debt, do both. My ONLY regret about going to school is that I > didn't work in the computer field while I was going through school so that > I could get that experience. Being a student can also make it a lot easier > to find an on campus programming job to give you that experience as well. > > Derek Caswell > > > On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 12:45 PM, Michael Hart <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > I am just a lurker on this group but this conversation has been > > fascinating and very timely. > > > > I currently work in the oilfield in Alberta Canada, I have taken many > > courses at UVU in computer science, but was broke and had a family so I > had > > to make some more money. > > > > I paid off all my debt and am piling up money to go back to school...but > I > > am extremely torn since I want the most bang for my buck and I want to > > progress quickly back into the computer science field. > > > > If I go to the University of Alberta I figured that tuition and books > will > > be an additional $20k. > > > > I've made many Android apps, C# programs, PHP, JavaScript and the > like...I > > really want to come back but don't know anybody who is like minded so I > > don't have a community to stay up all night "hacking" with. > > > > What would this group suggest? Go back to school or just go to employers > > and show them what I have done so far? > > > > Michael Hart > > > > MY BLOG: http://hartsoffice.wordpress.com/ > > HOME PAGE: http://hartsoffice.com/ > > TWITTER: http://twitter.com/TheHartsOffice > > FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/michael.redxdeath > > GOOGLE+: https://plus.google.com/108967967563278141587 > > > > > On Mar 25, 2014, at 11:34 AM, Kyle Waters <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > >> On 03/25/2014 11:16 AM, Justin Giboney wrote: > > >> If they could come to you with something in their portfolio from > > >> the course, what would it be? > > > > > > > > > An SQL database driven webapp. Extra points for AJAX. That's what > I'd > > > like to see. Some employers would probably prefer certain frameworks, > > > or javascript libraries. I've noticed a lot of jobs for front end > > > developers, so extra work on the UI could go a long ways in the current > > > job market. > > > > > > Kyle > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > UPHPU mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > > > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > UPHPU mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > > UPHPU mailing list > [email protected] > http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu > IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net > _______________________________________________ UPHPU mailing list [email protected] http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net
