Do employers care about...

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JasonTC
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Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:05 am
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Do employers care about...

Post by JasonTC »

Do employers place more emphasis on schooling or work experience?

I'm 21 years old and I've completed about 50 credit hours or so as a computer science major. Until now, I've worked jobs such as grocery store cashier and 7-11 clerk, but I recently got a good job as a PHP programmer, despite the fact that I don't have very much formal education. I've been able to quickly execute all the tasks given to me and then some, even though I knew almost zero PHP when I started.

Should I go back to school? I realize that, even though I'm making what seems like a ridiculously huge amount of money right now, making $14/hr when I'm 30 would be laughable. School may make me more employable, but is it worth the time, expense and other inherent headaches?
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Burrito
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Post by Burrito »

short answer: Yes get a degree.

long answer: as a person who has interviewed a lot of candidates for several different positions I can tell you that real world experience plays a much larger role in the final decision without a doubt. However, people who have degrees (not necessarily in a related field), show that they can follow through with "projects" and see them to their end. If there's one thing that turns me off more than anything else, it's when people have on their resumes that they are partially finished with a degree that they started seven years go. That's a red flag that indicates they don't have the initiative to complete something they've started.

I'm a perfect case in point. I have a BS in psychology and I'm a computer programmer. Obviously those two do not go hand in hand but I know for a fact that two of the last three jobs I've landed were due in large part to the fact that I have letters after my name. It's a stupid way to "judge" people imo, but it can provide you with some credibility for reasons I mentioned above.
alex.barylski
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Re: Do employers care about...

Post by alex.barylski »

JasonTC wrote:Do employers place more emphasis on schooling or work experience?

I'm 21 years old and I've completed about 50 credit hours or so as a computer science major. Until now, I've worked jobs such as grocery store cashier and 7-11 clerk, but I recently got a good job as a PHP programmer, despite the fact that I don't have very much formal education. I've been able to quickly execute all the tasks given to me and then some, even though I knew almost zero PHP when I started.

Should I go back to school? I realize that, even though I'm making what seems like a ridiculously huge amount of money right now, making $14/hr when I'm 30 would be laughable. School may make me more employable, but is it worth the time, expense and other inherent headaches?
Dude....finish school...

I dropped out in Gr. 10 almost 10 years ago...

I still work at a crummy minimum wage job develiering auto parts to garages...

My heart has always been with programming...I started at an early age

My first experience was age 8 on a Commodore Vic-20 and I've been learning languages, technologies and systems ever since...

I have only once managed to land a job (15 USD/hour which at the time the Canadian $$$ was really low - so for me it was like $25ish/hour) but I grew bored with the mundane coding of things I had no interest in and my clients constant changing of things!

Anyways the point being...I've since applied for "normal" fulltime positions at every place in my city and not one god damn place has even called me back...

I offered to work for free for a while inorder to prove my skillset...and still no one bites :(

As a hobbyiest...my collection of code is mostly unfinished projects...and only a few complete utilities...application addons, etc...

I came from Windows development - doing custom control design and implementation (MFC) - so it was only natural I did the same in a web environment :)

Again the point being...I don't have anything which someone in a hiring position would understand...

they'd rather see a complete project - messy or not - as opposed to a well written module which can be used to extend your applications usability, etc... :)

I'm just figuring out now that if I want a job I'm oging to have to write some application which has some usability, functionality merit...but i'm 26 almost 27 :(

I would have long since been a programmer had I just finished school and done things they way everyone else does - I finished my Gr. 12 Comp sci credit in Gr. 10 being the geek that was and always will be :)

Take my advice...if your happy coding...and you have the chance to goto school...do it!!!

Even with a job...post secondary will teach you alot of neats things you will find very difficult to understand without someone to answer constant questions you may have...

Ever try figuring out EBNF or Huffman without a Gr. 10 education? It's damn near impossible when something as simple as prime factorization confuses you :lol:

Cheers :)
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