I have BS Industrial Engineering degree and a 15+ years industry experience of which 11 years have been in IT job. Will my future be favorable without an IT degree? Or do I need one? I do have IT professional designations such as the ICCP’s CCP, Canadian Information Processing Society’s I.S.P., Australian Computer Society’s AACS (Associate) and some subject specific IT certs. A Chartered IT Professional title from The British Computer Society is now underway too. On top of these, I hold the Certified Manufacturing Engineer (CMfgE) from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the Chartered Engineer (CEng) qualification is also underway with the Engineering Council UK, through The IEE. I am not that much interested of going deep into computer science stuff. I’m rather interested of making the most of my IT knowledge and skills in providing solutions to business problems. Recently, as I sometimes felt being out-of-place with my colleagues who hold CompSci degrees (or perhaps they want me out of place), it came to my mind of obtaining a second BS degree in IT based on my certs/exams, transfer credits, and possibly portfolio credits. Will this be practical to do or I’m just in the wrong place or may be not the right people to work with? Assuming I’ll be with the “right” people (with the right mentality), do I still need a degree in IT? Or will my experience and professional recognitions, be enough so people will acknowledge it as if I hold an IT degree? Opinion please!
Philip, those are very difficult questions for someone else beside you to answer. Here is my perception (take it with caution ... ). Since you have many years of experience, do you plan to be a techie or want to get into management side of IT ? If you want to be a techie all your life (e.g want to develop websites for years to come or manage systems or something like that) you should probably go and do an IT degree. Remember it will not give you more than what you already know with all that experience. However if you want to be on the management side, I think if I remember correctly you were doing MBA. That should be enough for you get into higher positions. There was a previous thread where we discussed whether MS in IT/IS is needed or MBA is ok for higher positions, take a look at that. If you still feel you want to compete with others in terms of degree then go ahead and do MS in IT, University of Liverpool is a good option. There is no harm in getting another degree, if you have the money and the time. Based on my experience IT certifications with experience are enough to get jobs but certifications can never be a replacement for a degree.
Hi etech: Thanks for your opinion. Yes I intend to get into managing technology, which is the reason for taking up an MBA program now at CSU. I am, however, tempted to have an IT degree (MS or BS) to officially document my 11 years IT knowledge & skills, aside from the pressure being frowned by not having IT degree yet working in it. Knowledge is just in our brains, but some people looks for papers instead of what one can do with that knowledge. The software development team that I manage now had been very successful in implementing our software solutions, which we developed in-house. All of which was not mainly due to our collective knowledge in IT, but rather, my background as industrial engineer. My theoretical and practical knowledge in production/manufacturing management have greatly influenced the systems design and my teams’ grasp of the business processes. I had been (and will always be) a believer in education and the knowledge & wisdom derived from it, but I do not put my faith on a piece of paper. My 14+ years (1987 – 2002) of slumber, from the academic world, was not without acquiring new knowledge and skills though. The books had always been there, to the rescue, in times of doubts and uncertainty of some work related issues. However, this belief had not been friendly in my very own case, people in my workplace put more weight on what one can show on papers and not on outcomes of one’s acquired knowledge – the outcome that is already visible in my workplace. In other words, paper does matter, regardless of one’s educational attainment and abilities –in my case, an IT degree. My personal goals and aspirations, however, are not confined in my current workplace. I tend to look at my future from a holistic approach i.e. at least from the perspective of an engineer, a manager, and an IT practitioner. My engineering knowledge is documented through a BS in IE and CMfgE, management is underway with an MBA, and my IT knowledge is documented only through certs and professional recognitions. I wonder now whether and IT degree should matter with respect to my career goals and aspirations. Thank you for your input and enlightenment. Happy New Year!!
Good points Philip... Take a look at MS in IT/ITM offered by UK and US universities. Touro has MS in ITM. I myself was looking at University of Derby MSc ITM and have enquired about it. yet to hear from them. Although I have mentioned Liverpool MSc IT in my previous message, some have raised concern about their assessment technique. So be careful if you choose that. Although I like their course contents. I would personally recommend that you do MS instead of BS. You already have BS (although not in IT but its a BS) and it will be better to move ahead. If you do come across some solid MS degree in IT from any well known university, let me know as well. Best of Luck and Happy new year to you and all at degreeinfo.
I think that it would be best for you to capitalize on your years of experience. Employers are looking for someone who has versatility and is willing to be open to new skills and training. Pursuing a second degree at this point would not help in the long term of wanting to advance or to move up the ladder. Experience along with the willingness to learn new skills and technology will help you to keep yourself “marketable” over other potential candidates. Most employers when making a decision of reviewing a resume or profile of a potential applicant will 9 out of 10 times look for what makes this candidate stand out over the rest and many times this could be the ticket for you landing the job or advancing in the company.
