[Leaplist] computer degree???

[Jason Boxman]

On Sunday 03 August 2008 09:46:08 Hank Lambert wrote:
<snip>
> I do like what Danny said about working in IT as well. I can't see
> someone making it long term in IT unless you really like it. The pay
> isn't the best, sometimes the hours suck (Exchange servers are not
> courteous enough to wait until Monday morning at 9:00 am to go down),
> and it can be stressful. But like my wife recently told my mother, he
> (talking about me) wakes up talking about computers, goes to work and
> works on them all day, comes home and plays with his own computers, and
> then goes to sleep reading computer magazines. Some people make call
> that obsessive, I say they're missing out ;-)

True enough.  I left IT.  Between degree discrimination, ageism, lame hours, 
and pay ceilings, I thought I'd skip it.  Hardly my loss.  I still use my 
skills daily.

I suppose I was never a real geek.  I don't care why things work beyond being 
able to use them effectively.  I don't deploy stuff just to see what it does 
unless I am certain I have some reason to be using it.  I consider myself a 
pragmatist.  I employ Open Source (tm) as a tool.  Solving other people's IT 
problems for money never satisfied me.

My scope was rather narrow as well.  I've never done any Windows system 
administration and never had any intention of learning.  Working with MS is 
just irritating.  Finding Linux only, preferably Debian, positions in Florida 
pretty much anywhere is a tall order.  More so without a degree.  Explaining 
two and three month employment gaps because I am not a capitalist whore to 
hiring managers was a challenge, too.  (If anyone young starting out is 
reading, when someone tells you to avoid employment gaps, as lame as it is, 
I'd suggest you listen anyway.)

While I'm great at what I did, I don't love it enough to jump through any 
llamah hiring manager's hoops.

Perhaps more of a rant, but I'd consider it a cautionary tale.  Just because 
you find administration and architecture fun and easy doesn't mean you want 
to make a career of it.


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