[Dek25ive]

True, great advice. So I take it you have your Masters/Grad degree?

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Dek25ive

True, great advice. So I take it you have your Masters/Grad degree?

Actually no, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express in Tulsa last month (da** that was good marketing).

Just think about it, certain professions are open, certain ones deliberately keep the numbers down and the barriers to entry up, so that we can enjoy outrageously high salaries. Seriously.

IT is not one of those, imho. Yes, people can make 6 figures not easily but handily. But can they do it over the course of 40 years? Doubtful. Because something new comes out in 10 yrs., making the old obsolete.

[ddk632]

So, if you're a doctor or surgeon, and you don't stay on top of medical developments, research, new methodologies, treatments, and medical technologies, are you relevant as a doctor and earning top dollar after 40 years?

What if you're a lawyer who doesn't keep up with new laws? Will top firms hire you in 40 years just because you're a lawyer?

IT is no different. Staying on top of new technology, methodology, and developments in any field is the way to stay relevant and valuable to the market over years and decades in one's career and/or business.

Also I think the days of gung-ho IT guys with no college education who are able to be successful are winding down. There was a mass need and a mass shortage of talent in the industry in the late 90's, during the Dot Com bubble.

Today more and more companies hiring in IT want college grads with degrees in Comp Sci. As the field matures it will become the standard, and guys like me will be the old timers who were grandfathered in and will be more of the exception than they are today. The guys who today have experience under their belt already are "in", but in 10 years it will be harder to do the same thing without a degree, except for the brightest of the bright.

If anything due to the simple fact that it will be difficult to obtain relevant experience without entering the field, and it will be difficult to enter the field without a computer science background.

That's my prediction based on what I've seen.

[_Ryan_]

Originally Posted by John 070

Not at all. But it's a barrier to entry into the field. In other words, you didn't get straight A's through age 18, you can't get into a college to get straight A's through 22, that get you into the graduate school where you have to get straight A's in order to get an internship.

My suspicion is those who knock a real education (question what it's really worth), threw in the towel far short of age 18.

Schools have a 5% acceptance rate today, it was closer to 12% when I went there. Do you throw in the towel when you're 12? Odds are you will be in the 95% that are rejected. But unlike the lottery, your actions have a direct bearing on the outcome...

Education has it's place. I haven't needed a degree as yet and most of my peers have a masters. I will likely do one out of interest.
My younger brother I encourage to attend university, my partner is doing law.

I didn't do one due to circumstances as a teen, it's not that we "knock it", it's that there are alternate paths.

R.

[bimmerfrk]

just got my VCA-510 last thursday and my VCP-510 on friday. Exams where not that hard not sure why people complaining.

[bobs619]

Best run businesses run SAP. Read up on this shit called HANA. Bet you that's gonna be the hot thing to know in the cloud computing game.

[PSUSMU]

"The Cloud" is something idiots call what the rest of us call "The Internet".

[bimmerfrk]

Originally Posted by PSUSMU

"The Cloud" is something idiots call what the rest of us call "The Internet".

Cloud computing: the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility.

So its more than the internet. Its doing the computing inside the internet

[ddk632]

The Internet. That magical thing that just came to be for the masses. All by itself. Then some idiots have the nerve to call it "The Cloud."

A disturbance in the Force, this is.

[Goat Rodeo]

Originally Posted by bobs619

Best run businesses run SAP. Read up on this shit called HANA. Bet you that's gonna be the hot thing to know in the cloud computing game.

Well - maybe - but good advice for OP to align to some product and niche.

OP - shooting to become some general overall architect attached to the latest buzzword will not get you far since you're just starting out.

[filip75]

I have a bunch of friends working for Rackspace in San Antonio, and they say that if you are good, you can get a job easily.

[Dek25ive]

Not sold on being a cloud architect still have 2 years till I get my degree. Just know that with a Comp Science degree that is one of the better jobs to aim for.