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Hi,

I’m Magne, 22, been in IT for about 6 years now, from an Operational Technical Engineer to an IT Consultants, I’ve two Azure cloud certifications, and my mind is confused.

The last few month’s I’ve been wondering about if I should take a degree in IT since I’m still young, or just continue working /& taking certificaitons. I’ve a good self-study mindset, challenging myself to learn IT on my own, but at the same time, I can’t ignore the fact that a degree would help me out somehow? Do school keep up with the instant change in the computer world?

I feel like I’m missing out on the social aspect too, by not studying at a university around other student. My earlier workplace was filled with people at my age, it was great, but now with my new job, I’m around older people, so I’ve adapted and grown.

I’ve had conversations with x-amount of people inside the IT field, and they’ve all got different opinions.

I would like to know your story, and your thoughts around this topic. It’s never too late to study anyways, plus I’m still young.

Thanks!

34 Spice ups
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Depends on what role you are aiming for, whether it requires or recommends a degree, or if they’d prefer/take experience over or equally to such a degree.

If it’s equal, you may as well earn and learn instead of pay to learn.

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Which would you give the job to, someone whose been actually doing the job for three / four years or someone who’s been sat in a classroom?

I’m not sure it’s possible for Universities to teach a properly up to date course with the rate at which IT develops although that’s not to say that the general basic principals don’t still apply and certain jobs (particularly in the public sector) tend to require degrees, although not necessarily in IT!

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I truly regret not getting my degree when I was younger

Yes, certs are critical, but the degree opens certain doors that make achieving your goals that much easier.

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Currently if I could magically have a Masters in Computer science or a CISSP, I think I would take the CISSP.

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I’m about 3/4 of the way to a 4-year degree. I was working in IT and going to school at the same time. Circumstances caused me to change course and lean toward OJT and certifications. I’m absolutely satisfied with my choice. On paper, I’ve got an AA, an old MCP cert, ProjectPlus and CEH. During job interviews I stress that I focus on being qualified, not certified and share my experience architecting, planning, building, securing and maintaining entire enterprise networks.

College has its place, but at the macro level, I believe it’s an overpriced, overvalued commodity. This is especially true for a lot of degrees in the Humanities (English and History) and for a lot of Masters programs. Your foot is in the door, and that’s really all you need if you stay in IT.

[EDIT:] I’d like to clarify that I’ve been in the industry for about 25 years. I started pursuing a degree in 1997 and stopped pursuing in ~2001. I was working full time in IT and going to school part time. I stopped school because the college I was attending could not accommodate my schedule.

I should also add that I am now in a management position, leading a group of ten IT techs, spread across the country, with various skillsets and levels of experience. I am living proof that you don’t need a 4-year degree if you want to pursue a leadership path.

I suspect my path would have been pretty similar if I had stuck with college as opposed to switching gears and pursuing certs. I also suspect that I’d have been deeper in debt.

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It truly depends on your career goals and financial situation. A degree in IT and/or a IT cert are both good to have. I don’t think one necessarily outweighs the other.

I have a Bachelor’s in Psychology (I had plans to be a counselor). After college, I change my career path towards IT and am now a Systems Engineer in a school system. I currently only have a Cloud Essentials+ Cert but I’m currently studying to earn my Security+. I’m fortunate that my job is not that hectic and is flexible enough that I can study on the job. I’ve found the CompTIA certs much more manageable and affordable especially since there are more resources online. Also community colleges now offer prep courses.

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I think if you’re able to get the degree while working, you could do that. If your company offers any type of tuition reimbursement or will flat out pay for your schooling, then go for it. The balance between full-time work and going to school can be difficult, but if you’re up for it and determined, you’ll be fine.

I’m currently in the same situation. I’m actively working on my associate’s degree in IT. I’m union-affiliated, so I can get the degree for free, but I do wonder just the same if certificates and experience will be enough.

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I think a lot of it depends on your long term goal.
From a pure technical side I think that certs and work are going to get you the most. But long term growth I think a general business degree with allow you to grow farther with more companies.

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school does not keep up with the tech world. I would expect any course to be behind the cutting edge… but that doesn’t mean that a degree isn’t worth getting.

Its a lot of expense and hard work. but if you can stick with it and are good at managing your money its probably worth it.

I have never regretted getting my degree

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If you want to get into management they will always look to see if you have a degree. No degree and your chances plummet of getting the job at that level unless you are in a mom and pop type shop.

If you want to be an expert in X field then certifications only but in most places it will be a hard battle to break into management even with a list of certs; you would remain a subject matter expert.

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Certification and work experience is your best bet.

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Same. Let me put it this way, getting a degree while you are younger is a lot easier when you have the energy to do it. It becomes harder as you get older. You have more responsibilities, more commitments. One example is even if your spouse/partner says they support you going back to school, those are easy to say and well intentioned words. But they do not necessarily support you doing school. I’ve heard this multiple times from people with spouses or long time partners who said they supported them going back to school, but when it came to actually doing school work their partners were like, “Are you done yet? You’ve spent so much time on that assignment. Why don’t you take a break so we can do (x) together for a little while. You can skip a night, right?”

I’m going back to school now and it’s hard. One of the saving graces for me was at least I had an Associates degree from when I was younger. Otherwise it would have taken forever, because I only have time to do school part time.

So think seriously about at least getting an Associates degree so if you decide to go full on later you have a head start.

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I wish I went to a “real college” when I was younger. Life took me in a different direction.

I started working in human services helping adults with developmental disabilities. I did that for 10 years. I went to an overpriced technical school in my early 30’s ( now defunct) and got a nearly worthless Associate’s degree and over $40,000 in student loans.

After finally getting started in an overnight computer operator position almost 5 years after graduating, I got some direction and an opportunity to prove myself. I worked on certifications and taking night classes at the community college. Finally landed as an IT Director. Now my mid 40’s, I was burned out and needed to retool myself and look for something new in my career. I hated management.

I asked myself that same question. Is a degree or certs the right way to go? I decided to enroll at WGU and do both. I am great with self study and motivation. Since the certs are a “final exam” for many of the course and credits, and the exam fee is covered by tuition, it seems like a great option. I like the education and the instructors and mentors are helpful (mine are at least). The tuition is the same price per term no matter how fast you move through the program.

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I was a mechanic for 30 years and dabbled in computers toward the end of my mechanic career. At some point I decided to make IT a career; that was about the time Windows 3.1 came out. DOS was still in full swing and that’s what I learned first. I read everything I could get me hands on and took some courses at the local college.

I do not have a college degree, as academic study / work is not my strong suit. I’m a visual learner, and college doesn’t teach that way, so I learned by doing, and reading up on the issues I faced. Eventually I was working in IT part-time and as a mechanic full time, then went full time in IT. Now I’m a Sys Admin.

Re: college / degree - It never expires and nobody can take it away, unlike certs that expire. You will have to decide which path will be most successful for you.

Where do you want to work? Large companies typically have an HR department, and they want to see “paper”, i.e. a degree first and certs second. Smaller companies are less fussy. My job requires me to work on most things that have an electrical plug attached, .i.e, automated book sorter, alarm system, security cameras, not to mention servers, PC and the network…and the list goes on; and that’s typical of a smaller company. You will be a “jack of all trades” - if that doesn’t suit you, and you want to focus on one area of IT, then a larger company may be in your future which means a degree and certs… but then (typically) that’s where the big money is. I could make more elsewhere, and I’ve had a number of offers, but I like the people here and my schedule is flexible. There is more to life than making a boat load of money and being miserable at your job.

So, what should you do? Sift through all the information here and follow the path that feels right. Do anything for the wrong reasons, and you won’t be as successful as you could be.

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That’s terrible and sorry to hear that.

It does make me want to add on additionally, my “higher” level education has all been community college and I think it’s suited me well. A lot cheaper than many schools, I pretty much had each semester paid off as I went (going part time and working), and believe I learned plenty for what I needed.

Granted some companies and types of jobs may require and be prejudiced for big name schools (with costly tuition). But for the most part, I think community colleges are underappreciated as a whole and far more cost effective. (Note, I said as a whole. I’ve heard of crappy ones, too.)

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I couldn’t agree more!

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Read this topic instead, as you’re going to get a lot of the same answers.

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A college degree helped me move past the SysAdmin level to IT management and also gave me a leg up on understanding the reasons why certain best practices are what they are.

But in retrospect, if I’d just had a smart uncle talk me through how to get started in IT (certs, home lab, etc) I would have been fine without the degree. Given the choice I’m not sure I’d choose to get the degree again.

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I’m 29 and am struggling with a similar issue. Teen parent and have been in the IT field for 9 years. Working full time, being a parent, and for the last 3 and half years I had been going to school part time to get a bachelors degree.

My school closed down over the summer suddenly and now I have $70,000 of student loan debt, no degree, no certs, and honestly. I learned most of what I know from on the job learning. I have attempted to get my credits transferred but they will only xfer over 25-30% of what was earned.

I’m letting you know right now. You aren’t going to learn anything critical at a university. You will only incur a huge amount of debt!

In my opinion it is only worth it if you are looking to go into management, or opening your own business.

I wish I had spent all that time and effort on just earning the certs.

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