Jobs?

[Tony Hammitt]

Time to start another flamewar =-]

I think that the 'tech' schools don't teach enough of the things that real
professionals need to know.  First off, they don't require enough Math or
Physics to let their students understand why the things they are learning
work the way they work.  Then there's the lack of the liberal arts subjects,
which I think are important to give you a sense of your place in soceity.
(and also important to make you realize that you can't be an expert in
everything, which is somewhat lacking in a lot of technologists)

There are a lot more examples of how getting a University degree better
prepares you for the work world.  For one, there's the environment you're
in, with lots more choices about which professors' classes to take.  Also,
it's nice to be in a place with advanced students.  If you get stuck on
some project, you can usually find someone to help who actually knows how
to help you.  Gene complained about bad teachers who don't know what they
are teaching.  You will have a hard time finding that in a University, the
problem is more often that the teachers know too much about the subject
and have a hard time initially teaching it.

As a further debate point, I'll point to the standard complaint about MCSEs,
that they get all of this idealized book learning situations, which don't
really have much to do with the real world.  When I was at a senior ISU, I
won a 4 year, $300000 research grant from a fortune 100 company for my
research team.  It paid for my Graduate school.  That opportunity wouldn't
arise at a 2-year college.  Things didn't go perfectly; we fixed them. Etc.

Going to a University is worth the extra time.

Just my opinion,

	Tony Hammitt

Gene Dascher wrote:
> 
> Do you mind if I ask why you're going to DeVry?  Are you going for a CIS
> degree or an electronics degree?  The reason that I ask is that I am a
> former DeVry student who got sick of paying WAY too much $$$ for the
> "education" that I was getting there.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I was a CIS major, and I was going at night, so that is the only
> program I know about.
> 
> I have heard good things about the electronics program there.  Here are the
> major reasons that I decided to leave:
> 
> 1. Inexperienced teachers.  I had my fill of teachers reading verbatim out
> of the book to me in the classroom.  Teachers were teaching subjects in
> which they had NO Real-World experience, contrary to what they say in their
> commercials.  Not all teachers, mind you, but enough to make me balk.  They
> hired a lady to teach COBOL who had been in the workforce for 3 years (she
> was a DeVry graduate), and within 2 semesters, she was teaching
> Client-Server architecture.  One of my friends who took that class basically
> helped her make it through the semester because she had NO idea what she was
> doing.
> 
> 2. For a school that was on the "Cutting Edge", I had taken 5 COBOL classes
> as opposed to 1 C++ class by the time I left.  This is in the mid-1990s.
> 
> 3. I was paying WAY too much money for what I was getting in return.  Not
> that I am discouraging you from going to college.  I am going to go back and
> finish my degree some day, only not at DeVry!
> 
> I hope I haven't rained on your parade, I just wanted to let you know what
> my experience at that school was, as a contrast to the picture that the
> recruiters paint for you when they are trying to get your money.  This is a
> warning to all of you high school students who are going off to college
> soon.  Fully investigate the school that you are wanting to go to.  Get
> opinions from current students as well as alumni.  I was starry eyed, new in
> town, and knew nothing about anything when I was reeled in by the DeVry
> recruiters.  I'm not even saying not to go to DeVry.  Some people swear by
> it.  It just was not for me.
> 
> Gene
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jared [mailto:jared at mail.ru]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 10:41 PM
> To: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: Jobs?
> 
> While i'm at it, i thought i'd spam a bit more to ask if anyone knows of any
> good part-time computer repair/build/sales/networking jobs that would work
> well for a full time DeVRY student (well, soon to be devry student,
> currently high school student for 7 more weeks).  I need a $8/hour or so
> paying job offering hours close to 3pm-whenever and possible weekends? This
> would be great if in the Overland Park area.  Lately I've been confined to
> applying at Micro Center and CompUSA, none of which seem to like highschool
> kids who try to look cool by putting linux on their job applications :)
> 
>    Jared
>