Any IT professionals about?

[Mutley]

I am an IT professional and I don't even have a degree (ran out of cash).

I don't even have one of those fancy pants 'serco' IT certifications that qualifies you to type with two fingers and earn up to £37 grand a year.

I think qualifications are over rated, skill and experience or enthusiasm if you are just starting is all you need. Probably.. I suppose I did start this gig 7 years ago now but I really doubt things change that much.

Thats all true to a certain extent, but the qualifications get you in the door to prove who good/enthusiastic you are. In the current climate, where employees will have loads of CVs on their desk, they're going to get picky.

I'll also say that I work with a lot of people who have many different qualifications, often nothing to do with computing.

Passion, enthusiasm, ability to learn quickly, flexibility are really key I think.

[G4Z]

Note I did say overrated and not worthless.

The very fact that you are going to uni at all is a good thing and will teach you about a lot more than your chosen subject. My time at uni probably did a lot to shape me as a person even though I didn't finish it.

Mutley is right about the current climate it is hard to find jobs and there are not a lot of contractor posts about but if you can get something/anything even part time while at uni or in your sandwich year it will be worth your while just as much as what you put into uni.

[Jay]

I have been in IT for 10 years and I did Electrical Engineering at Uni but I am now going to be getting my CCNA this year.

[Stringent]

Cisco are chumps. They change the details of their courses every year it seems! You should cruise through CCNA Jay, wish you all the best with it.

[Barrichello]

In all honesty when I look at CV's I notice that a candidate has a degree , but I dont pay much attention to it. real world experience counts for much more.

Have to agree with that in my experiences as well. Also allot of times, where some job ads/specs state "Degree required" it can be side stepped with adequate exposure and experience (especially in specialist area's) Have gone through a few IT positions in various big name banks/brokers that stated degrees required. They didn't seem to make a big deal out of only having 3 GCSE's on my cv

But best of luck and hope it goes well with your chosen path in education.

[Jay]

Cisco are chumps. They change the details of their courses every year it seems!

....and over priced but people like those little letters on a CV.

I have seen jobs advertised for £18,000 a year asking for a Degree, 18 months in 1st line and an MCSA or CCNA. Sometimes I think some people are on a different planet.

[Mutley]

I'd also echo sentiments on industrial placements - sandwich degree courses are generally a good idea imho, and produce more employable people.
I have two undergrads working for me at the moment, and they learn a huge amount over the year.

[manwithnoname]

I have a Bsc in Computer Science, my first job was programming in x86 assembly which was not covered by my degree. I offered to do a months probation and it all be downhill from there. My degree actual didn't help but my Further maths A level did.

I'd do the course I'd get the best grade in.

[Stoo]

I did a BSc in Computer & Network Engineering, and now I'm pretty much doing everything from Web Development to Systems Admin, a bit of DBA, along with a smattering of design (photoshoppery) thrown in for good measure..

More out of need than anything else though to be honest..

Web Development is, as others mentioned not very different from applications development these days, in fact, our current team leader came in from an applications background and dropped straight into web development with very few problems. In fact he's improved the web applications no end as they're far more reliable than they ever were as his applications background was very very solid.

[TheAnimus]

My only reservation with changing is the fact that a degree in Computer Science is possibly seen as being more prestigious than one in Internet Computing. Upon graduation, I don't want to find myself in a position where I have difficulty finding work due to the fact that my degree is in Internet Computing rather than Computer Science. Would this be the case, or am I placing too much emphasis on the importance of a degree's name?

A Rose by any other name eh?

There is something important to be noted. Any muppet can work a design tool and produce a website.

If you prove your able to understand concepts demonstrated in algorithms, and understand the frankley horrible technologies required for the whole web 2.0 stuff, your on much better grounds.

I would throw away the CV of anyone who had simply "Web/Internet", enless they had something pretty amazing before i'd read that far. The notion that they are trying to develope, without having any education in the ideas behind the technologies they've been trained in would worry me. The last guy i hired has had to learn a whole raft of new technologies he has never used before, you want a candidate who can demonstrate they will be able to learn anything quickly, pick up anything that you have which is completely unique.

Whats very intresting is some of the best developers i've encountered on the london developer scene are web developers, even thou us 'proper' devs often look down on them.

Not one of those people has had a bull**** degree. Stick it out, sounds like your on course for a first anyway!

As for year in industries etc. They don't mean as much as having something impressive which you can say you did of your own back, go find a charity that needs a whole system designed for them this summer or something if u've got the time.

[ctid]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've decided to stick with Computer Science and will just learn the Ajax and some more PHP in my spare time.

I've gotten details of a few more placements (thanks rai ), and will be sending my cv in to them within the next couple of days, so will see what happens on that front. If I have no luck, I'll see what there is on it4c. Thanks for the idea animus.

[TheAnimus]

As for placements my experiance is almost the opposite of Rai n peoples. The logic is simple.

You get paid less for a placement than you do as a graddy.

You have to get a placement in the first place, without 1st/2-1 under your belt. Is it really harder to find a job after you've graduated, than it is to find a job before?

Also as strange as this might sound, but in the times of cost cuttings we're seeing i'm having to struggle to justify getting an intern this summer. You wouldn't believe how hard a sell it is, this is for me running development and FO-tech for $2bn of risk, been told that the desk space is too expensive for such a thing this summer, the reason for this is the main thing the 'turn will be doing is making unit tests etc. these add no real 'business value' because it dosen't give anyone new features.......

Ok i went off a bit there, but hopefully it will make sense, internships/sandwiches aren't worth as much as been able to demonstrate you've done something great off your own back!

[Moby-Dick]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've decided to stick with Computer Science and will just learn the Ajax and some more PHP in my spare time.

I've gotten details of a few more placements (thanks rai ), and will be sending my cv in to them within the next couple of days, so will see what happens on that front. If I have no luck, I'll see what there is on it4c. Thanks for the idea animus.

good stuff - push yourself outside your comfort zone

[staffsMike]

You're going through exactly what I did! Got a first for year 1, decided I hated programming in year 2 but stuck it out changing course title twice in the process. Ended up on one that meant I would avoid programming like the plague for the rest of my time there.

End of the day, gotta make yourself happy, if you are happy sticking it out then it will probably make the most sense.