Re: Experience vs College Degree

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It is bothering me to see people talk loosely about experience.  I know a
programmer that's programmed since 1981.  He now has one year of experience
19 times, going on 20.

What has amazed me through nearly all interviews I've ever been involved in
though, is the lack of interest in a program portfolio.  I always take a
sample of recent coding I've done (personal, not property of any client) to
show my level of skill and my style.  The only technical question I ever
remember hearing was "Do you know what a data queque is"



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Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
Booth@MartinVT.com
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-------Original Message-------

From: midrange-l@midrange.com
Date: Friday, June 28, 2002 16:58:39
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Experience vs College Degree

Justin,

I have a BS in Computer Science and a MBA. I teach AS/400 courses at the
local community college in the evenings. Education is important to me
personally.

However, when I am hiring a programmer experience counts for much more than
education. While certs have never really taken off in the midrange world,
they are very popular in the MS world. And I will hire someone w/o a cert
but with experience before I hire a MCSE with little experience. My hiring
decisions are based on the realization that theory is wonderful, and
classroom practice is wonderful - but it takes real world experience to take
full advantage of your education.

So how do you make your decision? If your ambitions drive you towards any
kind of project management, supervisory, or management goals, then get a
degree. Also, look at the job market right now. There are a ton of IT
people in my area of the country (and after today's estimated 600 lay offs
in at the Tulsa WorldCom offices there will be even more) out of work or
working at jobs they are overqualified for. While I believe that the
economy will turn around, those with degrees or lots of experience survive
this kind of job market much better than others.

I acknowledge my personal philosophy on eduction makes me biased, but I
think that working on a degree part-time while you program is a good
experience. (I went to school full-time/worked part-time on my BS, then did
the reverse on my MBA.) I think you will get a lot more out of the
experience than just a piece of paper.

Chuck

----- 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
>

> 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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