Is college worth it? (For me)

eric7615 · 2016-09-16T18:25:49.000Z

You could go the certification route instead of full college. They are often easier to fit in part time or take a weeks vacation and do the course.

jimkalupa · 2016-09-16T18:35:58.000Z

College is always worth it. What kind is the question I started off barely surviving HS, did remedial credits etc and graduated with a 4 yr degree. Great for getting a better world view. In addition, some places in my neighborhood will not hire without a 4 year degree. It’s spendy and usually changes your life. I have a tech college 2 year diploma as well. That degree pays the bills. Tech colleges in my locale are all business -get in get out and get a job. That’s their focus. and I wouldn’t be in IT without it. As for certs? Very expensive and, for beginning it folk, most employers don’t care. Too many “paper” MCSA’s walking into IT who haven’t ever been out f an educational lab. IMHO certs pay off for more established tech’s. I just finished one. Does my employer care about the content? No. The cert does help me get the answer more quickly and for that I would guess I’m more valuable. In the end it’s that I didn’t quit learning that pays off. So, does my employer care about staff who are self starting life long learners? Absolutely.

The time is now for applying for financial aid for college - two and 4 year. Get a FAFSA and fill it out. Without some kind of post HS training you’re already topped out unless your VERY good at social networking. No Time, No money etc? College or not that’s the young persons condition - just deal and make a start

brianhenson · 2016-09-16T18:52:57.000Z

jkalupa:

College is always worth it. What kind is the question I started off barely surviving HS, did remedial credits etc and graduated with a 4 yr degree. Great for getting a better world view. In addition, some places in my neighborhood will not hire without a 4 year degree. It’s spendy and usually changes your life. I have a tech college 2 year diploma as well. That degree pays the bills. Tech colleges in my locale are all business -get in get out and get a job. That’s their focus. and I wouldn’t be in IT without it. As for certs? Very expensive and, for beginning it folk, most employers don’t care. Too many “paper” MCSA’s walking into IT who haven’t ever been out f an educational lab. IMHO certs pay off for more established tech’s. I just finished one. Does my employer care about the content? No. The cert does help me get the answer more quickly and for that I would guess I’m more valuable. In the end it’s that I didn’t quit learning that pays off. So, does my employer care about staff who are self starting life long learners? Absolutely.

The time is now for applying for financial aid for college - two and 4 year. Get a FAFSA and fill it out. Without some kind of post HS training you’re already topped out unless your VERY good at social networking. No Time, No money etc? College or not that’s the young persons condition - just deal and make a start

I’ve filled out the FAFSA many times, I know exactly what I qualify for.

I’ve learned lots about IT on the job, some stuff I wouldn’t have learned in the classroom.

Just deal? Saying that is easy enough. Reality isn’t so easy. A lack of time or money is not just making excuses, those are real problems.

johnmiller1892 · 2016-09-16T19:06:00.000Z

I agree with this guy. If you want management then yes college is most definetly needed. If you want to be in the IT trenches with the rest of the grunts getting your hands dirty??? Then play around with college later and go for your certifications. Cool thing about certs is you don’t always have to be sitting in a class room. There are good places online. What you need to figure out is which way you want to go. And by that I don’t just mean management or the trenches. I mean either one you chose you’re going to have to pick a diretion to pursue.

I know I’m gonna catch flak for my opinion but oh well.

jerwilesIT:

You’re going to get a lot of differing opinions on this. Many people will disagree with my opinion as well. But no matter who’s opinion says what, only you can decide if pursuing your degree is what you should do.

I was once told by a friend of mine, who happens to be the global IT director for a huge multinational pharmaceutical company, that a college degree is more desirable for candidates who want to pursue management in the IT field, such as directors and project managers, while certifications are more desirable for candidates who will be doing actual tech work (he called it grunt work).

Personally, I don’t have a college degree, but I have some crazy number of certs. When I was looking for a job, my experience far outweighed my lack of a college education. I was getting interviews with companies who listed a degree on their minimum requirements, with them knowing full well I didn’t have a degree. My lack of a degree was not a deal breaker for anyone I interviewed with, and my recruiter was really good at weeding out the ones it would be a deal breaker for.

That said, I do want to go back to school and get a degree. I do feel like it opens up even more career opportunities, and would help my resume look even better.

johnmiller1892 · 2016-09-16T19:25:03.000Z

He may have lost the debate but even that is debatable. What you’re stating may be true where you work but I’ve been on both sides of this as both the boss and an employee. And I’m here to state that in my professional life, the people I worked for (IT) would not hire someone based on college degree alone. As a matter of fact most bosses that I’ve talked to won’t even look at college grads. As a boss myself it depends on what I’m looking for… grunt work??? Your degree gets you passed over, management the degree gets taken into consideration.

Bluedevil58:

I got a CIS degree not comp Sci. Computer Information Systems. It’s a BSBA. You lose this debate. Better luck next time! You make a lot of assumptions here. There is a very fine line between fixing a problem and knowing when to escalate and it can make or break and IT pro. I never had that problem. I have seen first hand people who were denied promotions and jobs because of not having a college degree. They are stuck doing rack and stack here. This is what I have experienced here mind you. Other places may be different but it’s definitely happening here and we’re a company oname the Gartner magic bullet sh8t quadrant for both cloud, DraaS, and Co location. We are right up there with AWS, Azure, and Rackspace.

youngitpro · 2016-09-17T00:47:26.000Z

Let’s be honest here people. Anyone who is telling him that getting a degree is not worth it is doing him a disservice and pointing him in the wrong direction. I will go as far to say that the people telling you it’s not worth it are the ones who don’t have a degree themselves. Sugar coat it, say any story you want. It’s obvious that a lack of a degree will prohibit the OP from future opportunities in some up shape or form. Op, are you willing to take that risk? I was a straight B - C student like you. Someone in a previous post tried to prove me wrong and failed.miserably.

Certs hold litttle value. There are paper tigers out there and thwybarw being pumped out left and right by places like new horizons and my computer careers. From.my experience, the guys without degrees are stuck doing rack and stack and have an “Engineer” in their title. The choice is yours. Best of luck.

johnmiller1892 · 2016-09-17T01:05:40.000Z

So with a whole 7 yrs in IT you’re going to just dismiss everyone elses opinion? There are people on here that have posted with a LOT more time doing this work than you. Myself included (20+ yrs) and before you assume anything, yes I have a degree and no I got it later in life so it was never a factor in my employment. And I made Nat. IT manager.

Bluedevil58:

Let’s be honest here people. Anyone who is telling him that getting a degree is not worth it is doing him a disservice and pointing him in the wrong direction. I will go as far to say that the people telling you it’s not worth it are the ones who don’t have a degree themselves. Sugar coat it, say any story you want. It’s obvious that a lack of a degree will prohibit the OP from future opportunities in some up shape or form. Op, are you willing to take that risk? I was a straight B - C student like you. Someone in a previous post tried to prove me wrong and failed.miserably.

Certs hold litttle value. There are paper tigers out there and thwybarw being pumped out left and right by places like new horizons and my computer careers. From.my experience, the guys without degrees are stuck doing rack and stack and have an “Engineer” in their title. The choice is yours. Best of luck.

youngitpro · 2016-09-17T01:17:37.000Z

Yes. I will challenge you in your opinion because the work force is a way different beast now than when you hit the work force. 20 years in IT you say. How do you know what a new college graduate or what a job seeeker faces with finding a job in today’s market based on what you experienced 20 years ago? I am by no means trying to put you down. I just feel that the job.market is different than what you experienced upon first coming into IT…

You might do fine getting a job in IT be it entry to.mid level But you will definitely not get a management job with a company that is worth while without a college degree. So that leads to the next question. Are you content with entry to mid level or will you eventually want more $$$? If the latter then I trust you will make the right decision.

StorageNinja · 2016-09-17T01:25:20.000Z

Bluedevil58:

Let’s be honest here people. Anyone who is telling him that getting a degree is not worth it is doing him a disservice and pointing him in the wrong direction. I will go as far to say that the people telling you it’s not worth it are the ones who don’t have a degree themselves. Sugar coat it, say any story you want. It’s obvious that a lack of a degree will prohibit the OP from future opportunities in some up shape or form. Op, are you willing to take that risk? I was a straight B - C student like you. Someone in a previous post tried to prove me wrong and failed.miserably.

Certs hold litttle value. There are paper tigers out there and thwybarw being pumped out left and right by places like new horizons and my computer careers. From.my experience, the guys without degrees are stuck doing rack and stack and have an “Engineer” in their title. The choice is yours. Best of luck.

Do you want me to post my degree on Spiceworks to prove you wrong? (My degree is from a US news and world reports top 100 school).

Are you coming to Spicewold? I’ll bring the damn paper if you really thing this, but you will owe me a beer no hard feelings

youngitpro · 2016-09-17T01:29:02.000Z

Based on what I have seen you post Ninja. I think you and I are in the same market (company wise) and we are probably competitors in some shape or form…

markstorkamp3662 · 2016-09-17T02:31:07.000Z

brianhenson:

drreid:

…You have to decide what is your goal and then which way will work best for you to reach it…

My only goal here is:

Get a job that I don’t hate, that pays enough money for me to afford the life style I want to live, e.g. ability to afford food, clothing, my own place, and reliable transportation, and a little bit of cash to occasionally buy something for myself.

I’m looking in IT because:

That’s the field I currently work in

I appear to be pretty good at it

I can’t think of any other field I could go into that I’d both be good at and would also pay enough

If I need a degree to get that, then I’ll get one.

After reading all of your post’s on this topic, what I do not see, is any passion. You are looking at this as a job, not a career, and a degree is not going to fix that. Although you do not appear to “hate” working in IT, you also do not appear to love, or even like, working in IT, but seem to tolerate it. You also seem to be mostly focused on the money aspect, I fully understand that, and it is important. But money does not bring you contentment, rather, it is the other way around.

I do not say this to belittle you in any way, but just to point out that you may have not found what you really want to pursue as a lifelong career yet, and there is nothing wrong with that. The reasons you list above for choosing IT are not the right reasons, IMO, if you do not thoroughly enjoy the work. Keep in mind that until you retire, you will be spending 35%, or more, of your waking hours working, and it would be nice if you really enjoy what you are doing during that time. Spending thousands of dollars, and hours, getting a degree for a career that you do not have a passion for seems counter-productive to me.

brianhenson · 2016-09-17T15:18:00.000Z

Northlandeng:

brianhenson:

drreid:

…You have to decide what is your goal and then which way will work best for you to reach it…

My only goal here is:

Get a job that I don’t hate, that pays enough money for me to afford the life style I want to live, e.g. ability to afford food, clothing, my own place, and reliable transportation, and a little bit of cash to occasionally buy something for myself.

I’m looking in IT because:

That’s the field I currently work in

I appear to be pretty good at it

I can’t think of any other field I could go into that I’d both be good at and would also pay enough

If I need a degree to get that, then I’ll get one.

After reading all of your post’s on this topic, what I do not see, is any passion. You are looking at this as a job, not a career, and a degree is not going to fix that. Although you do not appear to “hate” working in IT, you also do not appear to love, or even like, working in IT, but seem to tolerate it. You also seem to be mostly focused on the money aspect, I fully understand that, and it is important. But money does not bring you contentment, rather, it is the other way around.

I do not say this to belittle you in any way, but just to point out that you may have not found what you really want to pursue as a lifelong career yet, and there is nothing wrong with that. The reasons you list above for choosing IT are not the right reasons, IMO, if you do not thoroughly enjoy the work. Keep in mind that until you retire, you will be spending 35%, or more, of your waking hours working, and it would be nice if you really enjoy what you are doing during that time. Spending thousands of dollars, and hours, getting a degree for a career that you do not have a passion for seems counter-productive to me.

I don’t disagree with you, but unfortunately I haven’t found anything that I’m passionate about that is also capable of paying the bills. As much as I’d enjoy having a job I truly loved, I have to be realistic.

ericnussbaum · 2016-09-18T11:26:34.000Z

If you want to stay with IT “grunt” work then you don’t need a degree, but you may be replaced by an H1B or new grad who does have a degree (and will work cheaper and put in more hours). Fact of the matter is a degree opens doors, your degree doesn’t even have to be in IT, in case you want to pivot to another job/field. In some cases I have seen HR people automatically label a job candidate as “unskilled labor” if the candidate did not have a degree. That is the reality today, people with degrees are getting the jobs (not just in IT). I blame HR

StorageNinja · 2016-09-18T16:49:32.000Z

Bluedevil58:

Based on what I have seen you post Ninja. I think you and I are in the same market (company wise) and we are probably competitors in some shape or form…

No one competes in this industry. Its all this Co-apatition

In our case (Assuming you work for who I think you do) In theory we compete with you with one business unit, while supplying you with critical pieces of your puzzle with other ones (I recently worked to get a price break for your industry from the product team I work for).

rebootssolveproblems · 2016-09-19T14:37:17.000Z

NickGlass:

I found that I gained a skill that sets you apart from other applicants: you finished something that took that long with a commitment that shows you can learn and be flexible, face it any college grad knows 2am cram sessions. This is one of the biggest tools gained;

2 AM paper cramming? Seems light.

Try 2 AM low crawling in sand because somebody else messed up and that had nothing to do with you.

Son.of.Jor-El · 2016-09-19T15:02:24.000Z

2am cramming? Never did it.

I always crammed 15-20 minutes before the test. My short term memory is better than my long term.

koaladomingo · 2016-09-19T15:43:49.000Z

RebootsSolveProblems:

NickGlass:

I found that I gained a skill that sets you apart from other applicants: you finished something that took that long with a commitment that shows you can learn and be flexible, face it any college grad knows 2am cram sessions. This is one of the biggest tools gained;

2 AM paper cramming? Seems light.

Try 2 AM low crawling in sand because somebody else messed up and that had nothing to do with you.

“GET UP! GET UP! GET UP! GET UP! GET THE #($# UP!!!” ← that happens just before the 2 am low crawl.

johnmiller1892 · 2016-09-19T16:13:25.000Z

Bluedevil58, Like I said before and this is what a degree gets you?

What the heck should I do for the rest of my career? IT & Tech Careers

Hi all, This has probably been answered a million times already on spiceworks… So I went to college to get into “IT” around 10 years ago. I got hired at the college I went to. I am still here. I have been promoted and gotten raises etc over the years and am now called “Onsite Technical Support Tier III”. I have now moved on to supporting 4 different locations on a set rotation basis. This would encompass many hundreds of students and probably a bit less than 100 Staff/Instructors. At the star…

hardly worth the time and expense

Bluedevil58:

Yes. I will challenge you in your opinion because the work force is a way different beast now than when you hit the work force. 20 years in IT you say. How do you know what a new college graduate or what a job seeeker faces with finding a job in today’s market based on what you experienced 20 years ago? I am by no means trying to put you down. I just feel that the job.market is different than what you experienced upon first coming into IT…

You might do fine getting a job in IT be it entry to.mid level But you will definitely not get a management job with a company that is worth while without a college degree. So that leads to the next question. Are you content with entry to mid level or will you eventually want more $$$? If the latter then I trust you will make the right decision.

shabbirrao · 2016-09-21T06:15:51.000Z

Well this depends totally on you. If you have learnt enough in your college than you will definitely get a result in future. But of course there are conditions

It will take time (Patience is a virtue)
You work in your field of study (For example: A person have done MBA and wants to become an IT Pro)

eduardoanderson · 2016-09-25T17:49:37.000Z

Truth be told man this isn’t even a tech community kind of question, this is the kind of question you’d ask a life coach. You need to do some soul searching or self introspection to figure out what your “why” is. If you want my analysis I’d say college wasn’t for you before and it still isn’t. That is how I was because long and short I hate working. I love learning, I hate working. School is not the place to figure out that you don’t like working. I’m in college now because I found my “why” and have made new mentalities for how to make my daily decisions in life. I think you need to figure out what is going to make you happy, maybe you need to lower your expectations and stop fighting your instincts. Maybe you’ve never challenged yourself and if you did you’d step up and get to that next level you’re striving for in your mind. With either road you’re not going to do anything but spin your wheels until you make a choice for your life. I know some guys here have suggested certs as opposed to college, but truth be told those cost money too. You have a $300 shot to take a test once and pass or lose your money. And you pay for study materials in books, practice tests, videos, etc… If you didn’t like studying in the rigidity of a classroom, you have no chance of disciplining yourself to study in your downtime, know what I mean? So man really, ask yourself some critical questions and then you’ll be ready to make better decisions for yourself. Good luck with everything man!