Position posting

[Andrew Murgas]

You're correct - a Degree is not an "end-all-be-all" in the technology 
field.

It is, however, usually a very good place to start. 

The sad facts are that most "certified" training these days cover the 
very subjects already covered in College courses, and don't count for squat. 

What do I mean?

Novell certification [CNA,CNE,MCNE,CNI]
Microsoft certification [MSCE, ETC]
Cisco certification
A+ certification

and the many others beyond this all involve concepts that Colleges
do cover, but a lot don't specifically get into the "hands on" training
that they should. In a lot of ways I would love to see some sort of 
prerequisite for College professors to be certified in two of the above
certifications before teaching Networking, for example. 

For any of those poor souls who had to take up Computer Architecture
using M. Morris Mano's book, take up courses in Assembler, C++, Boolean 
Logic, Calculus and Statistics in the same Semester, and somehow survive it
without losing hair, etc. [I have a lot of respect for the people at INTEL
after having worked out the math and designed my own IC chip logic. It's 
downright amazing stuff they do with the Pentium. Worthless? well, you 
get a fair idea on what a motherboard can and cannot do after that 
class.....], I like to think that that piece of hard earned paper is a very 
good start in the industry, especially in the world of business. At the 
very least, anybody who went through that
who didn't get the idea that there would be late nights, hard work and 
lost sleep in the job hadn't been paying attention in class and had not
turned in their assignments. At least you can look at them and say 
they know what they're in for.......

Can someone learn the field and be a great programmer/technician/system
analyst, etc. without the piece of paper? certainly! Absolutely! read the 
book "Hackers" by Steven Levy for examples of how the industry we have today
would never have happened without people like that! some of the very BEST
in the industry is out there without it. But you'll notice that someone
out there gave them that initial push in front of that machine. Most
didn't complete a CS degree but had started one and got really really
interested in it.  

The point of all this is that perhaps the Computer Science curriculums
should be given another look, dusted off, (maybe some of the professors
should be dusted off too, hmm? ;-] ) and updated for a more '90's 
approach. I'd love to see some of those profs Microsoft certified........
or better yet, Cisco router certified.

Andrew R. Murgas                               Suburban Library System
Information Technology Specialist              murgasa at sls.lib.il.us


On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Temple Hoff wrote:

> Carolyn Wilson said:
> >But to suggest that someone can be self-taught in computing and acquire 
> >the same level of expertise as someone with a formal qualification is as 
> >insulting to computing professionals as the same suggestion would be to 
> >librarians.
> 
> Oh, What you said!  And its monday morning too.  What better time for 
> good old fasion flame fest!  But, I won't.
> 	I will counter you though.  Your sentiment is good, and you have 
> every right to be proud of your degrees.  Having a degree does imply that 
> one has achived a certain level of mastery.  Where I hiring someone, I 
> would tend to look harder at non-grad applicants and assume that those 
> with degrees must know something.  However, to get snooty about it, and 
> claim some superiority that cannot be attained by mere mortals is, well, 
> laughable, and shows some amount of insecurity in your own skills.
> 	I work with a library assistant that was been with our library 
> for 22 years.  There isn't a library on our staff that would question 
> where library skills.  She has no degree.  I have heard from some of our 
> librarians that they feel their library skills are not up to her level.  
> Not being a librarian, I can't judge her.  I can only say that her peer 
> librarians feel that she has "acquired the same level of expertise" as 
> they have, or greater.
> 	Personally, as I have said before, I have not degree.  However, 
> I believe my networking, Internetworking, and systems analysis skills are 
> atleast of the order of an undergraduate if not a Masters level.  I won't 
> attemp to list skills here, but if you'd like to get more of an idea of 
> the level of professionalism a non-grad can achieve, check this URL.  Its 
> the Telecommunication and Electronics Review, an on-line ALA periodical 
> for whom I review high end technology books.
> 
>  http://gold.ohiolink.edu/ter/ter-3-6.html
> 
> 	Degrees are great, but they are not the end-all-be-all, at least 
> not in the technology field.
> -- 
> Temple Hoff                  E-Mail:temhof at mohave.lib.az.us              
>    
> Library Services Coordinator           Phone:(520) 692-5703  
> Mohave County Library District           Fax:(520) 692-5788
>