Great thoughts everyone... I guess I just wonder if some people with the same degree feel like I do, where when asked what I have a degree in, I feel like I have to justify my Associates degree. It's not because of what other people think about it, I guess for some reason I just feel like I have to justify why I only have an Associates degree.
Although, I did get my CCNA, A+, and Network+ certification which used to make me feel better until they started this certification boot camp crap where everyone and their grandma has their CCNA. Of course you are going to get certified if you pay $5000 for a week long CCNA boot camp! When I started preparing for my certifications, I studied hard, and felt like I earned those certs. It took me 2 weeks and a $50 book to get my A+ and later I studied for two months with a $50 book and 2 1605-R routers I had available to me and got my CCNA, and then after the CCNA I just went take the Network+ the following weekend. I also just recently went through the 12 week Dale Carnegie course that my dad gave me for Christmas. I wasn't too interested in it at the time he told me about it (he took it in October), but it was one of the best class I have ever taken in my life and was definatly worth it. I'm 23 now and have been using computers since I was 6, and I really feel that I have learned more than ever being on the job as a one man IT staff than I ever learned in school. I have no plans of leaving the library, espically since we are fixing to move into a brand new 26,000 square foot facility, but if I ever have to, I hope that my experience as a Systems Administrator for a seven branch library pays off for me in the long run. Also, in keeping with the Linux theme of this group, ever since I have found red-hat 5.2 quite some years ago, computers have become fun again and keep me wanting to do new projects such as my terminal server, print to pdf server, and the MP3 server I have at my house. Linux has been the breath of fresh in this hobby turned career, and has helped my knowledge of computers and networking increase drastically over the past few years. I guess sometimes I'm just tired of people looking a technical colleges as being for people who "couldn't cut it" in a real college, or for "problem kids". If you notice, it is most of the "problem kids" in highschool that they try to start industrial arts program for, or ship them to trade schools. If we didn't have technical schools, where would we get qualified mechanics, plumbers, welders, hair dressers, electricians, and other "working with your hands" jobs. I feel that most people look down at trades, as if they weren't smart enough to make it in college. I think we need more skilled people in this world with hands on trades. If everyone went and got a 4 year degree and a desk job, who would weld, fabricate, build, and fix most of the things we use every day. Which raises a good question... Is working with compters a trade, and if not, why do they teach it at trade schools? Adam J. Melancon _________________________________________________________________ Share your photos without swamping your Inbox. Get Hotmail Extra Storage today! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es
