Comment My Story...and some reflection... (Score 2, Insightful) 1143
First, it should be of note where I am, how I got there, and why this may help others reading.
I am 19-years-old. My position, should you care, is Manager of Network Operations (CIO) for a 55-employee graphics/net concern in Kansas City.
I am a high-school drop-out, with no GED.
I make more then my mother, who has a BA, and has been working for 30+ years.
I regret every day that I never completed school. The reasons for my leaving are numerous, though focus mostly on boredom, and a rather intense hatred of teenage culture.
I left school with one-goal, to write comics.
I ended up working on computers.
For everyone listening, where I am now is not hard to get to in the computer industry. It's actually a straight-forward progression from one job to the next, moving quickly, and working like a japanese beaver to show your worth your wait.
I started at CompUSA, as the in-house Macintosh guy, when I had just turned 16, one month out of high-school. I actually planned on being a sales-clerk, but, when they found out I could fix Macs, they got wet, and gave me the job...
I low-balled my salary, meaning there was little risk for my employer, and worked there for three months.
I eventually came to meet a woman who as starting a consulting concern. She never asked my age, but offered me a job. They only learned I was 16 when I filled out the proper paper-work. They couldn't deny me the job at that point, as it would have been age-discrimiation.
For one-year, I worked 80+ hour weeks, learning everything I could by trailing my boss as he fixed things. I took no classes, but read patiently, and paid attention.
I was promoted to my current position 13 months after I started.
It's a terrible job.
I'm 19, with no education, which everyone knows, and thus, am often treated as such. Because I have no degree, I don't have a leg to stand on when in arguments. All I know is what I can guess would be true.
I can't tell you how many wasted hours I have spent fixing things that, were I to have a degree, I may never have broken. Borders is my drug of choice, as well as Fatbrain.com, and they eat up most of my salary. I have to spend as much time as possible reading what a CS major may have been given easily, and, because I have very-little frame of reference, lacking solid fundamentals, I often find myself relearning things again and again.
I want to return to school...badly. But, I'm in debt, after buying a good car, and getting some needed dental work done, and, leaving my job, or reducing my salary is not an option. Between a rock and a hard place, I'm stuck envious of the lazy life of college students, meanwhile, struggling to remain current so that a Devry kid doesn't steal my job.
Degrees aren't useful to employers in this industry. In every interview i have been in, the fact that I have no degree is never a concern. I have never been denied a position I applied for because of that, and most look favorably on my, self-motivation i guess you could call it.
But degrees can be useful to you. Having that stupid piece of paper gives you a grounded view of what you are doing, and confidence in your intelligence. You will doubt yourself less, and find more pathways open to you when you are doing whatever it is you love doing.
The foundation of CS should not be taken lightly, or shrugged off.
It's time to go job-hunting again, so I guess we'll see if this is all true in this economy...
I am 19-years-old. My position, should you care, is Manager of Network Operations (CIO) for a 55-employee graphics/net concern in Kansas City.
I am a high-school drop-out, with no GED.
I make more then my mother, who has a BA, and has been working for 30+ years.
I regret every day that I never completed school. The reasons for my leaving are numerous, though focus mostly on boredom, and a rather intense hatred of teenage culture.
I left school with one-goal, to write comics.
I ended up working on computers.
For everyone listening, where I am now is not hard to get to in the computer industry. It's actually a straight-forward progression from one job to the next, moving quickly, and working like a japanese beaver to show your worth your wait.
I started at CompUSA, as the in-house Macintosh guy, when I had just turned 16, one month out of high-school. I actually planned on being a sales-clerk, but, when they found out I could fix Macs, they got wet, and gave me the job...
I low-balled my salary, meaning there was little risk for my employer, and worked there for three months.
I eventually came to meet a woman who as starting a consulting concern. She never asked my age, but offered me a job. They only learned I was 16 when I filled out the proper paper-work. They couldn't deny me the job at that point, as it would have been age-discrimiation.
For one-year, I worked 80+ hour weeks, learning everything I could by trailing my boss as he fixed things. I took no classes, but read patiently, and paid attention.
I was promoted to my current position 13 months after I started.
It's a terrible job.
I'm 19, with no education, which everyone knows, and thus, am often treated as such. Because I have no degree, I don't have a leg to stand on when in arguments. All I know is what I can guess would be true.
I can't tell you how many wasted hours I have spent fixing things that, were I to have a degree, I may never have broken. Borders is my drug of choice, as well as Fatbrain.com, and they eat up most of my salary. I have to spend as much time as possible reading what a CS major may have been given easily, and, because I have very-little frame of reference, lacking solid fundamentals, I often find myself relearning things again and again.
I want to return to school...badly. But, I'm in debt, after buying a good car, and getting some needed dental work done, and, leaving my job, or reducing my salary is not an option. Between a rock and a hard place, I'm stuck envious of the lazy life of college students, meanwhile, struggling to remain current so that a Devry kid doesn't steal my job.
Degrees aren't useful to employers in this industry. In every interview i have been in, the fact that I have no degree is never a concern. I have never been denied a position I applied for because of that, and most look favorably on my, self-motivation i guess you could call it.
But degrees can be useful to you. Having that stupid piece of paper gives you a grounded view of what you are doing, and confidence in your intelligence. You will doubt yourself less, and find more pathways open to you when you are doing whatever it is you love doing.
The foundation of CS should not be taken lightly, or shrugged off.
It's time to go job-hunting again, so I guess we'll see if this is all true in this economy...
