[ILUG] College

[962264N at knotes.kodak.com]

From: Fergal Moran
>I didn't even qualify for to get in to a regular college, as my Leaving
>cert was 5 subjects barely passed...
>God!! I've just realised how thick I really am!!!! ;-)
Don't worry about it - ditto here - so I bummed around for a few years and
then went to college in Scotland where the entrance criteria is a lot less
strict.  Granted - out of 200+ students in first year 20 got their degree
and 3 stayed on for the honours year.

>Years ago, I thought it made a difference... But then a college asked me
>to come and work for them (My Ego nearly hit the roof! ;-) and I
>realised if it didn't matter to them, who cares???

I have a BSc from Edinburgh - and while 90% of what I do professionally I
did not learn in College I think that the degree did help me.  We did not
specifically learn to program in a particular language - but we did
intensively learn "how to program" - which has helped me to pick up new
languages quite easily.  However - all the day to day stuff that one needs
to know - setting up software and hardware, practical network admin (not
just load and loads of theory) etc., I either learned "on the job" or in my
bedroom.

As someone who has interviewed people for jobs I am more interested in what
people have done after college than in college - but I do like to know that
someone had the discipline and the interest to put themselves through a
degree however shite it was. There are so many jobs out there at the moment
and so few people that employers are becoming far less strict on who they
employ.  The industry is becoming far more "tiered" so to speak ie.
employers are realising that you do not need degrees to adminstrate a
network, develop web sites, or for developing a lot of current software.
So much of the requirements for passing a degree do not have any relevance
in the real world.  I remember in first and second year having to sit
through a series of droll lectures on Information Services in
Organisations, management triangles, Masloffs hierarchy of needs and such
crap thinking "if i ever get a job that requires me to know this then
please shoot me!"

M2C

.F.