Re: Experience vs College Degree

Unfortunately, a lot of companies have policies that require degrees
of some sort for technical positions.  The fact that you have been
working in the field gives you some leverage, however, at a lot of
companies the initial screening of candidates is not done by MIS, but
by someone in the HR department!  And they are instructed to look for
certain key phrases:  "Degree in xxxxx"   "RPG"   Not "COBOL"  etc.
etc.

Getting a degree 'locks in' your skills-- it 'proves' that you know
what you know.

At a minimum, track down an IBM Certification Test center and pass
some tests that show your technical prowess.  (:    I don't know how
companies rate certifications, but it can't hurt.

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@ix.netcom.nospam.com




>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