[aclug-L] Re: CS Degrees (Was: Re: Cool new fan site....hehe)

[Carl D Cravens <raven@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 14 Apr 2000, Jonathan Hall wrote:

> indication that a degree practically means nothing.  All it is is a 'tactic'
> to get into certian companies that are too 'stupid' to realize how worthless
> degrees are.

They're not entirely useless in that respect... a 4-year degree,
regardless of what it's in, says that you had the perseverance and
ability to stick with college long enough to get it.  That your basic
level of intelligence is high enough to have passed all those general
education and degree-specific courses.  Having a degree says, "Here's a
guy who can go after something he wants, stick to it, and has the basic
smarts to get the job done."  
 
> Being knoweldgable in the area of computers or Unix specifically is not
> "magic."  You cannot become proficient at school.  You become proficient at
> home, or on the job.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's very difficult to
learn Unix administration by yourself ("at home").  There is so much
word-of-mouth knowledge that you can never learn in books... you have to
have a strong link to an experienced base of users.  My last job I took
over an admin position from someone that was entirely self-taught on the
job... he read books and in the end knew a lot of technical details.  But
he did a lot of stupid things because he never had anybody to reveal to
him the traditions of "how things are done in Unix" and you don't get
those from a manual.  Especially going from administering a one-user
machine to administering production servers with real users.
 
> A degree does have uses...  For me, attending WSU served only to 'force' me
> to learn the material that I could have learned on my own, but was too
> unmotiviated.  (That's a pretty high price tag for motivation, though!)

I've considered taking some creative writing classes for the same
reason... I need a jump-start. 
 
--
Carl D Cravens (raven@xxxxxxxxxxx)
My reality check just bounced.


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