[KoRn]

I work in IT, and a college degree for an IT person is nearly useless. As a matter of fact the more educated people have been that Ive worked with over the years, the less ‘smart’ they are about the job.

A diploma helps an IT professional as much as it helps an auto mechanic.

[familyop]

"I work in IT, and a college degree for an IT person is nearly useless. As a matter of fact the more educated people have been that Ive worked with over the years, the less ‘smart’ they are about the job."

I saw that happening over a year ago, and my whole family has been studying C++ and Python (those first, just to show off, along with Unix systems stuff) since then. It takes more than a couple of semesters of relevant classes to get there. We'll be available for work in a couple of months (couple more GUI libraries). ...might think about lowering ourselves to play with Java, C#, etc., after that.

And to the clients? "You can't always get what you want...!" ;-)

[gura]

Too true, all of the best IT people I know just have a love for it.

[Starwolf]

As a senior manager who hires in the IT area, if I don’t see a degree, I tend to wonder why not. They are not that hard to get, and having one says something about the person. Its not quite to the point of no degree no consideration, but its close.

[wayoverthehill]

That is correct. My son works for a Fortune 100 company and does not have a degree. He didn’t want to go because he said in the computer field, by the time he got his degree, everything he learned would be obsolete because the field was moving and growing so fast. Apparently he was right because he is the only non-degreed person in his department and they wanted him because he could think “outside the box” and think on the fly. His experience and work history far outweighs any degree.

[dljordan]

“I work in IT, and a college degree for an IT person is nearly useless. As a matter of fact the more educated people have been that Ive worked with over the years, the less ‘smart’ they are about the job.”

I’ve seen the same thing. I took an Associates Degree from a no-nonsense technical school in 79’. I had started in IT back in 76’ and just got laid off from IBM in May after my account was off-shored to Brazil. I’ve spent 25 years in IT and some of the absolute best nerds I’ve seen haven’t had a degree. In my department we hired several recent college grads but none of them wanted to stay because the work was just too complicated (mainframe storage administration) almost all of us were over 50. I watched IBM lay off some very good, loyal workers and fill their positions with H1B’s from India saying they just couldn’t find American workers to fill the positions.

[USCG SimTech]

Companies want someone that can get the job done. A stack of degrees doesn't count for anything if you can't perform the task assigned. Whole package people make companies money. Personality, leadership, ability to follow orders, friendliness, civility, looks (unfortunate but true), aggressiveness toward satisfying the customer, ingenuity, creativity, frugal, sensitive and hard working.