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Going onto uni in sept '08 so having to make choices now, just asking any accywebbers who work in IT if there are any universities that hold a fair bit of weight behind the degree when it comes to computing if you understand what I mean. Universities that employers would be impressed by. I can get into pretty much any country in the land so requirements are not an issue, however oxbridge and the london universities aren't for me.

Thanks in advance.

absolutely not

I don't even have a degree and TBH none of teh most successful guys I know do either.............

Do your degree but its all about experience, skills, positioning in the market and your will to work

Same here. 20 years this year since I started in IT and didn't even go to college. Experience is a far greater qualifier but the question then becomes how do you get experience :)

Chicken & Egg question is easier to answer than the one above :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamF (Post 485640)

I have a friend who works in accy who has a degree in something computer related and he isnt on any particular higher wage than someone straight from college, or even school.
The university experience is a really good one though and could give you an extra foot in the door, but its not a subject that really requires a degree unless you want to do something thats difficult to get a good job in, such as large city firms with big names, but they'd still require u get work experience as well as the degree, so if your really dedicated just go straight into the most relevant work placements you can and work hard.

My boyfriend works with the lad with the degree, he has hardly any GCSE's, a few NVQ's through work, and he's not far off the same wage as his co-worker, so its not really worth the expense of the degree in my opinion.

One problem(or is it?) in what is termed IT is that it covers a multitude of sins and a massive variance in salaries. There are standard helpdesk peeps who probably earn ~£18K and people earning significantly higher amounts. It is also an industry with a decent percentage of contract workers who are effectively self employed working short term contracts (6 months max) who at first view earn huge salaries but after the taxman has had his slice and you start taking into consideration time between contracts, no sick pay etc they may not be as well off as you first think.

e.g. I work for a blue chip company (a Bank, I've said who elsewhere if you can be bothered to search) and earn what I consider to be a very good wage. If I was prepared to go Contracting in London working short term contracts I would be rarely out of work as my skills are in high demand and I would be earning ~£450-600 a day. Personally I think I earn enough to live the life I want and I wouldn't trade coming home to my family each night for all the tea in China. I'm fortunate to some degree as I did have opportunities available to me but it was up to me to take them.

Aye well IT was indeed a bit vague, at the moment I'm thinking software development.

I'm not sure if this might help but my son chose the University in Preston for his degree. We were living in Cornwall at the time and so it was quite a move for him.

He seemed to think that it offered him the best he could get. He ended up with a combined first class honours degree in computing science and biochemistry. He's thirty six now and has never looked back.

Good luck with whatever you do, SamF. xx

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamF (Post 487112)

Aye well IT was indeed a bit vague, at the moment I'm thinking software development.

Any particular language?

Whilst Java is and has been the 'sexy' skillset for sometime now there is a glut of Java developers in the asian sub continent and with China coming on board as a software powerhouse you need to think very carefully before going into a market where people will work for 10% of what you expect. I spent 2 years training philipinos how to do my job, they earned 1/5th of what I did and were grateful for it. China is scaring all these guys as they are able to undercut them all.

You need to be very aware of the market. Keep a close eye on tech websites such as experts exchange, slashdot, teh register, and others. also keep watching what jobs come up on jobserve and monster as a good barometer of where you can earn money. If you can get signed on with one of teh big software companies such as Accenture, Logica CMG, Xansa, IBM etc then do so even if its only for a couple of years to get some blue chip experience under your belt. Then you can start looking for places that will treat you better and pay more.

One other piece of advice is have a good spread of technologies. You don't want all your eggs in one basket in this game. I'm not sure if I've mentioned my skillset but to give you an idea of how to edge your bets here it is

WebSphere Application Server consultant - 6 years exp(core skill)
WebSphere MQ series - 2 years
Java Developer - 8 years
XML/XSL/XSLT/SOAP etc 6 years
AIX - 8 years
Linux - 8 years
LDAP (Sun Directory server ) - 4 years
Tivoli Access manager - 4 years
WebSeal - 3 years
Maxware Metadirectory
C++ 3 years (none for 5 years but its sik=milar to java so 2 weeks efersher is all needed)
HTML/JSP/markup in general(SGML) - 10 years
Wily Introscope (Performance analysis tools ) 2 years

I've probably forgotten some bits in there as well.

:D

Good luck!

Hiya

I'm classed as working in IT, but ask a techy question and I havent got a clue lol. I work for Tier 1 manufacturer In charge of North with targets of 320 million p.a. I have quite good GCSE's, no degree, no further education (dropped out of college in last year), but earn well above average income for the area, company car and expense account, work from home with hours I dictate so I can drop my child off at 9 and pick him up at 5 etc etc etc. I could probs earn more, but my company has been absolutely fantatsic with me about my child and circumstances and I dont have the additional proessure of fighting rush hour traffic, trying to get home at reasonable hour, lack of suppport etc etc

My best friends has 4 grade A A levels, Degree in English and works in London as a receptionist for 18k. Its not just education these days, but attitude, experience and (for me at least) luck.

So what do you do Onlyme? Its that I find it interesting that you claim to be non techie here but start trying to advise glasgow guy on the suitability of different OS's? :confused: