Re: Experience vs College Degree

["Paul Nelson" <p_nelson-br@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Justin,
Welcome to the brother/sisterhood. I've been doing this stuff for 28 years
now. I had a double major in Business & Economics at the University of
Minnesota. I left school in 1972 due to a number of reasons(marriage, a
child on the way, lack of money, and I also punched out the economics
professor over some ethics issues). I am 2 classes short of a BBA. The lack
of a degree has never been an issue for me, but I got started during the
infancy of the midrange systems.

In this day & age, I would definitely recommend that you invest in yourself
and your future. In the long run, that money will probably provide you with
a better ROI than the stock market, not to mention the feeling of
satisfaction. One thing to consider, however. If I were in your shoes, I
would pursue a business degree with a minor in computer science. People with
a business background who know how to program are much more valuable in the
long run than computer "geeks" who don't know how to read a balance sheet.

Paul Nelson
Braxton-Reed, Inc.
630-327-8665 Cell
708-923-7354 Home
pnelson@braxton-reed.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Houchin" <justin@RELIATEK.COM>
To: "Midrange-l" <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 12:44 PM
Subject: Experience vs College Degree


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>
> I know this is off the topic, but I need to ask the programming
> community. I am 21 years old and have been programming in RPG and E-RPG
> for about 1.5 years. I  love it! But I do not have a degree. My question
> is do you all feel that I could get turned down for a job over someone
> that has a bachelor's degree? This has never happened to me but I do not
> want it to ever happen. I am very seriously thinking about starting back
> to college at night to get my bachelors in CIS. This is a very hard
> decision to make because of the amount of money it will cost to go to
> college. That is why I'm am trying to see if job experience would
> triumph over a degree. Please give me some pros and cons on this
> situation.
>
> Justin Houchin
> Programmer and Web Developer
> ReliaTek, Inc
> justin@reliatek.com
>
>
> --
>
>
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