The M.S. Degree vs. Everything Else? 174
salad_fingers writes "It has been said that the Bachelor's Degree is the new High School Diploma: everybody has one. It is taking a greater investment of time, money and effort on behalf of the individual to give oneself that needed edge in the professional world. I have noticed that in technical fields, specifically engineering, employees are flocking in droves to MBA programs to capitalize on the upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomers, and have largely considered pursuing a graduate degree in a technical field as a waste of time and effort. What does Slashdot see as the future of the M.S. degree versus other available and somewhat non-traditional degrees? What path should engineers pursue for maximum future employability?"
Foot in the door (Score:5, Interesting)
There are some professions that are specific to a job, but any master's degree helps in a competitive field. Once you're in, of course, it's all about what you can do.
Re:Foot in the door (Score:1)
Re:Foot in the door (Score:2)
Being a SQL admin, I know quite a bit about the database backends we work with. Being able to troubleshoot locks and design intelligent indexes and interfaces is incredibly useful.
Re:Foot in the door (Score:2)
Interesting. I find about the opposite experience. The web-based development work I do is endless banal variations on a theme. "Could you maybe make that blue instead?", "No, no! We want to take twelve percent as a gross margin BEFORE factoring in overhead".
But, every database is a special unique snowflake. The front-ends are all the same but the data is frequently interesting. I'd rather write stored procedures than application code.
However, opinions vary and I'm glad that some people find satisfac
Re:Foot in the door (Score:2)
Re:Foot in the door (Score:2)
Re:The hole us school system is messed up (Score:2)
Supply and demand. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:5, Funny)
Not if the payroll is electronic, and the techies don't want them to.
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:2)
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:2)
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:2)
But, then again, you'll be next -- along with every other fleshy.
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Supply and demand. (Score:2)
how to improve your resume (Score:1, Interesting)
2. Certification (CCNA, MCSE. etc)
3. Actual impressive looking program
4. Bull during the interview on how great you are. That's how I got my job.
The issue here is that degrees are the only way most HR people actually grade prospective employees. And most of them are not even technically inclined. Getting the job is one thing, actually keeping it is another. But still you gotta impress to get the job before you can worry about keeping it
It doesn't matter how good you are, only how good t
Many people with MBAs (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Many people with MBAs (Score:2)
That's just how it is--unless you're this guy [nasa.gov].
Michael Griffin holds the following degrees:
bachelor's degree in Physics from Johns Hopkins University
master's degree in aerospace science
Re:Many people with MBAs (Score:2)
Is that all he has?
Regards,
My two year degree in Business Administration
What do you want to be doing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do some soul searching and try to figure out what kind of job you really want to do and the kinds of industries and businesses you want to do it. If you can't get a good bead on that then you're just trusting your life to fate.
So, once you figure out what you want to do or where you want to do it, do everything you can to learn about it. Contact professionals in the field/business and arrange informational interviews. If you're still in school, try to get some kind of internship or "special project" with that business/industry - your profs are your friends here and probably know someone in industry who can help you.
For example, if you want to be a supply chain analyst for a sportswear company then you should see if any of your profs know someone at a sportswear company and see if you can do some kind of class-related project. Find out who they use for temp staff and get work there when you can.
Check to see if your school has an alumni program where you can find alumni out in the world and see if any of them are working in a field/company you're interested.
Once you get in, make contacts. Ask LOTS of questions. Find out what THEY look for when they are hiring. My current job at a place pretty much requires an MBA. The previous job I did as a temp employee didn't care what my degree was or if I even had one.
If you know you want to be a software developer for IBM, then find out what IBM looks for. They're the ones you need to impress. That answer is totally different than if you want to be a systems administrator at a university.
But, until you can answer "what do you want to do", there's not much point in going for a higher degree unless you feel like you'll be lucky.
Re:What do you want to be doing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Several years ago when I was at a crossroads in my career, my parents suggested I go back to school. They were thinking I'd follow my BS in CS with an MS in CS. Instead I went for a BFA in Digital Media/Illustration. It hasn't been the road to riches, but I sure am happier with what I'm doing now than what I would have been doing if I'd just stayed in the job market or if I'd returned to the same educational track.
We have a real problem with that (Score:5, Interesting)
I think your advice is very good: Decide what you want to do, and see if a degree (I'm talking undergrad here) really matters. For some jobs, it's manditory and it has to be in the correct field. For others, it's highly beneficial, but doens't really mater what it is. Still otehrs it helps a little bit, but no more than a year of experience and a good refrence.
For master's, unless it's something that the place you want to work for really wants, you need a personal reason to get it. A master's degree SHOULD be because you enjoy learning about something, and want to work on some orignal research for it. A master's thesis is supposed to be you going out and exploring something. Unfortunately many places (like where I work) will instead let you take a comprehensive exam which is just a hoop to jump though. If that's all you want to do, you shoudln't be getting a master's.
While an undergrad is, for the most part, just a continued somewhat specialized education, a master's is supposed to be mroe research oriented. It should be the kind of thing you do out of personal love, not professional intrest. Because, when you get down to it, what employers REALLY care about is if you can do the job they want. Having a master's degree that is backed by no skills to apply it isn't useful and even if they don't know when interviewing you, they'll figure it out.
You'll get far more jobs through experience and personal references than with a peice of paper. I can't emphasize the personal reference thing enough. Find someone who knows someone who works where you want to. Meet that person, have them give you a reference. It goes a looooong way. Really, I've only ever gotten one job cold, all the rest were because I knew someone who knew someone. Sometimes, there was no interview at all just a "This the guy? Good, you're hired." People trust the opinions of those close to them more than the trust the paper from your alma matter usually.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
References vs. technical skills (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Many hiring managers are not very good at determining an applicant's technical skills. Especially if HR gets involved.
2. Networking is more about finding out about positions than anything. A large number of jobs are never posted. And it's better to have a several people looking for you, than looking just on your own.
3. A person vouching for a prospective hire's skills gives the hiring manager warm fuzzies. It adds another data point that the person has the right skills, and it also pushes some of the blame on the person recommending the hire, in case things goes wrong.
4. One very important part of hiring a new person is how they will fit in the culture or the group. If they're already friends with one employee, they're likely to fit in in a similar manner.
5. So-called "soft skills" are more important in most jobs than the hard technical skills. Soft skills are all about working with and communicating with others. This is another thing that a reference can show that you are good at. (This is even harder to discern during an interview.)
6. Networking works. I didn't believe it when I was younger, either.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:References vs. technical skills (Score:4, Insightful)
Grab.
In the case of tech support jobs (Score:4, Insightful)
To put it another way I need to know if your knowledge and learning process are fragile or not. You may have a master's and certificates up the ass, that means only that you know how to pass tests. Sure you might have a shitload of facts stored in you, but if they can't be applied to the real world, I don't need you.
There's no good way to test for that, either, other than having someone do work. I can try and design tests to see but they don;t necessarily show me anything. If it happens to be something you read in a book, you can pass, even though you lack that so-called bithead quality.
The parent's point about fitting in is highly valid as well. Some people just don't work. I remember at one of my student jobs they hired a new guy that I just didn't like. Now at first I thought it was just my being an introvert, you know a new guy intruding on a familiar space. I told myself that I was being petty and needed to just wait and it'd change....
Never did. That guy creeped me out the whole time he was there until they let him go (incidentally he never did any fucking work). He just didn't fit. Later, we hired another guy who was a friend of one of the employees. I liked him almost immediately and he worked out really well.
So you really get to trust references not only because we are inclined to listen to personal anecdotes more than empirical evidence, even though they are less valid, but also because it does seem to work. Where I work now, we hire student workers pretty often. That's the problem with students: They keep graduating. Well if we can, we get them by having our current students refer them, or people we meet since some of us take classes. If not we go to ads on campus. Of the referrals, all that I can remember have worked out. They have had varying skill and knowledge levels, but they were all bitheads, and they all got along. Of the cold hires, I'd say it's less than 50%. Many are not bitheads, many simply don't get along well in the work environment, some both.
For example, we hired a grad student not too long ago. Nice enough guy, but didn't work out. For one his problem solving skills were abysmal. He could only do a task if it was very precisely defined, at which point the amount of time needed to explain it usually made it faster to just do yourself. He had no initiative to try and find things to do, he'd just sit at his computer fiddling with Linux unless given a task. He also fit in poorly, he didn't socialize almost at all with the rest of us, despite our efforts. To top it all off, he never intended to keep the job. He wanted a research assistant position. As soon as he got one, he skipped (1.5 months roughly).
That kind of thing doesn't happen with people referred to us. Maybe it's just luck, but I think it's more that you don't want to ruin your reputation. Sure maybe you talk a friend up a bit, but you aren't going to go and say he's a great reliable guy if you know he's going to bail at the first opportunity. If you give bad references, pretty soon your credibility is shot to hell and people won't listen to you.
The parent is also dead on about jobs that aren't posted. I mean you'll get situations as so:
A technical group is down a person, someone good just left. However they are a large group, he's one in twenty, so they don't go and open a posting right away. His work is absorbed by the team, nobody really wants to go through the trouble of a hiring process right now.
Re:References vs. technical skills (Score:2)
Nepotism = jobs.
Re:We have a real problem with that (Score:2)
Re:We have a real problem with that (Score:2)
"I'm sorry, but why are references so bloody important to get a job when they're fundamentally superficial in light of a potential-hiree's actual abilities?"
Because humans are first and foremost, social creatures, and that's pretty much how the world works?
"If being an unctuous manipulator is a more important skill to get employed than your actual skills related to the job in question, I'd rather end up homeless the rest of my life."
It's not unctuous or manipulating in the least to talk to people
Re:We have a real problem with that (Score:2)
Re:We have a real problem with that (Score:2)
Re:We have a real problem with that (Score:2)
What I need to do is get in the habit of using Google's spell checker in their toolbar. I forget all the time. Previously I'd never found one worth it, Spellbound is about 6 buckets of worthless, but Google does a good job. I just forget to run it before I hit submit.
I don't mind people asking le
Re: (Score:2)
I helped out with grad student orientation this year and saw the exact same thing. However, at my university, we have a non-thesis Master's option in the ECE program. The nu
Delayed Masters!? (Score:2, Interesting)
Some high schools have a Mood. Ours was Pro Science, and somewhat disparaging to business. I did passably well in Freshman year in college, took one glance at the upcoming "only sophomore" Organic Chemistry book, and wilted. I learned I'd rather *read* Scientific American articles in a day than take a year to write one.
I set about good sharp DeepRead of the future, and picked Accounting
Short answer (Score:2)
Assumptions (Score:5, Insightful)
Learn agriculture. Seriously, it is looking more and more likely that the post war paradise the baby boomers experienced is an anomaly in the course of human history. Better learn to survive in a post cheap oil world.
Re:Assumptions (Score:1, Insightful)
Granted, my ex-boss who drives alone in a Ford king cab with a dooley can afford to run his vehicle on champagne if it came to that, but for the majority of Americans (especially the working poor), oil prices are causing some hurt.
And all those SUVs are trickling down to those who can least afford the gasoli
Re:Assumptions (Score:2)
My impression (Score:2, Interesting)
Especially for technology unless your are planning more of a research type job say at Google R&D an M.S. and PHD is a Risky Job venture. Technology changes way to fast what first takes a high level of education to master is soon available as a class library, which you just nee
Re:My impression (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll put it in MBA terms
The same thing happens in M.S. and Ph.D. programs. You just learn to think better. It sounds silly, but it's real.
Re:My impression (Score:3, Interesting)
As (yet another) MBA candidate, who also had started a Masters in another discipline (Gas Plasma Physics), I can attest that there is a huge difference between a Masters designed to further your knowledge in your area of speciality, and one designed to give you a broad grounding in a complementary subject.
Anybody who tells you that an MBA is a short cut to a million dollar career is either lying, or attending one of the top 7 or 8 business schools on the planet (spread throughout the USA, Eur
Re:My impression (Score:2)
The problem is that employers don't think this (unless they have a PhD themselves) so it is up to you to convince them using those communication, logic and persuasion skills you learnt on your advanced degree
Re:My impression (Score:2, Funny)
Re:My impression (Score:1, Insightful)
Jeezus how do some of you people function.
In SOME CASES an MS is a starting point for a doctorate, but many, many programs exist to either facilitate the transfer into the field from another technical degree or to hone and develop skills in a preferred area of CS. There are major u
Re:My impression (Score:2)
Sounds interesting. What schools offer such a degree?
Re:My impression (Score:2)
[google.com]http://www.google.com/search?q=MS+engineering+man
returns about 158 million hits, and tons of accredited schools.
Re:My impression (Score:1)
Re:Obviously no clue (Score:1)
MS==Tech Track, MBA==Line Management (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to work on and create technology, go MS. If you want to manage it, go MBA.
If you wnat to know what program to do NOW, before your life responsibilities stack up, and you can hack the program, go MS. Frankly, the vast majority of MBA programs can easily be completed in your spare time, even if you've got a working spouse and a couple of kids, so you can safely put that off until you turn 30 or 35. Then, with both an MS and MBA, you'll be head and shoulders over many of your peers no matter what direction you decide to go (including doing your own thing).
Re:MS==Tech Track, MBA==Line Management (Score:2)
Also, don't forget extracurricular stuff. If you helped organizing, or was ch
Choose a subject that actually interest you..? (Score:1)
At the end of the day; to ensure employment you have to be exceptionally good at what you do... Average performers will struggle getting employed, in almost any field. Exceptional performers will easily find work.
You're looking at it entirely wrong if you think certain educations will give you an easy employment.
If you get an MBA, and you graduate as an average student at an average institution, you WILL stuggle to find employment. Work with something yo
IT has to do with world economics (Score:4, Insightful)
On an international scale, in order to stay competitive economically the US has to be the worlds largest consumer. In order to consume individuals must have enough education that their jobs aren't easily outsourced. So the US encourages higher education.
The generic "here's a spec, design it" engineering can be accomplished by a bachelor's degree holder, as well as most outsourcing companies. The research that is done at the master's and PhD levels is important for new technologies, but that has largely been watered down (fewer skunk works, menlo parks, etc)
If you want to stay competitive in today's industry, you'll have to settle for a bachelor's degree or higher, coupled with management experience. Many companies move engineers into a position to act as liasons to outsourced workers, and still keep a smaller engineering group around for fixing designs, quick proof of concept, and developing new technology.
But in the end you'll be fine and happy with a bachelors degree once you have experience. All a masters does for you is move you up the pay bracket 10-15%, and the reality is that after the two years of real world experience rather than going for a masters, most bachelors are at that level by the time you get your masters.
I did a lot of work while in school, developed a passion for my field, and graduated with a bachelors. I may want more schooling down the road. I'm not certain, however, that a masters of engineering will serve me as well as a masters in business, so I decided to work for a few years to get an idea of the industry and find out where the opportunities that look interesting lie.
What you should do to ensure maximum future employability is do what you love, and love what you do. That is what will shine through - too many people do engineering because they want money, but don't want to be doctors. They make OK engineers, but until they find the passion they end up being lukewarm for 1/3 of their life while at work, asleep 1/3, and bored the other 1/3. Don't do that.
-Adam
Re:IT has to do with world economics (Score:2)
This is true. The reality is that the kind of work that you need a masters degree for is pretty rare relative to everything else. Sure there are some jobs where the deeper level of under
Party Card (Score:4, Interesting)
Getting an M.B.A. in our culture is like "getting your Party Card." I know, I've got one. People who only have technical degrees are journeymen and tradesmen, they know how to do something but not why. Having your M.B.A. means you've got what it takes to understand The Business, and that trumps anything technical, any time. Having an M.B.A. means that after great effort - it ain't easy - you've learned the language, you've learned the secret handshake, so you can be counted on to understand The Business - be an operator at the level where money is created and decisions are made about investing in all those engineers, operators, plumbers, and carpenters below you.
Re:Party Card (Score:1)
Re:Party Card (Score:2)
Not Microsoft. Gates dropped out of Harvard Business School to start it, not MIT.
Re:Party Card (Score:2)
Oh, I see. Learn something new every day, I guess -- I had just assumed since it was Harvard that it was a business program. You know what's a funny coincidence? He got the same SAT score as me! I wonder if the question he missed was a math one, or a language one.
Re:Party Card (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Keep up the secret society.
Why not Both? (Score:1)
Do a M.S. early - leave the MBA to your 30s (Score:5, Insightful)
tech people without having strong technical skills yourself.
Your knowledge will be too superficial to make informed decisions,
and in the end you just won't be respected.
In my experience it definitely pays off in the long run to get
a graduate degree in CS, and it's easier to do it the first time you
are at school. I'm in my early 30s and am working as a
development director in a startup. I find that most of the people
i deal with, other senior tech people, CTOs, senior architects,
generally have a very strong formal education, Honours in BSc,
M.S or Phd. There are some exceptions of course, there are
many IT middle managers out there with no technology skils - but
these are the people who tend to get ignored in meetings when
the real decisions are being made. There are also a lot of people
out there with little formal education but with the smarts to
make up for it.
I see an MBA as something that makes sense to do later perhaps in
your late 20s/early 30s when you have already have some management
experience and are ready to move into a executive level.
Re: (Score:2)
Your knowledge will be too superficial to make informed decisions, and in the end you just won't be respected.
Or you just don't make tefchnical decisions. That's what your reports are for.
try Alberta (Canada) for a couple years (Score:4, Interesting)
seriously
High prices for crude oil are going to stick around for a while. Oil companies litterally can not hire enough people to work. I'm not just talking about push hands and drill pigs. They need engineers, welders, geologists, software developers. Every company out here is starving for employees. If you have a pulse you're hired. Don't have a resume? No problem. Completed a University or Technical program. . . great you're hired. No education? Companies out here will pay for courses.
The economy here in Alberta is so hot that the word "booming" doesn't seem to describe it well enough. Of course there are downsides. Line ups everywhere are huge. If you walk into a coffe shop expect a minimum of 15 minutes to get your latte. Labour shortages have affected every industry.Of course every boom will have a bust. But I don't see that happening in the next couple years and I would hire somebody with two years good experience over somebody with two years more general education.
Figure out what's important (Score:4, Interesting)
After a couple of years, though, I started thinking about what the goal was. I didn't actually have a reason to want the Masters: it was just a way to keep taking classes. So after five years I had my Bachelors and was partway to the Masters, but I'd had enough. I took a job at Microsoft as a developer, and have been having a great time at that, too.
But lately I've started to think again about what the goal is. Do I want to be a dev forever? I have friends here where that is absolutely their goal. Do I want to run the company? If so, I can either get an MBA, or try to start working my way up through the management chain (there are a bunch of VPs at Microsoft without MBAs). Do I want to do something completely different? I've thought about joining a start-up or working for a consulting house. Maybe I could swing working in another country for a while. The good news is that there's no deadline... I don't need to have this all decided by the time I'm 30.
So look around and figure out where you want to be in five years, and then figure out where that points you for twenty years out. If you're unhappy with that, start thinking with longer horizons in mind. I'll be honest: I've never missed my CS Masters. If I go back to school, it'll be for an MBA.
If your only goal is employability, you're barking up the wrong tree anyway: lawyers are basically always employed, and make more than I do as well. So start figuring out what's important to you besides being employed... I'm guessing it's a longer list than that.
Re:Figure out what's important (Score:2)
Since you enjoyed learning and teaching so much, it almost sounds to me as if you want to be a CS professor.
Diversify yo bonds (Score:1)
Re:Diversify yo bonds (Score:2)
A "two-year" program can be accomplished in one year if you work hard at it (or so I've heard).
No shortage of tech jobs... (Score:2)
I say this as I'm wrapping up my second bachelors and pl
I Dunno... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If you asked me such a lame question (Score:2)
Investing (Score:2)
Do what works for you (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
UK/US Differences (Score:1)
Re:UK/US Differences (Score:2)
Re:UK/US Differences (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
While being a European, I have some experience with Master degrees at US universities. As I see it, in the US the MSc degree is really the beginning of a PhD path. If you do not intend to get a PhD at some point, there is no reason to bother about an MSc. In Europe, however, an MSc degree is considered more a rounding off of your academic career. A BSc means you are only half-finished.
Any Americans out there who wish to correct me, please go ahead.
Re: (Score:2)
What path for engineers? (Score:2)
What path should engineers pursue for maximum future employability?"
As an engineer who's about to turn 50, I would suggest you pursue a different career. Opportunities for engineers are dwindling. Today, most product manufacturing and design is done in countries outside the USA. If you plan on remaining in the USA, prospects for continued engineering employment are bleak.
My experience (Score:1)
My Experience and Observance... (Score:2, Insightful)
If you watch TV or listen to the Radio or look at the banner ads on slashdot or websites you visit you keep hearing these advertisements for online schools like Phoenix, Devry, ITT and where they are all offering BS/BA degrees in some technical field. This slashdot article is really talking about these types of BS degrees and how there is a huge increase in the number of BA degrees being offered by these schools. All it is, basically, is a marketing tool. These institutions cater to people who
it's worth something... but may not be "safe" (Score:2)
Related to this was someone's post concerning the falling number of programmers, and the H1B visa (instead of higher salaries). I'm not sure it was higher salaries that were needed. Instead, corporate (I almost wrote coprophite, which they are) wanted to cut our salaries. Further, if you're out of the country,
It's true - because people are dumber (Score:2)
You mean, like.... (Score:2)
You mean, like, Bill Gates?
Re:You mean, like.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes (but the key to remember is that Bill Gates's gift is business, not programming)
Re:You mean, like.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Being "good" at it is not the same thing as having the "inherent gift" the original poster was talking about. Sure, Gates needed to be able to understand what his software did so that he could effectively run the company. However, the success of Microsoft mostly stems from Gates' ability to notice and take advantage of business oppertunities (e.g. buying QDOS and then selling it to IBM for an incredible profit) and come up with extremely effective (but evil) business tactics.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it really hard to imagine that Bill Gate's is a good programmer?
First off, Gate's? What the Fuck?
Yes, he's a businessman, and there is little to no evidence that he's written much code, or that it was good. The reasonable man would conclude that he's not that great at programming. I'm sure he can console himself with his solid gold house and billions of dollars.
Re:countdown to the usual anti-education rants (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:countdown to the usual anti-education rants (Score:1)
Re:BS is the new Highschool diploma? (Score:2)
Re:2 year is all I can get. (Score:2)
Re:2 year is all I can get. (Score:2)
There's some differences between languages, yes, but if you know C, learning Pascal is just picking up the syntax. Most everything else is the same. Java/C++/Python are all object oriented - learning one will step you right into any of the others. ML and Haskell are functional languages that use similar concepts, and if you're proficient in one functional language, you've done most of the work for programming in an
Re:2 year is all I can get. (Score:3, Insightful)
That's programming. But it isn't what you learn when you do a B.Sc. in Computer Science. What you will learn is how to represent, abstract, organize and manipulate information. You will learn what information actually means, and what the limits are (e.g. P vs. NP).
Programming is the tool to manipulate information, but it's not what a B.Sc. is about. When I interview somebody I assume they can program, and that i
Re:2 year is all I can get. (Score:2)
You're right: programming is programming. But computer science is not programming! You're much too focused on learning the "how" of doing something, as in your Microsoft-centric vocational "Network Administration" program. But what's actually valuable is to understand the "why" of doing something, which is what a real computer science program will teach you.
In other words, here's an analogy: the school you're in now is teaching you to be the equivalent of an auto mechanic. Unless you want to be changing oi
Re:Do NOT quit work for grad school (Score:2)
What is worse even... (Score:5, Insightful)
The high school basic/standard curriculum that we still use today in the USA is wholly inadequate for the job market in the country. It is entirely based around strict adherence to institutional instruction. We still spend too much time teaching basics that should have been taught in grade school (grammar school/middle school/junior high). Part of the problem is in passing students along up to the next level when they are not ready to move to the next level.
What is the purpose of teaching a curriculum that was designed to produce factor workers in a nation that has so little actual manufacturing infrastructure still operational? We continue to cut the arts in school more and more, but those skills are becomming more and more important in this nation due to the fact that they teach you "how to think outside the box" which leads directly to "innovation" and "invention". We are a country dependent on our creating of "intellectual property". Following directions will not create new technologys, becuase there are no directions for making improvements. Improvements are generated by analizing and creative thinking.
The high school diploma is very close to being a useless document other then its ability to let you start taking classes in a college to start learning the skills that will allow you to get a job. We no longer need 30 million factory workers, foundry workers, miners, metal workers, and carpenters in this nation (we still need some and need highly skilled ones at that). But now what we need are 30 million inventors, scientists, researchers, engineers, programmers, designers, artists (visual, musical, and performance), and story tellers. These are what we need to be prepairing our students to become.
Re:What is worse even... (Score:2)
Re:What is worse even... (Score:2)
Re:Security Clearance (Score:2)
And how do you go about doing that? Do you have to somehow apply for a clearance before getting a job, or does getting a job that requires one mean your employer will help you get one, or what? Which industries have these kinds of jobs?