your thoughts for itt grad plz

Hi all,

I need a real degree from a ra school. My Itt degree isn't helping me out at all and I think I am going to take it off of my resume. I got layed off from a software design engineering position 6 months ago and I can't even get an interview for another engineering position. Here is my rundown:

ITT - BAS Automated Manufacturing Technology
ITT - AAS Electronics Engineering Technology
Community College classes taken:
calculus 1-3
physics 211 (with calculus)
computer science 1 and 2
assembly language
c programming
psychology 201, writing 121, history 201, geography 107

I worked as a sw design engineer for 6.5 years. I did a good job (survived 16 layoffs), but they let over 70% of engineering go since early 2001.

Does anyone know if any ra schools will accept itt tech credits?

Does anyone have any advice on how I can earn a real degree (RA) in computer science / computer engineering (other related BS degree) in a reasonable time frame?

 

RA may not help either

Zeriab,
I don't see where you are from or any other applicable information about you but with your work experience your ITT degree is probably not the problem. The slowdown in IT hiring has affected everyone up to and including MIT grads. However, some areas are worse than others and you may have to consider relocating. Supposedly the Chicago area isn't as bad as other areas such as northern California. But even there salaries and perks have regressed. Yes, now may be a good time to get more education but I would't get another BS. I would see if I could find an RA grad school which would accept your DETC BS and get your masters. Check your peers in the area and see what degree they would advise. Check local headhunters as well. You can check with them during the job hunt. Others on this board may be able to advise you as to what RA schools accept DETC undergrad degrees. FYI, CIO magazine advises you to get an MIS, MSIT, etc. if are wanting to stay a pure techie. However, If you are wanting management they recommend you get an MBA. Good luck.
Chris

 

I would have to agree with Chris on some points. Considering you have 6.5 yrs of programming experience in the real world. I'm not entirely sure if your problem is related to your degree from ITT.

Most ITT campuses are ACICS accredited (Chea Recognized) so you might want to contact ACICS or ITT and ask what schools have accepted their credits. I would probably try to get into an RA Master's degree first than trying to get another BS degree in the same field that is RA. There's nothing illegitimate about your current BS degree is my reasoning for this. I'm sure there's one RA school out there that will accept your BS degree as a qualifier to a Master's program.

Good Luck.

 

I am located in the silicon forest (portland oregon).
I had considered an mba, but the only school that I could find that would accept my bas from ITT was the university of phoenix. They are a RA school, but they don't seem to have a very good reputation. I screwed up by going to ITT. Many companies will not consider any resumes that have ITT degrees listed on them (in design engineering positions). After searching around for a long time, I gave up and starting taking more classes at the local community college that would apply towards a computer engineering degree at portland state.
I was hoping that maybe some other ITT grad had found another way (other than starting over from scratch as I have started to do). I have searched around quite a bit and haven't been able to find anything. The ACISC (ITT's accreditation) web site only lists schools that don't have RA.

 

1. Are you sure that your resume is good enough? If your 6 years experience is documented very well on your resume, I am sure that many employers will like to invite you for interview regardless of where your degree came from. You may seek a professional help to assist you with your resume.

2. You may also convert your degree to RA degree. Check COSC, Thomas Edison, and Excelsior.

Ike

 

I don't buy it at all. I attended ITT in Austin, and got by Bachelors from ITT in Florida. NEVER have I had a problem getting a job. Several of my classmates from austin where offered excellent positions (some including management) after there AA degrees. I truly think you are suffering because of the tech slump.

 

I don't buy it at all. I attended ITT in Austin, and got by Bachelors from ITT in Florida. NEVER have I had a problem getting a job. Several of my classmates from austin where offered excellent positions (some including management) after there AA degrees. I truly think you are suffering because of the tech slump.

 

Michael alludes to a good point, the Northwest US is in a tougher recession than other parts of the country where things are turning around. I have several large contacts in the Northwest, Oregon and Washington and they are still not recovering like say the Southeast where things seem to be doing quite well.

 

What I meant about ITT was...
I screwed up by going there. It didn't give me what I wanted. I wanted to be a design engineer that worked with both hardware and software (exactly what I was doing in my last job). The recruiter at ITT showed me a list of jobs that some recent graduates had been offered. He told me that I would have no problem getting a design engineer position and that the BAS degree was highly sought after my companies hiring design engineers in the Portland area. He also told me they where accredited (I had no idea that multiple accreditations existed and that a school can start its own spinoff accreditation company and accredit itself if it wants to). I took the bait (naive, young farm boy) and signed up. I would go after a RA / ABET approved degree if I could do it again, but... BTW, my gpa was 3.8+ for both the aas and bas degrees I received from ITT (just incase you where wondering if I was one of the screw-offs that didn't even try to learn anything).
I will never attend a school from a publicly traded company again. Their goal is to make money and raise the value of their stock for the stockholders (not to educate students).

 

I don't agree. ITT grads are highly sought after in Austin. I will admit that ITT recruiters are evil SOB's but most of the teachers I had where awesome. With the job market being the way it is at the moment finding a job is harder than usual. I of course got my BS in Telecom rather than in electronics and I think that made all of the difference. I have worked for Dell as a technician, then went and worked for a school district as a roving computer tech, and then worked for a small start up, then left to work for the family business. I still do some consulting work, and plan on advertising in my town as an after hours computer technician. Which is my dream job. You might want to check with local school districts, they are always hiring computer folks though the pay isn't always that great. IF the tech industry was still strong I feel that your job finding abilities would be better.