Here at ULL they have the BSAT degree.. at LATech it was CIS. 
They are usually in the business department though, not the computer
department.  they also might require that you learn a little c++ or
something.

--mat

On Fri, 2003-09-19 at 17:10, Adam J. Melancon wrote:
> In response to the open job position
> http://www.selu.edu/Administration/Depts/HumanResources/hrojobun.htm#Systems%20Administrator
> 
> Let me preface this with:
> I can fully understand that working at a university, they would want you to 
> have a degree from a university.
> 
> On to the rant:
> Why is it that places always want a Bachelor's degree.  For example, I have 
> an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Computer Networking with several 
> certifications, and have been a systems administrator for all of the 
> libraries in Vermilion Pairsh library for over 2 years now.  According to 
> most of the requirements requesting Bachelor's degree these days, I guess I 
> got lucky to get this position.  Not to offend anyone, but I have had 
> conversations with people that have computer science degrees and wasn't too 
> impressed.  To be fair though, I have talked to many people with an 
> Associates degree in computers and was really not impressed.  What is it 
> about having a Bachelor's degree in computer science that makes them "stand 
> out" enough to make this the base line requirement.
> 
> Most of the computer people that I have seen that are very good at what they 
> do don't nessecarily have a bachelor's degree, but more of a love for 
> technology, patience, the ability to want to learn new things, and the 
> ability to problem solve.
> 
> Personally, I had no interest in going to get a 4 year degree.  I wanted to 
> get in there and get hands on experience with networking and operating 
> systems instead of learning COBOL, FORTRAN, and C.  I have NO interest in 
> learning programming (although I have more interest in it now, not enough to 
> go to school for it though), which is what I see that most colleges teach in 
> a computer science program.
> 
> Do any of you know a university that has a degree in networking?  I'm just 
> curious.  I was very happy with the level of education I received at the 
> technical collage, although I had a very good instructor who actually cared 
> and showed up, and also had to go way above and beyond on my own to get to 
> the level that I'm at.
> 
> Also, there are a lot of people who have degrees in other fields, but later 
> get into the tech field.  I wonder if they are not considered for positions 
> like this since they don't have a "Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or 
> a related field from an accredited university"
> 
> Sorry for the rant, but I guess i'm just curious as to other people's 
> opinions on 4 year degrees and IT positions.
> 
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Adam J. Melancon
> 
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From [EMAIL PROTECTED]  Fri Sep 19 19:04:23 2003
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Chopin Cusachs)
Date: Fri Sep 19 18:06:25 2003
Subject: [brlug-general] 4 year degrees and IT positions
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


Human beings are funny that way.  I started computing in the 50s, before 
there were Computer
Science departments.  Took what computing was available at Northwestern 
University, mostly
a few odd math and EE courses.  The EE one was wonderful, with a number 
that indicated that
it was limited to Ph.D. students.  It was taught by someone who turned out 
to have only a
bachelors.  Seems his undergraduate record was too good for him to get into 
grad school.
Will get back to the story of Harry.

At Tulane I taught "underground" computing courses for the physical 
sciences.  The people who
dominated the Arts and Sciences faculty wouldn't approve computing as such, 
and students had
to beg to be allowed to take the odd course in the Engineering School.   We 
found cover names
for courses and did respectable research.  I hopped over to Loyola and put 
their Computer
Science major back together after it had fallen apart.  But we did get 
flack.  My colleague  -- a
two man program -- had a BS EE and an MBA.  He later got the first Computer 
Systems Ph.D.
from Tulane's Engineering School.  I have degrees in engineering, 
chemistry, and physics.  Many
years later added an M.Div. and a Lic. Th.  The people who 
started  Computer Science
departments had degrees in all sorts of other fields.

Back to Northwestern in 1958.  Harry directed the computer facility -- a 
top of the line IBM 650
that was cards in, cards out.  Not even a typewriter console.  We debugged 
by copying down
addresses and data from the lights  -- they weren't just for visual 
effect.  Harry taught a fine
seminar course -- we met Saturday night at midnight in a book store, so we 
could have adult
beverages in a dry town.  We took turns presenting a topic, a designated 
recorder took notes,
and we discussed what wasn't clear the first pass through.  We always 
finished before sunrise.
When I was writing my dissertation I put in an acknowledgement to Dr. Harry 
Rymer.  Harry
laughed and told me his story.

In the year before World War II Harry was a high school kid with a summer 
job on a nearby
campus. They were building some interesting equipment and he enjoyed 
working with interesting
people. The day after Pearl Harbor he enlisted.  He was shuffling freight 
in Hawaii when some
strange men in civilian clothes came by with a three or four striper as 
gofer.  They verified that
Harry was the man they wanted, and he was issued orders to Washington.  He 
checked in,
was told that his assignment was civilian clothes, which was not permitted 
for an enlisted man.
So he was commissioned on the spot and sent to his assignment -- his old 
summer job.  He
was tutored by the senior staff at the job, many of the people we read 
about in the history of
computing.

At the end of the war he was called in, told there was no future in the 
Navy for an officer with
not even a day of college credit, and given the choice of getting out or 
reverting to enlisted.
He showed up in Evanston with a few thousand other veterans, and was given 
advanced
placement.  He decided to major in math, placing out of all the 
undergraduate courses, then
taking two grad courses for each of the beginning undergrad ones.  He took 
the normal English
and such.  Before the first year was out he was dating a young lady 
doctoral student, and
they married.  Time came for him to graduate.  He would have gone on to 
graduate work, but
there were no courses of interest left to take, so they hired him to direct 
the new computer
center they were setting up.   That is how I met him.

Harry had a little daughter by then, and he would take her to the computer 
center at night --
it was the old astronomy observatory and had bunks -- and entertain her 
between crises as
users ran into problems.  Harry's daughter picked out a book and they 
played games working
out the exercises.  Daughter found that mother could help her with some of 
the more difficult
ones.  All went well for several years.  Then the little girl started 
school.  She came back
one evening with a note pinned to her jumper.  "Your daughter keeps asking 
when we are
getting to integrals.  What are integrals?"    The book she and her dad 
used to use for
games was "Calculus of Variations," the classic grad text by Bliss.

I used to enjoy coffee at the book store at the end of the day with Harry, 
his wife, daughter,
and others as the families gathered before going home for dinner.  From 
time to time a math
student would come in and ask Harry's wife a question  -- she was writing 
her dissertation
and teaching. It was great fun when she would say to ask the little girl, 
and the little girl
would explain what the student had missed.

I've often wondered if Harry ever got a graduate degree, or just moved up 
to director of a large
computer facility.   One of my undergrad chemistry students at Tulane went 
out to CalTech
for his Ph.D. and later, for a time, headed up supercomputer facility; when 
last contacted
was running a computer systems program at Berkeley.

Most of the great innovators in science didn't have degrees in their fields.

Choppy



At 10:10 PM 9/19/03 +0000, you wrote:

>In response to the open job position
>http://www.selu.edu/Administration/Depts/HumanResources/hrojobun.htm#Systems%20Administrator
>
>Let me preface this with:
>I can fully understand that working at a university, they would want you 
>to have a degree from a university.
>
>On to the rant:
>Why is it that places always want a Bachelor's degree.  For example, I 
>have an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Computer Networking with 
>several certifications, and have been a systems administrator for all of 
>the libraries in Vermilion Pairsh library for over 2 years now.  According 
>to most of the requirements requesting Bachelor's degree these days, I 
>guess I got lucky to get this position.  Not to offend anyone, but I have 
>had conversations with people that have computer science degrees and 
>wasn't too impressed.  To be fair though, I have talked to many people 
>with an Associates degree in computers and was really not impressed.  What 
>is it about having a Bachelor's degree in computer science that makes them 
>"stand out" enough to make this the base line requirement.
>
>Most of the computer people that I have seen that are very good at what 
>they do don't nessecarily have a bachelor's degree, but more of a love for 
>technology, patience, the ability to want to learn new things, and the 
>ability to problem solve.

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