Does a degree in IT do any good?

[abaez]

WHat cal state MT? I just graduated from cal state long beach with an Business Admin/MIS major. I really didn't want to do it (I got into it when it was hot three years ago) but I stuck with it. Luckily I have 3 years management experience working at a theatre and the experience counts ALOT. I've got three job offers just from going to my families get togethers and seeing people and telling them I graduated!! The good thing about MIS is that its a little bit of everything so you can just go into what you want.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: Shanteli
I think overall all of us were the same...we didn't want to be stuck coding all day thus that is why CS was not a goal and a few years back MIS/CIS/IT stuff was totally hot. But now yeah it is really bad like REALLY bad for people with little "real world experience". For example I have been doing win2k/unix sys admin stuff for 2 universities as a student worker for 4 sum years now...I get paid more than an average worker cuz I'm in IT/systems but real companies seriously don't count it as real experience. Yeah my MIS major went into some SQL database stuff but getting hired as as a database person is hard if you are entry level.

mt350: If you like web design and are good with photoshop, director, flash etc. then maybe u should change to this major called visual communiactions or something like that. My old roomie did that and he has a pretty good job doing web front end stuff.

cashman: I don't have any statistics but here...this is an experiment that you can do...go to a career fair at your school and see how many people are actually looking for IT people...there are close to none. The closest to tech that you will get are companies looking for hardcore programmers and engineers...nobody wants a half business half computers guy. And that is a fact...I have seen the market when it was booming and I have seen it now...there is a very drastic difference. Another thing that you might want to consider is that all IT jobs that do open up are getting flooded with people who have way more experience than you do like 5-10 years more. And you know it is bad when some software engineer who worked 8 years for sun micro is applying for a Computer Analyst Level I position within a university.

That is what I have seen. I am actually going to move back to AZ to see what happens but I'll probably end up moving boxes at UPS or something. If I could do it over again I would do accounting instead of MIS....and if not something in the college of business, probably psychology/sociology....at least it would have been more fun.

So you think getting an IT degree right now is worthless as of right now? I was going to major in CS but programming is not my style. I am more network and hardware geared, I don't want to be sitting in a cubicle programming 10 hours a day. When I get my bachelor's in 4 years, I am PRAYING the market will have came back and we will be recovering from such a loss.

Hahaha, talking about Sun Micro, my Dad worked there for 6 years and was recently laid off with many others......he still hasn't found a job.


In my opinion, I think ANY tech degree is worthless if you don't have the right connections or you have no experience. We shall see what happens to us.......

 

[Rastus]

From what I've seen, in good times a degree in anything will get you a good position, even if it isn't in your specialty. I've seen school teachers (with english degrees) become very good rocket engineers. In bad times, employers are looking for specialties only. IT is a specialty and will always be in demand. Those of you who are in school, stay in school, it WILL pay of.

 

[Shanteli]

Originally posted by: cashman

Originally posted by: Shanteli
I think overall all of us were the same...we didn't want to be stuck coding all day thus that is why CS was not a goal and a few years back MIS/CIS/IT stuff was totally hot. But now yeah it is really bad like REALLY bad for people with little "real world experience". For example I have been doing win2k/unix sys admin stuff for 2 universities as a student worker for 4 sum years now...I get paid more than an average worker cuz I'm in IT/systems but real companies seriously don't count it as real experience. Yeah my MIS major went into some SQL database stuff but getting hired as as a database person is hard if you are entry level.

mt350: If you like web design and are good with photoshop, director, flash etc. then maybe u should change to this major called visual communiactions or something like that. My old roomie did that and he has a pretty good job doing web front end stuff.

cashman: I don't have any statistics but here...this is an experiment that you can do...go to a career fair at your school and see how many people are actually looking for IT people...there are close to none. The closest to tech that you will get are companies looking for hardcore programmers and engineers...nobody wants a half business half computers guy. And that is a fact...I have seen the market when it was booming and I have seen it now...there is a very drastic difference. Another thing that you might want to consider is that all IT jobs that do open up are getting flooded with people who have way more experience than you do like 5-10 years more. And you know it is bad when some software engineer who worked 8 years for sun micro is applying for a Computer Analyst Level I position within a university.

That is what I have seen. I am actually going to move back to AZ to see what happens but I'll probably end up moving boxes at UPS or something. If I could do it over again I would do accounting instead of MIS....and if not something in the college of business, probably psychology/sociology....at least it would have been more fun.

So you think getting an IT degree right now is worthless as of right now? I was going to major in CS but programming is not my style. I am more network and hardware geared, I don't want to be sitting in a cubicle programming 10 hours a day. When I get my bachelor's in 4 years, I am PRAYING the market will have came back and we will be recovering from such a loss.

Hahaha, talking about Sun Micro, my Dad worked there for 6 years and was recently laid off with many others......he still hasn't found a job.


In my opinion, I think ANY tech degree is worthless if you don't have the right connections or you have no experience. We shall see what happens to us.......

Well I am mainly taking about today as in the present...nobody knows if the IT market will recover when the rest of the economy does, but right now I think any IT degree is pretty useless. Essentially you have to be the cream of the crop to get anywhere or, as you said, you have to have the right connections...but that is a general rule unless you have a "wanted" degree like education or nursing. The main thing is luck...there are positions out there that need people like us who like the network/hardware /backend side of things but getting the job or even getting an interview is hard. Yeah my advice is seriously to look someplace else for a career...and I can't believe that I am actually saying it cuz yeah 5 years ago I started MIS....1 year ago I graduated with no job...and it pretty much stayed that way until I enrolled back into school to get some school comp job just so I could stay alive in the industry. Now I am so disillusioned about what I want/can do anymore. It is like...you work so hard for something and take a bunch of classes just to hit the real world and notice that there are a ton of people better than you in your field....and unemployment hits you in the face. See back in 98/99 if you knew ANYTHING about computers you could get some analyst job...but now, as I stated above...it is all about either the cream of the crop or the hookups. But totally still try to find PT jobbies in computers....any experience is better than none...but I personally would not major/specialize in IT...have a backdoor.

And yeah I considered an MBA too as wyvrn stated...and I actually got into a program...but I am declining for a year cuz really....where are you going to apply after you finish? And are companies really going to hire you just cuz you have another degree under your belt? I have no faith in anything relating to business...notice the bitterness.

 

[wyvrn]

Sounds like you are giving up because you are frustrated. That is only going to hurt you. Get the MBA and see what you can find when you get out. Having those degrees is not worthless, it is just a combination of a sluggish economy and a market correction on IT jobs. It will pass. MBA's are always going to be in demand because we live in a capitalistic economy. But if you give up so easily, well I can only say good luck to you in life.

Originally posted by: Shanteli

Originally posted by: cashman

Originally posted by: Shanteli
I think overall all of us were the same...we didn't want to be stuck coding all day thus that is why CS was not a goal and a few years back MIS/CIS/IT stuff was totally hot. But now yeah it is really bad like REALLY bad for people with little "real world experience". For example I have been doing win2k/unix sys admin stuff for 2 universities as a student worker for 4 sum years now...I get paid more than an average worker cuz I'm in IT/systems but real companies seriously don't count it as real experience. Yeah my MIS major went into some SQL database stuff but getting hired as as a database person is hard if you are entry level.

mt350: If you like web design and are good with photoshop, director, flash etc. then maybe u should change to this major called visual communiactions or something like that. My old roomie did that and he has a pretty good job doing web front end stuff.

cashman: I don't have any statistics but here...this is an experiment that you can do...go to a career fair at your school and see how many people are actually looking for IT people...there are close to none. The closest to tech that you will get are companies looking for hardcore programmers and engineers...nobody wants a half business half computers guy. And that is a fact...I have seen the market when it was booming and I have seen it now...there is a very drastic difference. Another thing that you might want to consider is that all IT jobs that do open up are getting flooded with people who have way more experience than you do like 5-10 years more. And you know it is bad when some software engineer who worked 8 years for sun micro is applying for a Computer Analyst Level I position within a university.

That is what I have seen. I am actually going to move back to AZ to see what happens but I'll probably end up moving boxes at UPS or something. If I could do it over again I would do accounting instead of MIS....and if not something in the college of business, probably psychology/sociology....at least it would have been more fun.

So you think getting an IT degree right now is worthless as of right now? I was going to major in CS but programming is not my style. I am more network and hardware geared, I don't want to be sitting in a cubicle programming 10 hours a day. When I get my bachelor's in 4 years, I am PRAYING the market will have came back and we will be recovering from such a loss.

Hahaha, talking about Sun Micro, my Dad worked there for 6 years and was recently laid off with many others......he still hasn't found a job.


In my opinion, I think ANY tech degree is worthless if you don't have the right connections or you have no experience. We shall see what happens to us.......

Well I am mainly taking about today as in the present...nobody knows if the IT market will recover when the rest of the economy does, but right now I think any IT degree is pretty useless. Essentially you have to be the cream of the crop to get anywhere or, as you said, you have to have the right connections...but that is a general rule unless you have a "wanted" degree like education or nursing. The main thing is luck...there are positions out there that need people like us who like the network/hardware /backend side of things but getting the job or even getting an interview is hard. Yeah my advice is seriously to look someplace else for a career...and I can't believe that I am actually saying it cuz yeah 5 years ago I started MIS....1 year ago I graduated with no job...and it pretty much stayed that way until I enrolled back into school to get some school comp job just so I could stay alive in the industry. Now I am so disillusioned about what I want/can do anymore. It is like...you work so hard for something and take a bunch of classes just to hit the real world and notice that there are a ton of people better than you in your field....and unemployment hits you in the face. See back in 98/99 if you knew ANYTHING about computers you could get some analyst job...but now, as I stated above...it is all about either the cream of the crop or the hookups. But totally still try to find PT jobbies in computers....any experience is better than none...but I personally would not major/specialize in IT...have a backdoor.

And yeah I considered an MBA too as wyvrn stated...and I actually got into a program...but I am declining for a year cuz really....where are you going to apply after you finish? And are companies really going to hire you just cuz you have another degree under your belt? I have no faith in anything relating to business...notice the bitterness.

 

[Richdog]

Not if you want to become a fishmonger or a butcher.

 

[Frdm51472]

I just hired an entry level IT Tech. I had 104 applicants in a fairly rural area of GA, had my pick of the litter, and could have drawn a name out of the hat of people we interviewed, all were very highly skilled IT professionals with 7+ years of experience. I guess you can read this as you want, but to me it shows how terrible the IT industry is for anyone who doesnt already have the goods, or isnt willing to venture into a business of their own.

 

[Shanteli]

Originally posted by: wyvrn
Sounds like you are giving up because you are frustrated. That is only going to hurt you. Get the MBA and see what you can find when you get out. Having those degrees is not worthless, it is just a combination of a sluggish economy and a market correction on IT jobs. It will pass. MBA's are always going to be in demand because we live in a capitalistic economy. But if you give up so easily, well I can only say good luck to you in life.

Originally posted by: Shanteli

Originally posted by: cashman

Originally posted by: Shanteli
I think overall all of us were the same...we didn't want to be stuck coding all day thus that is why CS was not a goal and a few years back MIS/CIS/IT stuff was totally hot. But now yeah it is really bad like REALLY bad for people with little "real world experience". For example I have been doing win2k/unix sys admin stuff for 2 universities as a student worker for 4 sum years now...I get paid more than an average worker cuz I'm in IT/systems but real companies seriously don't count it as real experience. Yeah my MIS major went into some SQL database stuff but getting hired as as a database person is hard if you are entry level.

mt350: If you like web design and are good with photoshop, director, flash etc. then maybe u should change to this major called visual communiactions or something like that. My old roomie did that and he has a pretty good job doing web front end stuff.

cashman: I don't have any statistics but here...this is an experiment that you can do...go to a career fair at your school and see how many people are actually looking for IT people...there are close to none. The closest to tech that you will get are companies looking for hardcore programmers and engineers...nobody wants a half business half computers guy. And that is a fact...I have seen the market when it was booming and I have seen it now...there is a very drastic difference. Another thing that you might want to consider is that all IT jobs that do open up are getting flooded with people who have way more experience than you do like 5-10 years more. And you know it is bad when some software engineer who worked 8 years for sun micro is applying for a Computer Analyst Level I position within a university.

That is what I have seen. I am actually going to move back to AZ to see what happens but I'll probably end up moving boxes at UPS or something. If I could do it over again I would do accounting instead of MIS....and if not something in the college of business, probably psychology/sociology....at least it would have been more fun.

So you think getting an IT degree right now is worthless as of right now? I was going to major in CS but programming is not my style. I am more network and hardware geared, I don't want to be sitting in a cubicle programming 10 hours a day. When I get my bachelor's in 4 years, I am PRAYING the market will have came back and we will be recovering from such a loss.

Hahaha, talking about Sun Micro, my Dad worked there for 6 years and was recently laid off with many others......he still hasn't found a job.


In my opinion, I think ANY tech degree is worthless if you don't have the right connections or you have no experience. We shall see what happens to us.......

Well I am mainly taking about today as in the present...nobody knows if the IT market will recover when the rest of the economy does, but right now I think any IT degree is pretty useless. Essentially you have to be the cream of the crop to get anywhere or, as you said, you have to have the right connections...but that is a general rule unless you have a "wanted" degree like education or nursing. The main thing is luck...there are positions out there that need people like us who like the network/hardware /backend side of things but getting the job or even getting an interview is hard. Yeah my advice is seriously to look someplace else for a career...and I can't believe that I am actually saying it cuz yeah 5 years ago I started MIS....1 year ago I graduated with no job...and it pretty much stayed that way until I enrolled back into school to get some school comp job just so I could stay alive in the industry. Now I am so disillusioned about what I want/can do anymore. It is like...you work so hard for something and take a bunch of classes just to hit the real world and notice that there are a ton of people better than you in your field....and unemployment hits you in the face. See back in 98/99 if you knew ANYTHING about computers you could get some analyst job...but now, as I stated above...it is all about either the cream of the crop or the hookups. But totally still try to find PT jobbies in computers....any experience is better than none...but I personally would not major/specialize in IT...have a backdoor.

And yeah I considered an MBA too as wyvrn stated...and I actually got into a program...but I am declining for a year cuz really....where are you going to apply after you finish? And are companies really going to hire you just cuz you have another degree under your belt? I have no faith in anything relating to business...notice the bitterness.

Well actually I have not fully given up yet...I'll give it one more year to get something...but if after that year no IT jobs pop up then yes I'll probably give up. And you are trying to say that it is a bad thing or something...perhaps you have had a run in with some very good luck or something but I sure have not. My whole thing is that sometimes you have to bite the bullet and change directions career-wise or else you might be stuck working at a mall for the rest of your life....but from the sound of it, you have not been put in that position yet so yeah...tell me if you ever do and then we'll talk.

 

[wyvrn]

Well actually I have not fully given up yet...I'll give it one more year to get something...but if after that year no IT jobs pop up then yes I'll probably give up. And you are trying to say that it is a bad thing or something...perhaps you have had a run in with some very good luck or something but I sure have not. My whole thing is that sometimes you have to bite the bullet and change directions career-wise or else you might be stuck working at a mall for the rest of your life....but from the sound of it, you have not been put in that position yet so yeah...tell me if you ever do and then we'll talk.

I was laid off one day about a month before my wedding with no warning and no severance pay. It took me about 5-6 months to find another job, and I had to take a significant pay/responsibilities cut. Of course this is hardware/software troubleshooting without a degree, and the jobs are a dime a dozen, or so you would think. I know firsthand how tough the IT market is. I am running a consulting business right now as I go to school, and it is very thin on profit. But, things will not stay this way forever. That is why I advocated getting your MBA, because really it is not going to hurt you lacking experience when you cannot find a job. In a year or two, the economy will probably be healthier, and a lot of IT people will have moved into other fields. Therefore, there should be less competition and more favorable employment conditions than there are now. Besides, MIS is a business degree also, so you could easily branch out into accounting, finance, or marketing with the same degree. Point is, lots of people are suffering right now and the only people who are going to win the war of attrition are the people that don't quit

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: wyvrn
MBA's are always going to be in demand because we live in a capitalistic economy. But if you give up so easily, well I can only say good luck to you in life.

I don't know, have you seen MBA figures recently? Due to the crummy economy, there have been record number of applicants and graduates from MBA schools. Last I heard, only about half the graduating class from MIT has jobs lined up. I people from sloan are having difficult times getting jobs, you better hope you are going to a great school so that the investment pays off in the end.

 

[Feldenak]

I'm going for my MIS degree, I switched from Political Science. I'm somewhat hopeful because I have some experience with SAP and have been working in management for the same company for the past 4 years.

 

[flyfish]

IT is dead!
Get with it!
This is the 21 Century for God's sake!

 

[wyvrn]

The school I am going to ranks #2 in academics in my state. It beats out many of the supposedly nicer private schools. I plan on quoting that fact when I am interviewing I am not worried, in the long term things will work out. And yeah I have seen the figures on MBA's without jobs.

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: wyvrn
MBA's are always going to be in demand because we live in a capitalistic economy. But if you give up so easily, well I can only say good luck to you in life.

I don't know, have you seen MBA figures recently? Due to the crummy economy, there have been record number of applicants and graduates from MBA schools. Last I heard, only about half the graduating class from MIT has jobs lined up. I people from sloan are having difficult times getting jobs, you better hope you are going to a great school so that the investment pays off in the end.