Now they tell us

[Sysman]

Don't bother with that degree, say IT pros

I must admit in my early career a degree simply meant I didn't have as many years experience as someone else my own age.

It did kick in in my late twenties though, and was the key to getting into various places. I wouldn't have got into the country I'm in without one.

[bobspud]

It's a bit of a non starter really. You go to uni for 4 years and by the time you graduate every piece of software you used in year one has been replaced. Some of it twice...

[minestrone]

The jobs in the 'big' places will always request a degree, easy to say when you are established that it does not matter.

[Lockhouse]

No degree (or even A levels). Meant I started in Ops rather than development, 30 years later is now a non-issue. Spent same time getting out of ops as I would have done getting a degree but always meant I couldn't get a job in the US etc.

[Spacecadet]

The jobs in the 'big' places will always request a degree, easy to say when you are established that it does not matter.

WHS - a lot of the big firms will require a degree (usually a 2:1 minimum)

[bobspud]

WHS - a lot of the big firms will require a degree (usually a 2:1 minimum)

Which proves what? the candidate watched a whole raft of software go obsolete over three years while they gargled beer in the student Uni bar...

I Would rather know that my engineers learned what a full system backup means to the organisation and pay for full price beer while they did it

[minestrone]

Kind of pointless now getting a degree to go into IT anyway, many of the really big firms that used to take on 50 graduates a year no longer do so, back in the mid 90s when I left uni it was like bees round the honeypot the way companies approached some IT centered courses. Now they just offshore or worse onshore.

I would like to say I would love to see the figures of graduate uptake into IT as percentage of overall IT workers as a trend over the last 20 years but I would probably not love it. Much cheapness has left us with much skillness and whoever could compile those figures would never make them public.

[Bunk]

Which proves what? the candidate watched a whole raft of software go obsolete over three years while they gargled beer in the student Uni bar...

I Would rather know that my engineers learned what a full system backup means to the organisation and pay for full price beer while they did it

I don't know what you do or did at uni but in my degree (software engineering), we didn't learn how to use software packages, we learned how to program. The languages change (although we used Java, which is still around) but the principles don't.

[sasguru]

There are degrees and there are degrees.
A rigorous degree from a good university in a hard subject like Maths, Physics, Computer Science or Philosophy wil teach you to think logically
That is a skill applicable in any profession, particulalry in IT, and one that I've noticed is sadly missing in many CUK members.

[Spacecadet]

Which proves what? the candidate watched a whole raft of software go obsolete over three years while they gargled beer in the student Uni bar...

I Would rather know that my engineers learned what a full system backup means to the organisation and pay for full price beer while they did it

How much software goes obsolete in 3 years? If students are being taught anything which goes obsolete whilst they are on the course then that is the fault of the university rather than the fact that they are doing an IT course.
In fact in the 12 years I've been in IT, the core skills have not changed at all, design patterns are pretty much the same and are still best taught.

And of the companies which do specify a degree most do not insist on it being an IT course and will except most science (me), mathematics and engineering disciplines.