On Wed, Nov 21, 2001 at 03:10:19AM +1100, James Dean wrote: > Just in case no one else mentioned it. > > Sit down and ask yourself . Why go to university at all??? > > 3 years industry experience often counts for a lot more than a degree > and you get paid while you gain it.
While this may be true for the original poster, who given that they are posting to the SLUG newsgroup at all almost certainly has more skills than I did when I started uni, I don't regret going to uni for the following reasons: * I had no "IT skills" to speak of when I left high school and would have had a really fun time getting that very first job. The ones I have now are less valuable than someone who has 3 years industry experience, but a reasonable starting point to begin 3 years experience with. * In particular, I had no programming skills and would now most likely be a Windows tech, since that would have been the easiest job to get. Or a factory worker, since that would have been easier and I couldn't afford to be picky at the time. Probably something in between, at least for the first year or so. * I wanted other skills that 3 years experience was unlikely to give me unless I had the self-discipline for a really good self-taught reading program (the majors I'm doing that aren't IT, particularly maths, would have been a real pain to teach myself). * It is likely that I would still be living in my parent's home town if I hadn't gone to uni (rent being so much more expensive in Sydney and me having less contacts here). * There are a lot of IT things I would have never used, or used much later if I hadn't made certain contacts at uni - C and Linux spring to mind. * I'm at least considering a research career, for which an undergraduate degree is nearly a prerequisite. 3 years experience is worth more money than a degree in IT and should be considered carefully if your sole aim is an IT career. I consider that my degree has given me a fairly reasonable foundation to begin 3 years experience with, though. I imagine there are other and faster ways to get this. If the original poster doesn't have any similar reasons to go to uni and could soon get a job and begin getting industry experience, then indeed experience will be the more lucrative option. Uni may also not be the best option if you want a career in IT that it doesn't actually train you for (it teaches programming, but not sysadminning, at least in the degree I'm doing). -Mary. -- Mary Gardiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
