LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Adam Smith <adam.smith@sageautomation.com>
  To  : <Alex.Wilkinson@dsto.defence.gov.au>
        <djmunds@gmx.net>
  Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 11:41:27 +0930

RE: Seeking advice about employment paths

Alex Wilkinson wrote:

> Forget crap like MCSEs and CCNAs. Learn the priciples first. 
> The priciples are taught at universities.

That's not necessarily true.  These days, if you put your mind to it you
could do a university degree just be constantly reading and learning
from the millions of resources available on the Internet.  It's all the
same, it's just not "recognized" as a certification.

Once you've got the fundamentals under your belt the CCNA and the RHCE
and the CNE and the MCSE and all the others -- they all mean something
(well maybe except for the MCSE, that just proves you know how to use a
GUI and click some buttons,) but they all give you the ability to focus
toward the type of work you want to do within your industry.

Maybe that's what you're saying, when you say "forget" -- learn the
principles first and then do the rest later, but what I have never liked
about a university is that you go in and learn a whole lot of stuff for
many years, and then spend several more years learning how to apply that
knowledge to every-day applications.  While you're off studying you're
not learning about the real world in IT, you're "preparing" for it.  Who
wants to wait years and years and finally begin your working career at
26 years old, after making some money on the side at McDonalds while
studying for your degree?

Once you've been to University, you're not so great.  You can't just go
in and learn the fundamentals of networking at uni and then go
somewhere, get hired, and instantly be able to install Hylafax with your
eyes closed.  There's a whole new world to learn now that you've
graduated.

It's a choice of either years of study and then years of learning to put
that knowledge to use every day, or working as much as you can now
toward your career, learning as much as you can, and then putting the
knowledge and the work together at the same time.  I think real-world
experience is a far greater asset to your education than any university
class, because you're doing it hands-on and it means something.

Wouldn't employers also agree that if you sat a university student down
who'd just graduated next to some HaXX0r teenager and told them both to
write a program which accomplished a certain function, wouldn't you
agree that at this point you still wouldn't know which of the two will
write the better program?  That's the thing about Information
Technology... It's about people with aptitude and people with brains,
not necessarily people with diplomas.

However -- I might point out you can't just walk up to a place and say
"Hire me, I'm good!" but DON'T stop trying.  Get in and do work
experience with your peers, and you might find that once you've come in
on "temporary work experience" that you've become an asset and the
company won't let you go.  But hey, enough of my life story lol


Oh wow I sound like an old man.




--
Adam Smith
IT Officer
SAGE Automation Ltd

adam.smith@sageautomation.com
http://www.sageautomation.com

Phone:   (08) 8276 0703
Fax:     (08) 8276 0799
Mobile:  0414 895 273

"Computers are like air-conditioners; they don't work when you open
Windows."


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