Msc in computing

[mrdonuts]

has anyone met any of the tossers who have done these crap conversion courses and suddenly think they are experts in computing? The thing that concerns me is that employers may not understand what a load of codswallop they are and give work to them. These type of qualifications do no one any favours.

[Francko]

has anyone met any of the tossers who have done these crap conversion courses and suddenly think they are experts in computing? The thing that concerns me is that employers may not understand what a load of codswallop they are and give work to them. These type of qualifications do no one any favours.

In general employers do not understand IT qualifications unless they are experts in the area.

However I would not trust either anyone who judges people by their qualifications like you are just doing now.

An MSc in computing is more than enough as a base to start performing most of the technical jobs. If it was about a research job, no, that would have not been enough.

The best people I have met in the industry do not have any type of formal qualifications so in general I do firmly believe that they are not useful and even less they are required (unless we are talking about high level research jobs in computing): real word experience is the only skill that is worth money.

Tossers who believe they are better than others on no standing ground do exist from all type of categories and academic backgrounds so it is foolish to generalise.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I once had to work with one when I was consulting to the treasury management department of XXXXXXX. He was very proud of it and had it in the signature on his e-mails as well as the letters on his business cards. Being an alumni of Imperial Collage and done the requisite post-graduate work he was awarded the Diploma of Imperial collage so he also was a ‘DIC’. This too was proudly listed.

He fully qualifies for your classification. In all the, short, time I knew him, he never did understand that rather than attracting respect for his academic achievements, his list of letters after his name only severed to reinforce everyone’s opinion of the chap.

[moorfield]

Being an alumni of Imperial Collage and done the requisite post-graduate work he was awarded the Diploma of Imperial collage so he also was a ‘DIC’.

Was he an 'ARCS' too?

[minestrone]

I did one after leaving Mechanical Engineering. Complete waste of a year but being there for a year got me into the business so it was a means to an end. They taught me java in 1998 and that got me a job.

Pointles qualification but it showed that I was commited to IT. My first software job was a bit of a disaster, they expected me to know what a CS graduate knew and I did not, they flung me a copy of K&R and asked me to code straight away, I was a mess, I left after 10 months and got a proper trainee job and that is where my career picked up.

[scotspine]

i think maybe the clue is in the op "conversion course"? these can vary in quality quite enormously, from pretty wide in content yet shallow, to very narrow yet deep in structure. and i'd tend to agree, people who have one of these would not match up to a decent graduate in the subject.

however, no conversion msc course in computing can match a specialised msc course which has, as an entry requirement, a reasonable first degree in computing. these, whether by research or taught, can be pretty involved and committing. i'd always give credit to anyone who possessed one of these, regardless of industrial experience. but just how you'd weigh up a 'good' msc against industrial experience, should i think be taken on a case by case basis.

having experience as well as a good msc, is of course, the best of both worlds. but then again, for changing tapes, who needs either???

[Zippy]

A conversion course is nowhere near as good as a decent degree, but the students think it is. The ones I encountered couldn't code their way out of a paper bag, even at the end of the course.

[Francko]

A conversion course is nowhere near as good as a decent degree, but the students think it is. The ones I encountered couldn't code their way out of a paper bag, even at the end of the course.

I have never seen any coder that needed a degree to learn that.

IT studies do not keep up with the real world. Any degree will be obsolete in 4-5 years time. Studying is good to keep your skills sharpened but if you rely on it to apply on real-world work then you are doomed to fail. Anything that you have studied must be constantly re-studied again.

To me for what it concerns any technical career path an MSc in Advanced computer studies does help as much as an MSc Egyptology (unless you keep working in the same academic group you did your MSc).

[minestrone]

A conversion course is nowhere near as good as a decent degree, but the students think it is. The ones I encountered couldn't code their way out of a paper bag, even at the end of the course.

I do not think anyone on my course was under the illusion that what they were taught was in anyway comparable to a main degree, you had to get a second honours in a science or maths based degree to get in and nobody would have thought that what they learned that year was comparable to what they had learned over the previous 4 years.

I have met more spuds with CS degrees in this field than people with conversion courses. In my case my first jobs required a knowledge of degree level engineering before coding could be done. The mix of first degree knowledge with a slant on computing science was/is more valuable than just a computing science degree.

I work in finance now and to be honest I know feck all about what I am coding half the time, as an engineer I can see the formuale and know what the end result is meant to be but the numbers are quite literally all Greek to me.

[moorfield]

To me for what it concerns any technical career path an MSc in Advanced computer studies does help as much as an MSc Egyptology (unless you keep working in the same academic group you did your MSc).

That probably explains most of the chinless PMs one finds in IBs these days.

Once had to explain the concept of "client" and "server" to a BA in Medieval Literature who was nominally the project's technical architect.