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Old 3rd November 2008
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TerryP TerryP is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: USofA
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I can't really speak for the standing of ITT or any other place of education within my range. The only names that mean anything to me in that regard are MIT, UCB, and Stanford - none of which I'll live to see lol.


Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie View Post
@TerryP: I am revisiting this thread after reading through some of your recent posts. You're obviously a sharp dude. ... Best of luck. Hang in there and be persistent. To echo an overdone line: this is an investment in your future.
Thanks for the compliment and the advice.

Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie View Post
I can tell you that someone without at least a Bachelor's does not have a chance in hell. (No piece of paper, no interview.) Not my personal policy, but I think you'll find it is rather common.
I have found it to be the norm :-(.


One of the reasons why the course at ITT interests me, is the hope that it might help me an interview for something entry level. The main reason I posted this thread, people here would know better then I do, how much it's worth.


Something else I've looked at is the Linux Professional Institute Certifications, most of the challenge should be GNU specifics but more then livable. I would hope that would be enough to show on a resume, that I at least know the difference between sed and awk. With enough time and cash for study, the Microsoft side of such coins could fall into place as well. If one's got to prove you've suffered through course work, may as well cover the bases, no?


I think if I could get enough paper stacked to reach an interview & cover interviews back, I could get an entry level job with a little luck.


Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJ View Post
Please do get a college degree. Even though computers are still about the only field where you don't *need* a degree, it really helps. And increasingly a BA or BS simply is required, even for positions that in the old days needed none. ... I second the recommendation for a community college. In California, if you attend one and hold a 3.0 GPA, you have a guaranteed acceptance to one of the University of California or California State University schools. Many people use this method to get into Berkeley or Santa Barbara or UCLA. The education is quite good and very inexpensive, too. You should check to see if your state has something similar ...

Personally I would like to pursue a Masters in Computer Science in the long run... but given my present line of employment, a blizzard in Florida before the next ice age is much more likely. As time goes on, that could change if life changed along with it.


Around the mid 90s, I thought about the things I wanted to do in my time on earth. A few years ago with my 20th birthday drawing nearer, I started to think about the short term - where I'd like to be in ~20 years or so. In terms of employment, I can't think of anything that I could honestly see myself saying at retirement age... the work was worth it; that won't require heavy PT to get in, or degrees & certs just to get an interview.


The only community/technical colleges I've been able to find within practical traveling distance is West Central Tech, which seems to be only worth the Microsoft portions compared to what the course at ITT has. I'm about 50km (30 mi) south of Atlanta, which is about 4 hours in traffic added to fuel expenses. The car can make long distance (heck, made FL<->GA 2 or 3 times in the past decade), but time & gas money ain't as readily available. I need to look closer at whats available in Atlanta, but it's still a hard trip. Anything that removes me from my present occupation, without replacing its income... would result in bills being greater then income. Things have improved greatly in that regard, but it's still not stable yet. Splitting part of things over online learning might be useful for future study, given my current working hours - depends on what goes on. I dunno about people doing hiring, but I've always been skeptical of degrees earned over the 'net. I surveyed various community/technical colleges across Georgia, but most with good avenues of study seem to make Atlanta look as close as my families mailbox :\.


The only way to chase a real education that I can see is: get a foot in the educational door with something like this ITT networking course, get a related job that allows me to save a bit and gain working experience on the resume, and go from there towards. I know this though, things have got to change, I can't be in the same boat when I hit 60 (which is in about 30.5 years).



One of the reasons I spend most of my time off work around computers: whatever happens job wise... nothing can stop me from learning - I stop learning, I start dying. I haven't had any real formal education besides the 3 R's and required the social/civic related topics in HS. Most of which I was bored stiff in outside of history... but I ain't going to even get an interview without appropriate qualifications. It's not as as scrambling some eggs with friend chicken, but everyone needs to start somewhere.
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