Education

[artherd]

[elrcastor]

Totally agree, when going into IT related fields, hands on learning works the best

[bigmike82]

Double plus 1.

[SwissFluCase]

I tell the kids who want to get into IT to do an MBA type track. That kind of education will last forever. They can learn the tech on their own. No reason to spend four years of your life learning things that will be obsolete in a few years.

Regards,


SwissFluCase

[Merle]

+1. Very little can beat on the job training.

[Macadelic4]

I tell the kids who want to get into IT to do an MBA type track. That kind of education will last forever. They can learn the tech on their own. No reason to spend four years of your life learning things that will be obsolete in a few years.

True, but you learn much more than "things that will go obsolete in a few years" in college. Data structures, algorithms, and architecture history rarely ever change because they are foundations for good programming...which is why that is often the bulk of what's taught in higher education CS classes. Trying to learn that stuff on your own can be daunting, whereas the knowledge/code that will break on the next version release of whatever PytMySQLubytranHPava language you're working with can be picked up outside of class. This is also why no college has a "Comparative MySQL-to-Java connectors" course.

TL;DR - people "picking up" computing fundamentals is the reason for lots of crappy programming out there. I do agree, however, that in HS hacking around in Perl can be of more value than the regular curriculum.

[BRANCHER]

I tell the kids who want to get into IT to do an MBA type track. That kind of education will last forever. They can learn the tech on their own. No reason to spend four years of your life learning things that will be obsolete in a few years.

Well I went with Mathematics and it has served my career well. Easy programming job (installation code for other developers) for 8 years (20 with company (since HS)). Plus math can take you to a lot of other analytical type jobs (which usually pay well too). I was considering an MBA at Berkley few years ago but costs too much ~ 100K, and too much time required (I have kids). And I really don't want to be management. Plus I wouldn't have time to shoot. And those Rams are calling my name

[bigmike82]

"True, but you learn much more than...."
Yeah, but that applies to programming, not IT as a whole.

The MBA track is great if you want to go into management. It's not great if you actually want to have fun in college, do stuff you enjoy AND learn IT stuff on the side. When it comes to standard IT jobs, the difference between a BA in Business and a BA in History is minimal.