As the person who wrote that job description, I can tell you why we want someone with a 4 year degree. Getting a degree is hard work. It's a pain in the ass, and probably one of the most difficult things to do in life. So, right off the bat, it tells me here is a person that set a difficult goal for themselves, pulled through all the crap, busted their butt, and completed the goal. That says a lot. The number of very intelligent people that i know who didn't finish their degree because it was too much of a hassle far outnumbers the number of people who have a degree.
Most BS curricula are pretty broad. I was forced to take communications and writing, math, physics, economics, and accounting courses and lots of other junk. I didn't realize it at the time, but those courses help me more everyday than i would have ever imagined. If you want specific examples, i can give them. I think a CS degree is more about teaching you concepts and fundamentals. Once you have that foundation, you take it with you and build on it for the rest of your career. That's why your degree doesn't expire when the next version of Acme Dillware Pro is released. Technical schools are good at teaching practical topics, like administering Cisco or NT. Those skills won't be as useful in 10 years. But the concepts -- communications, architecture, OS concepts, data structures, logic -- the stuff you learn in college, probably won't change much in 10 years. Whether you *need* the concepts to learn the practical applications is debatable. But it sure makes things a lot clearer for me. Make no mistake. Like everywhere else, we have some real morons with degrees on staff. We also have some very talented people without degrees. I don't like talking to the morons. My only advice to the talented guys is get your degree. It'll make you that much more valuable in the job market. If you already know all the stuff I mentioned above, then prove it. Finish your degree. And it doesn't have to be a 4 year degree. My 5.5 year degree works fine as well. :) ray -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ray DeJean http://www.r-a-y.org Systems Engineer Southeastern Louisiana University IBM Certified Specialist AIX Administration, AIX Support =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
