System Administrators - College or Career?

Chicks_Hate_Me asks: "I'm a Senior in High School right now and I'm graduating soon (hopefully!) and I was wondering what the hell I should do? My teachers are all telling me I should go to college, but they don't know much about computers so they automatically assume that I wan't to be a programmer or an engineer. I want to be neither, in fact, I want to become a System Administrator. Is college really the best option? Or should I concentrate on getting certification, experience, and taking a few junior college classes on the side? I've already gotten a few job consultancy offers in the area. What has the experience been for any of you out in the tech industry? For you that went to college, did it truly help? And for you that didn't go to college, has it been harder for you to find a job? Also, if you believe that I should go to college, what should I major in? But if you think I shouldn't, what certifications would hold valuable in the future, and what kind of job positions should I take now?" The never ending question. College is a valuable experience for most, but it's also expensive and time consuming. Might that time be better spent in the job market now rather than later (current conditions notwithstanding)?

Learn your trade

College, and certs will get you in the door. So will a resume. Learn your skills. Since you are so young, you could probably undercut those who are more qualified. Know your stuff, and try for Junior-admin positions. Get a cert or two, so they will actually call you back, but concentrate on knowing your craft. If you are willing to move, do nation-wide searches for a job. Some areas have too many techs, but other areas are starving for them.

Learn how to Learn Your Trade in College

A college degree (no matter in what area) is almost a pre-requisite for the 'good' jobs. Think of it this way, if you are an Employer, and you are hiring for a Systems Admin Position, you have 2 candidates who you need to pick from with equal on the job experience, would you take someone with a college degree over someone without one? Don't get shut out of a possible job just because you don't have a degree.

College also has several other added benefits over typical 'job experience'. College not only teaches you job skills, it teaches you to be resourceful in finding answers you don't automatically know. Programming courses in college have proven invaluable to me as a system admin even though I don't do much programming. Understanding how programming languages work and the data structures involved are not a typical job requirement but end up helping you alot in the long run. One of the best classes I ever took was "Basic Compiler Design" which has absolutely no relevance to any job I ever held, however, it did teach me a commanding knowledge of C++ and advanced data structures. If anything, college teaches you how to research problems and solve them. The college I went to make a specific point in the compsci department of not teaching specific software packages/solutions. Their goal was to teach the student how to learn those specific skills on their own when needed. In hindsight I must say that at the time it made little sense, but now I realize it makes all the sense in the world as those skills come into play almost daily.

And unless you are already married or an introverted supernerd, why in hell would you pass up FOUR YEARS of endless dating/mating possibilities? GO TO COLLEGE JUST FOR THE GIRLS, YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A MORE VARIED POTENTIAL DATING POOL IN YOUR LIFE (unless yer Hugh Hefner).

Re:Learn how to Learn Your Trade in College

I am an IT Manager for a pretty sizable organization. We probaly hire about 6 junior level tech people a year, most of which I get to meet during the interview phase.

We do not have a need for nerds or people who are completely self-taught with no education beyond high-school or some certification camp. I have hired several people like this, and none of them worked out.

- College is an environment when you deal with other adults with less control placed over you than a high school environment. Those interpersonal skills are key.

- Self-taught people (especially those who learned alone, without a mentoring environment like school) tend to be very arrogant and difficult to work with. One brilliant person can ruin a whole organization if they have a bad attitude.

Technical skills are valuable, but they are easy to teach and learn. People skills and things like charisma and the ability to work in a team are far more rare and more valuable.

Re:Learn how to Learn Your Trade in College

Yes, some self-taught geeks are arrogant, this should come across immediately in an interview. Others are unstructured free-thinkers who will bog you down with sporadic "This technology is cool, we should upgrade" paths. Both should be avoided. Then are the pragmatic down-to-earth geeks who realize that sometimes spending four years in school learning an industry that changes on the hour is not necessarily the best thing to do.

On the flip side you've also got the geeks from Harvard or MIT who think that the world should bow to them because of their degree.

Arrogance is on both sides, not just the side of the self-taught. Skills are on both sides, not just on the side of the college educated.

-Sara

Re:Learn how to Learn Your Trade in College

I'd like to comment on your reply point by point.

#1 Technical skills, in the form of specific experience in a particular OS or certification are irrelevant. We have IT staff who were interns, clerks or in one case a driver who injured his leg. In most cases they became good mid-level Unix or NT admins in about 12-18 months. 5/6 of them are taking classes paid for by our organization.

#2 I don't know about other people, but I like people who take their work & education seriously. Programmers who come from a CS or EE background are far better than those who missed out on formal education about 50-75% of the time. They tend to stick around longer too.

#3 We work in teams here. If our best programmer was hit by a bus, we wouldn't lose too much as far as coding or system availability went. (It would be a terrible thing, of course)If some exceptional geek who won't talk to anyone leaves or suffers from some tragedy, there is a much bigger loss.

#4 Skill and talent are important. Soft skills are important too.

#5 Manuals are easy to fake. Success isn't.

He should go to college because

If he actually thinks hes going to make a career thats going to last more than 10 years as a system admin, hes going to be wrong, VERY wrong.

Eventually servers will maintain themselves, lets not forget the system admin market is not in demand and hes not going to get paid a decent wage for much longer.

What he should do is go to college, get a Good 4 year degree, maybe work as a system admin via intership, Then when he graduates from college he can continue on as a Sys Admin.

He needs to get his degree so he can adapt to the times, when the time comes, Hes going to have to get a new job, wheres he going to go 11 years from now? or 20? Does he really want to go to college at age 30? By then he'll be far behind.

Look, you have to build your nest egg as soon as possible, that is

A. If you want to retire ever.

B. If you want to have kids.

C. If you want a house, car, or anything.

He needs a degree to have a stable career, he can get a job with just a diploma, they'll hire him as a sys admin, it will be his job, but when they dont need him anymore, hes gone, jobless.

Re:Learn your trade

You are basically asking should I go to college, or should I start working in the field?

The short answer is do both.

Go to a college/university that has a good computing infrastructure - lots of different departments with different needs, etc, etc.

Earn a degree while working on the computing staff - and I don't mean be a baby sitter at the on-campus PC labs. Approach any of the sysadmin groups and offer your services as a Junior Admin.

By the time you graduate, you will have several years of true experience and the piece of paper to get you in the door.

Best of luck.

System Administrator

What are you going to do when "System Administrator" is the title of a program rather than a job?

Re:System Administrator

I dont think that will happen for a long time. We're not saying "when machines can take care of themselves" cause we're not talking about machines. We're talking about systems. A sysadmin takes care of a system, often a new one that has bugs. 300 years from now when we're flying around in space, there will still be people in the same type of position that have elevated access to the systems of that time, so that regular users can't make the same dangerous decisions uniformed. If anyone wants to suggest that humans designing systems will ever be flawless, then you can win the argument. We may not always be called system administrators, but at least what we do will likely be needed for a very long time.

Go to college

If you have the opportunity to go to college, take it. At this point in your life, you do not *really* know what you want to do. College will expose you to many possible careers. Not only that, but you might acquire additional skills that will provide you with a backup plan when you burn out on sysadmin'ing...

Re:Go to college

Can't speak for anything but my own experience, but I would also strongly encourage real education over vendor certificates.

For one thing, what I learned in the higher educational systems was probably not directly marketable skills, but rather a method of thinking and working. An amount of logic and patience. And I got to know a lot of cool guys who today are scattered over the world working with interresting stuff (Hey, colleage is a good way to start networking).

Also, at the more decent colleages, they will teach you the primes of networking and the wheres and whys of the protocols - rather than the hows of specific vendor solutions. Same goes for programming. Even as a non-programmer, the basic ideas of programming comes handy, and even though you may learn some weird academic languages, the principles will also apply in bash and perl.

The final thing is, that while a colleage education more or less always will remain valid, a vendor certificate becomes obsolete: the market shifts from one vendor to another, new products emerge and others disappear etc. So while vendor certifications may buy you big money now, they may not be there for the long term.

I've seen a sufficient number of people starting in sysadm positions from nothing but high-school and industrial experience - and a few vendor certificates. I've also seen the same persons spend unreasonably long time puzzled over things (mainly networking-wise, I admit), which were outside of what their certification course had taught them.

Today, I'd be reluctant to hire someone whos only credentials are experience and vendor certificates. Of course, there are naturals for whom colleage may not do too much. I've yet to come across any, though. And, if nothing else, a colleage diploma tells me that the person is at least persistant enough to start something, and finish it. That alone is to appreciate.

Also, a colleage diploma is more of a wildcard. Right now, you may think that system administration is all you want to do. However in 10 years, you may see the world differently. I think that a colleage diploma would make it easier for you to eventually transit into a different type of position. I think that, if nothing else, this argument should carry some weight. I, for one, hadn't envisioned that I would end where I am 10 years ago. Actually, I'd probably have sworn I'd never end where I am...:)

So go to colleage and get a diploma. Meanwhile, if you have time, or afterwards while in your first job, supplement with a couple of certificates. That would make you a good candidate to hire...

Re:Go to college

Thats exactly what I see as colleges biggest problem. To many people who don't have a clue whatthey want to do. So they spend 4 years screwing around and get a degree then they go lookin for a job. I think it's much better to go out in the real world for a few years find out what it's really like and adn see what jobs you really want then after you have some expeirence gotot college and focus on subjects related to the field you want to be in. You will end up with a better education because you know what you want.

What complete rubbish

What I recommend to you is that you demand that your institution of higher learning participate in vendor partnership programs such as these.

No computer lab worth its name would accede to such demands. In fact, such demands should convince them entirely that you're more interested in flashy-looking paperwork than actual learning, and hence are not a good candidate.

Such partnerships a)indicate that the institution is interested in imparting practical and industry-relevant experience to you, and b)ensure you of a higher starting salary than those unfortunate individuals attending more institutions with less focus on your needs (and more on the ease of their tenured professors).

Accepting often-meaningless industry certs does not demonstrate that a department is interested in real-world skills, it demonstrates that the department is desperate for cash and trying to gain corporate sponsorship. Real skills taught by real colleges last far longer than any industry cert. Do you really think a month of studying Swing or MFC is worth as much as a month learning what data structures are all about?

That's why my degree will last for life, but the MCPs who took Visual C++ 6 several years ago are now "uncertified" again, in spite of the fact that the tool hasn't actually changed a bit since then and is still in mainstream use. The vast majority of industry certifications are money-spinning, code-monkey-developing cash cows, and nothing more. (Incidentally, having recently been in the job market myself, this seems to be how they are perceived by employers looking to fill good positions. Compare and contrast with proper degrees, please.)

And speaking of starting salaries, if you think some pro cert is going to get you a higher salary than a degree at the start of your career, you're gravely mistaken. Many places will file you in the circular cabinet without a second thought if you aren't degree-qualified, however many TLAs, ETLAs and so on you write on your resume. I don't think it's going to be hard to beat a starting salary of $5/hour at McD's.

And don't be afraid to remind them that the ROI for certs is far greater than for college tuition in the short and even medium term.

For whom? Not any employers, programmers or sysadmins I know, at any level of experience, that's for sure.

What might work for you

This is what worked for me and I'm sure you'll hate the Idea but...

Join the Air Force.

Now don't flame just hear me out.

If you are getting out of high school and are a computer geek but without the wherewithal or grades to go to a good college then the military will basically be your savior.

Even if you only go the 4 year route like I did you will get from the military four years of tech experience, training in the computer field (networking, admin, programming, etc) that you CHOSE AT THE RECRUITERS (that's very important), the GI bill for college, and a killer resume.

All you really have to content with is 4 years of short haircuts, no drugs, and if you are gay no sex. Of course if you are a geek then 4 more years without sex wont be anything new to you anyway.

This is geared to a Programmer but just change program to Maintain or Operate and there you go.

Granted basic training is a drag but you get 3 college PE credits for it. Then it's on to Tech school where (if your are a programmer) you get another 19 credit hrs and training in various programming languages. Then it's off to your first assignment. Probably some shithole is Texas but you could end up somewhere very nice. PROGRAMMERS DON'T GO TO WAR so you get to stay home. Next you learn whatever it is that they are programming in at your new Base. Everyone says "ADA" but I only saw that at tech school. Everyone else uses what is appropriate to the job. Mostly C or Java for the UNIX side and some kind of Visual crap for MS.

Other than from 7:30 to 4:30 your time is your own with weekends off. There are tons of stuff to do on most Bases but the most important is FREE CLEP/DANTE tests from the Base education office. Take as many as you would like. If you don't pass one on your first try just check out the study material from the Base library and try again in a 6 months.

After the first year you will take your 5 level tests (just a bunch of questions about your career field, You have all the study material issued to you). After that you can start going to the real college off Base if you'd like. Many Bases allow 3 hrs of "Personal Growth Time" for you to take courses during work hours (if your job permits it) or you can go at night. You could also wait for the teachers to come to Base. Most Bases offer night classes as well.

Did I mention the GI Bill yet? Well it makes college WAY cheaper and some Commands will reimburse you for classes that pertain to your career field. Add to that when you do decide to leave the military the GI bill adds to any other benefit you may receive from your employer. Right now I make about 200 a month more just for going to college. Twice a week. At night.

Did I also mention the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF)? Damn near every course that the Air Force sends you to (and they will) are worth college credits. The CCAF is accredited and an associates degree is and an associates degree. It's even better when it's free.

So after four years of work you will have an associates degree (close to a bachelor's). 4 years experience, possibly a security clearance, medals if you do really well, the GI bill and the only 21 -22 year old that you know who can say "yes I was the lead programmer for 2 products" and "why yes I was in charge of the UNIX development lab". Add to all this the ability to bitch to people in bars about how "this damn military is going to crap, back in my day..."

So if your just out of high school and have nothing pending. Go into an Air Force recruiters' office and Say that I want to work on computers. Don't let then sign you up for Security Forces or some Guaranteed General slot that they have open. Just stick to your guns, take the tests they tell you to take and sign the form that says:

Reserved Position of
COMPUTER PROGRAMMER (or OPPERATOR or MAINTANENCE or COM or anything that is followed by 3C***)

Then welcome to crappy basic and to a rather beneficial 4 years. And who knows you might enjoy it.

Re:What might work for you

This is generally good advice, and I would normally not advise anyone against spending time in the military. It really does build character and expose you to a variety of situations and people.

There is, however, one thing to make note of and this can be a hell of a hammer to be hit with:

You belong to the military when you join. Your body and mind, at least, and that part of your mind that stores vocational skills. There's a little catch called "Needs of the service" which means the military -- any service, any branch -- can and WILL put you where THEY need you the most. You have some say in the matter, but when you get right down to it, the military can shove you into Administrative Clerk or Photographer's Mate or PBI (Poor Bluidy Infantry) if they need you somewhere.

There is also something else to be concerned about, though in four years it's debatable if it'll be a problem or not. That concern is "Stop-loss" orders. If the military needs you and 1,000 of your bestest buddies to stay in the service for whatever reason, it can issue a 'Stop-loss order.' You canot get out, you canot retire, you cannot escape. You remain in the service for as long as they need you. The Army and Air Force are doing this now.

So, be careful, and be aware for the costs and benefits.

to prepare for sysadminhood..

I suggest you start early by ripping the wings off flies while telling them, "sorry, new security policy"

--
Bwahahahaaaa
Martin, sys admin bastard

Re:College degree opens alot of doors

Plus it Shows u have enuff dedication to get threw college to get one.

Which college did you go to? I want to make sure I don't hire any grads from there.

Do Both

You should do both, for example:

Go to a State Unversity and get a job doing Sys-Admin work. Pay for school with the proceeds.

Alternatively, if you go to a much more expensive university, for example a private school, take advantage of financial aid, loans, etc up and pay the rest off with proceeds from working Sys-Admin.

There is no reason to not go to school full-time and work-full time. Unless you count sloth as one of them.

Definately go to college

When things get tight like they are now its nearly impossible to find work without a degree. You may have skills but that doesn't mean a whole lot when the market is down. Everyone I know who didn't bother to go to college, has CCNA, RHCE, etc... is now scrounging around to find a decent job because their employer went out of business and noone is interested in them due to a lack of a degree.

Its only four years, go ahead and get it. It will give you a foot in the door most anywhere. And while you're at college work for their IT Services, you'll come out with both a degree and 4 years of experience.

Re:Definately go to college

I'd offer up some more advice - I almost dropped out of my degree to go work for a (now failed) startup company. That would have been one of the worst mistakes of my life. If you want to do computer work, here's the path I'd recommend to you:

- Try electrical or computer engineering. If you can't handle the workload:

- Try computer science or a softwarey-engineering style degree. If you can't handle the workload:

- Consider a Math or Physics B.Sc. If you can't handle the math, the usual reason for #1 or #2 not working out, then:

- Try a history degree, or anything besides a BA english. Music, maybe. It's fun, there's chicks, and you get a piece of paper. Rely on work experience (you will have loads of extra time in arts) to balance out the lack of direct experience. BUT - when you graduate, do a Masters degree in something artsy, bonus points for it being computer related. It'll give you a story to tell in interviews.

- All the while, you should be running your own home network, comprised of as many different machines and obsolete networking equipment as possible. Take pictures with you to your interviews and talk about your experiences. That will garner you more points with me (combined with a degree, of course) than all the certs in the world.

TRY college if you can at all swing it. You will be a different person in 10 years, trust me. You don't want to regret anything, and regretting going to college will make regretting not asking that hot redhead in your morning class will look like missing a morning latte'.

I'm biased, but...

Most system administrators do not know enough to be truly useful. Not coincidentally, many have not had formal training in Computer "Science" or Engineering. Go to college. Learn about how things really work, not the regurgitated pablum that is spread by corporate sponsored certifications.

Since it looks like you aren't planning on going to a university this fall, it wouldn't hurt to get a certification or two in the upcoming year. But definitely go to university. To go immediately into the work world out of high school seems like a complete waste of youth to me. There are many more entertaining ways to waste those precious years between 18 and 24 than slaving long hours as a sysadmin.

I was just talking about this on the way to work

Step 1. Travel. Go to europe (or the US, depending on where you're not). See what life in the rest of the world is like. You can actually travel for pretty cheap, and when I was last on the road ('95), it was pretty easy to work under the table in much of europe. It won't be the high-life, but it's worth getting out there.

Step 2. Go to college. College is about learning what you don't know you don't know. Not about learning what you know you don't know.

I recommend working after the first year or 2 in college - even if you[r parents] can afford not to.

Step 3. Get a job - a real job. Not the one you worked in college. Even if that was a real job. Get away and get more experience elsewhere.

The important thing is to see a lot of different stuff.

IMHO...

Been there done that.

I'm in college now. You are confused a little as I was. In Computer Science (at most universities), you have what's called a 'Software track' or 'Systems track'. In the Software track, programming and software development is more emphasized. In the Systems track, system administration is more emphasized. You should definately go to college, becuase as a sysadmin you will have opportunities to advance. Without a college education, you won't have as good of a chance to advance. College will also develope you socially and in other subjects such as political science, etc. College in today's competitive society is a must, especially with foreign competition becoming more feirce.

College, for three reasons.

I'd strongly suggest college, for two reasons.

Firstly, whether it's fair or not, a lot of places simply won't look at your resume for any technical position unless you have a post-secondary degree of some kind. If you have many years of experience (3 minimum), you may be able to get by on past work alone, but even then you'll be less favoured for raises and promotions because of the impression that you're less "skilled".

Secondly, going through the computer stream, the business stream, or both, in college, will give you extra perspective on where the demands of management and the coders are coming from, and how to balance their requests. You'll be able to do a better job (not all of the job is technical).

Thirdly, it gives you flexibility and mobility in your job. You're qualified for being more than just a sysadmin, so you can take other positions if there are no sysadmin jobs available or if your interests change over time. Choice is usually a good idea.

In summary, I think that college would be very valuable for you at your current career stage.

Degrees

These days, I can pretty much guarantee you that a degree of any kind will get your resume looked at much faster than those without degrees listed.

In the whole dot-bomb craze, a lot of people dropped out of high school and college, and went to work for obscene amounts of money. Now, many companies have realized that it take more than a working knowledge of whatever field is popular - it doesn't matter if you're the world's greatest genius in a particular field if you can't do the *other* parts of the job, like interacting with customers, making clear notes about what you've done for the runbook, and generally communicating with your co-workers.

I got my degree on the ten-year plan. It's not in a computer-related field, but having it means that more doors are open to me.

My experience..

I got the same crap from school.. Go to collage. I ended up going to a two year technical collage because I figured it would be more hands on and it would get me out of the door faster. Only after I started did I realize that this isn't what I wanted to do, they were teaching stuff that I didn't care about, and a degree from them, if anybody knew what they really taught, would be crap.

I dropped out after a year and started doing tech support at a local ISP making shit, had a friend that helped me get a foot in the door doing NOC work at MediaOne, did really good, they sent me to some solaris training, and I ended up getting a admin job at a little start up. So basically in the time that collage would have taken (4 years) I managed to be making 60k/year doing what I wanted.

Of course, I ended up getting laid off. So I guess the best advice would be if you stay with a nice big company (like a cable company). STAY! They had better benifits (might not seem like a big deal now, but they will), better 401k matching, WAY more stability, and they actually sent me to real training classes where I could get real certs. And don't listen to start ups, they say what they want to get you in the door, then they screw you out of what they said.. This hasn't just happened to me, I'm sure there is plenty of examples.

Oh, no you don't.

You think you want to be a sysadmin. That's because you're young and stupid. (Sorry, dude, but every high school senior is young and stupid.) You don't yet know how demoralizing it is to work as a sysadmin. The pay gets a lot less attractive as soon as you have a family. You get very little respect, very little appreciation, in order to do a good job as a sysadmin you have to give solemn orders to people above you in the org chart of your work place, which makes you a prime target at every round of layoffs. The hardware and software both such and drive you to exasperation.

The hours suck rocks through a garden hose. Trust me on this, there is nothing more demoralizing than rushing to work to fix an outage at 3 AM because your ISPs clients are getting mad at having to wait for their pron. The hours suck more when you're on call and you realize your wife is better looking and your kids far cuter than any of your cow orkers or clients, and that your wage rate cannot justify a single additional hour away from them.

So, forget about sysadminning, at least for now. Go to college. Shop around for areas of inquiry that might interest you, or might not interest you yet. Join the army. I'm not kidding. The army beats sysadminning hands down. Or try jobs that involve your hands or the open air. But for mercy's sake, don't sysadmin just yet.

Definitely go to college

They won't directly teach you how to be a good admin, but they have a lot to offer:

1. All good admins had good mentors. A good college or university is the place to find them.
2. While at college, you can choose a less challenging curriculum and still do some admin work on the side.
3. At the end of your college career, you'll already have 2 or 3 years of experience under your belt.
4. Stick with Unix- don't waste time with NT or Win2K. Then windows admin market has two dubious issues: A. The market is saturated, making them a $28k/year commodity; and B. It's much harder to distinguish yourself in the industry in a saturated market.
5. Beer, women, and community. Those reasons are enough to make me want to go back almost every day :) .

I can seriously vouch for #'s 1, 2, and 5. By the time I left school, I had 2 years of sysadmin under my belt, and excellent skills because of a good mentor. I was even able to take my time and choose between a couple gigs > $70k.

Good luck!

go for the degree

If for only one reason - it opens doors.

Potential employers will give you more serious consideration if you have a degree. It doesn't really make a difference what you want to do, a degree in anything is better than no degree at all.
Also, keep in mind that you might go sour on being a Sys Admin and then all your certifications are worthless. A degree will not be.

If you want more reasons:
- your salary will be automagically higher with a degree.
- a good college will give you a well rounded background in the field you study. This will allow you to acquire new skills easily in that field. Most people fail to understand this point and don't understand why they are learning calculus or discrete math when all they want to do is program.

Go to college, study something that interests you and then go be a Sys Admin.

Going to school != not working

I work for a large, multinational telecommunications company. The amount of money and the position you can ultimately achieve within many companies is limited by your educational background, while getting a good job to start with is generally more dependant on your work history. Here are my suggestions:

• Go to school and don't sweat the grades (so long as you at least come out of it wth a C). The important part is the piece of paper that said you stuck with something for four years.
• Work fulltime or parttime, ideally in the field you're targetting. If that's not possible, take almost any job and hold on to it. Nothing looks worse on a resume than someone who shops around. Holding even the worst of jobs for a long period of time shows that you are more interested in actually working than finding the next bigger/better paycheck.

  Almost as bad as not going to school is not working while you're going to school. Holding a job and getting a degree at the same time shows that you can manage your time and handle pressure.

• Don't depend on certifications to get a job. Except for the meanest of positions (eg. Microsoft Exchange admins), a plethora of certifications on a resume is an automatic bit-bucket sentence at many companies, including ours. It usually indicates that you have little practical experience with a product and are basically milking the companies you've already worked for out of free training. Certs are good for getting entry level jobs in some type of customer service. Only consider them as a last resort. A degree looks better as it shows that you had the fortitude to stick with something for four years.

Go to school

At the time that I graduated from high school, I was planning on a career in medicine or medical research. It made perfect sense because I loved science in general and biology in particular, and I was pretty good at it. So, I spent the next several years getting an honours B.Sc. in molecular biology. In my third year, I started my own software company to help with school expenses. By the time I graduated, I'd decided that, fascinating as it was, biology just wasn't a career thing for me, and I've been in IT ever since.

From that story, you might conclude that the time and money I spent in school was a waste, but that's far from the truth. First, I picked up plenty of soft skills, like research and writing, that I use every day. Second, and more importantly, I discovered what I really wanted to do. And of course, the whole university experience is not something to miss.

So, my suggestion would be to go to school. Don't tie yourself to a career path at the age of 17 or 18. Get exposed to a few different things, have some fun, and give yourself some time to decide.

Definately College

For starters, it's a ton of fun, period. If I could redo my tech career and have a Computer degree (I had a broadcasting degree instead) - I'd have loved it.

Second, a Degree stays, certs have to be renewed

Third, Many HR depts. still are hung up on the whole "4 year degree" thing - not all, and it's not as important as work experience, but I've missed a couple opportunities because of no 4 year degree in the tech field.

Fourth, Completing college shows employers that you have stick to it principles and can focus on long term goals. I know I've gotten some jobs as a college graduate even though I wasn't in the field.

Go - all joking about the ultimate party and co-ed showers aside, it'll be good for your career. You can always do certs in college too if you feel so inclined.

Go to college, you fool!

You have ONE and ONLY ONE chance in life to be in college while of college age. College is an experience, not a major, not "time consuming", not career preparation, not a rehersal. If you miss out on it, you will regret it for the rest of your life. And don't go majoring in a hard science that will keep you from having fun. If you have the brain to be a sysadmin as a high school kid, you'll do fine in life, whatever you end up doing. Major in something that is easy, with a lot of cute chicks. And sleep with as many of them as you can. Life is about more than money and pursuing a career efficiently. In about April of your freshman year, at the spring music/beer/bong festival, you'll think back to this posting, and thank me.

Do both....

Do both, and get the best (and worst) of both worlds. You are going to get an entry level job regardless, so might as well start while you are going to school.

On the plus side,

work often pays for tuition

you have a lot of experience when the time comes to move into that "real" job.

might even find that real job while going to school (woot!)

Downside?

It will take an extra 2-3 years to get your degree

you may become cold and jaded as the real world exposes you to the way things work in business rather than class.

The voice of experience....

This is long winded, but I went through what you are asking about and I fucked it all up. Pay attention.

A few years ago I dropped out of college after my second year and started working as a full-time sysadmin. During that time I have had multiple jobs, moving from working in the financial industry, to a dotcom (Which crashed and burned.) to government contracting. Each job change has resulted in a huge raise, and my salary (With no degrees or certifications.) has risen to over $65,000 USD with incredible benefits, not bad for a 23 year old college drop out with no degrees or certifications. I have my own car, my own apartment, little debt, and life is generally pretty good. But...

Not a day goes by that I don't regret not staying in school. Having a degree opens doors I never dreamed of, and people who do go through school come out knowing things that you will probably never learn on the job. Every time I turn around I think about all the useful skills I could have picked up by staying in school, especially when it comes to serious programming and computer internals. On top of that, there are always plenty of people who will not take me seriously until I get myself through night school an earn the degree.

I can understand why you might not want to go to college to be a sysadmin; most computer programs don't teach what it takes to do a sysadmin's job. But as a sysadmin who passed on college, you will find yourself trapped in far more limits than the limited choices you may have when it comes to learning to manage a network at school.

So stay in school. Just get yourself through a four-year computer science degree, and spend your time worrying about programming, network and computer internals, and other such stuff. Build good relationships with like minded folks at school and online, because helpful friends, especially on EFNet or mailing lists, will save your ass at work more than any vendor support or book. Plan ahead to find yourself good summer internships at tech related companies, even if you have to just volunteer. Try to get a government internship with a Top Secret clearance and you will be guaranteed a great job as soon as you get out of school.

When it comes to school, it sucks, but it will be worth it. Trust me.

You'll get laid in college.

Reason numero uno to go to college. Sex. I had more sex in college than ever and I sometimes think about going back just for that. You'll meat shedloads of people and have a lot of fun, but for the money, the sex is the biggest reason to go.

Work for a year, then college

I'm only a year older than "Chicks_Hate_Me", my problem was that I wasn't really ready for college, I was lucky enough to get a job at a really awesome company, getting a job first really helped me to decide what exact area in the computer field I want to persue. I really want to go to college now, because I have a reason. The other benifit is I'll have quite a bit saved up for when I start college.

Summary:
College for sure, but working first will help give you a reason for college and some money.

This is the SAME situation I faced.

And here is what I did.

I joined the military for the smallest amount of time that I could (2 years 19 Weeks), although that may not be in your options. Because of that, (I did non-computer related things in the military) I gained people skills, leadership, and all of the other things the military teaches you. I also got a six pack stomach, and a nice chest, and ladies dig that. I work now as a sysadmin, and go to school part time. Make good money (35k), get paid even more to go to school through the GI Bill (around 3k per semester) And I am only 22!

If you live in Illinois, Florida, or Texas, I believe, You get to go to a public school free, but you still reap the GI Bill Benifits.

I did simple math before I joined. 2 years making dirt pay,but when you add in what you will recieve from schooling, it makes good sense

My easy Math

where I could find the time to hone my system skills on my own (I did combat related jobs in the Army) and I did some side consulting work while I was in. You can even take CLEP tests for Free as well as other major tests (retake the ACT, SAT, ASE)

Do as I say, not as I do...

This is advice from someone who didn't take it himself. I went to college, but didn't finish. It never stood in my way because I went into software development and I had already been doing it for years before I went into the workforce full-time.

That said, I think a college education can be invaluable, if you're into it. If you're not, don't go and waste your parents' or your own money. If you go to college, go because you want the education, and I'm not just talking about an education in computers. If that's all you really want, then just get your certifications and go into the workforce.

College isn't much of a preparation for a particular job, so much as a general education, which I think everyone needs. One of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain is, "Never let your schooling interefere with your education." My personal translation that I live by, is "Don't limit your education to your schooling." Education is a lifelong process that shouldn't end until you die.

I was always a horrible student in English, but I discovered in the "real" world, being literate, in speaking and in writing is very important. While it may be wrong, many people, myself included, judge a person's intelligence, to a large degree, by their literacy. If people write poorly, I tend to think less of their intelligence. Is that fair? Maybe not, but you'll find it's quite common.

Education in other subjects is just as important, for a variety of reasons, but in general, to be an interesting and interested member of the human race. There's a lot more to life than your job, and an education, formal or otherwise, adds a lot of dimensions to your life.

But that's just my degree-less opinion.

Do both!

While in University, training to be a Computing Scientist, I took a job with my department as a junior sysadmin. That way, you get experience, you get an education, and you don't have to travel very far to get to work. The added benefit was that I always had a machine to do my work on, even when the labs in the building were full.

I wan't to be a programmer

> I wan't to be a programmer

This sentence makes the decision for you, I'm afraid. Go to college. And pay more attention in high school English class while you're still there.

Don't Go to College for a Trade

I'll start off by admitting that I am infact a college grad. However, I'm not working in my field, physics. I've been a professional programmer ever since I graduated. Here's the rub: I have zero formal education in the field. I built my skills up on the side during college and started getting progressively more responsible jobs afterwards. My physics education has been useful indirectly(analytical skills, math knowledge etc), but has only rarely been directly applied. Do I regret wasting four years on an education that hasn't helped me professionally? Heck no! I loved physics. I'm just not really good enough to make it as a scientist. I went for it and didn't make the cut. No regrets whatsoever for trying. Just a few for not making it.

So what does this mean for your plans? College is not a trade school, and frankly, thats what much of the computer field amounts to, a trade or vocation. I'd say you're better off getting some certs and some junior college creds if you want to be a sys admin. Meanwhile if you go to college, study something you love for its own sake. Looking at what college costs now as opposed to when I went, I'd really have to ask myself whether the skills I would acquire would be worth it. However, the cautionary note here is that a lot employers in the IT field want a bachelors. Some state "or equivalent experience", but most want that BA or BS.

College is NOT needed, but do it, or do military.

College is not needed for most computer/IT/internet careers ... at least not to be able to do them. I've seen too many "idiots with degrees" to ever believe that college makes much of a difference. And this applies whether the career is programming or system administration or network administration.

What college will do for you is:

• Let you "earn" a degree which is useful in the first 2 or 3 years of your career in "getting in the door".
• Let you bank some more non-employed, and maybe even some employed, experience, which can be a plus on your resume.
• Let you sit out the economic doldrums we are in right now where all the money people have basically "screwed the pooch" for everyone else. Hopefully things will be better in 4 years.

I may be hiring by the end of the year in a business I'm still trying to get launched. I can tell you this. I'd much rather hire someone coming out of the military than someone coming out of college. Good people can learn new technology. Bad people are stuck in what they managed to learn some of. Learning takes discipline, and you get far more of that in the military than in college. Not everyone coming out would be worth hiring, but even fewer coming out of college will be ... and fewer still coming out of high school. I'll be looking more for solidity in understanding basic logic and strategy, then in understanding any particular system. I'd rather hire a smart person with an MCSE (which is otherwise worthless) than a dumb person with an RHCE for doing Linux administration.

go to college, a good one

assume that I wan't to be a programmer or an engineer.

Good writing is critical. Go to college, and not a technical two-year college, but a traditional four-year university program. Don't be afraid to go to a college that has a "common core" requirement, or something similar. Reading Plato and Weber will not help you be a better systems administrator, but writing about Plato and Weber and having access to a real professor who can actually give you helpful information about how to improve your writing is an invaluable experience.

When employers talk about "interpersonal skills" or a "people person," they mean exactly two things:

1. You can communicate clearly and efficiently.
2. You're not an arrogant asshole.

If you have a full command of the English language, PHBs eat that up. I've found that there are three things that management can't get enough of:

1. Transaction-based systems. When you write your department's payroll/vacation time database, don't just keep track of the final sums - instead, make each paycheck a transaction; perhaps keep a running sum of the totals for efficiency.
2. Logging for accountability. Have your print server keep track of how many pages were sent to each printer by IP address. Then, when your printing budget runs out halfway through the year, you can say "Over 40% of pages printed came from HR!"
3. Keep them informed. Log every minute change you make, and talk to your boss even if he isn't tech-saavy. Your boss might not know how to use SQL, so figure out interesting statistics that you can glean from your database and put it together in a quarterly report. Your boss might not know perl, so throw together scripts to parse your web server logs and put that into a quarterly report; and, don't be insulted when your boss wants to buy a $40 program that parses your logs and puts together reports, which your boss likes better than analog or the other free log analyzers. This is not a sign that your management doesn't believe you possess the skills necessary to throw together a perl script; this is a sign that your management understands you have better things to do with your time, and $40 is a pittance compared to the time it will save.

Point (3) is where the writing comes in. It is absolutely critical, and a simple spellcheck/grammar check/automated thesaurus will not improve your communication.

In addition to communication skills, you'll need the right attitude to be a successful sysadmin. Basically, the way to achieve this attitude is to remember that you're not the reason the company is there: your role is a facilitator. You don't drive the business - you ensure the business runs smoothly. If your boss asks you to do some routine technical support, don't respond that that sort of thing is "below" you. If the CEO's secretary doesn't understand some setting in her email program, explain it to her, briefly and sans holier-than-thou attitude.

However, if you have ideas on how to improve efficiency, share them immediately. In fact, I would recommend that you occasionally visit other parts of your company to see if they need any help. I've noted this strange phenomenon: some departments may not have a real technical person working for them. They'll have the general technical support staff which is limited to ensuring PCs run smoothly. This department will then continue receiving new tasks to do routinely, and, since they don't have a technical person with them, won't figure out that certain jobs can be automated. I'm talking about things like printing out reports from the unix server to type the data into excel; cutting and pasting data from excel into an editor to reformat it for some database app; scanning through hundreds of text documents by eye, in combination with word's search features because they don't know how to use grep from the command line. Every large company has lots of trivial things like this that can be automated, and you should search for them, because non-technical people won't realize these tasks can be automated.

From personal experience...

Go to college and get a BA with computer-related minor, try to get an internship/part-time work as a Jr. Admin. This will give you work experience while getting your degree. The problem with the quick route is it's a shorter road.

I've dropped out of college to jump into the emerging PC networking industry in the mid/late 80's. I'm now in my mid-30's and without a degree or extensive experience managing people, I'm in a precarious position. I can't get into the management side of things without the degree, and tend to be undercut by young one's like yourself. Why pay me $60-80K when you'll work for $30-40K - and be more willing to work extensive overtime (without pay!) since you don't have a family yet.

Sure, you can take the short cut now, but significantly stunt your path - or invest the time and effort in a wider career potential now while you're better able to put in the time needed.

Some will say my advice is nonsense, that you can either work your way into management - or that management sucks and if you don't have interest in it then don't bother. I'd still say that you'd be limiting your options - whether you want to work your way up that far right now isn't important. When you get 15 years into your career and begin tiring of (1) the pager going off all hours of the day, (2) taking orders from ignorant managers that don't understand the tech as well as you, and/or (3) just want a change, that's when that decision matters.

Up until a few years ago, I was quite please and proud of my accomplishments career-wise. Now, I'm beginning to regret only having an AS and no long term management opportunities. I've reached a level where my salary requirements and age are significant factors alongside the experience on my resume. I can only assume this will continue as I head into my 40's. I'm now struggling with how to finish up that degree I abandoned so long ago.

Once more, sometimes shortcuts are only benificial for the short-term. It's the long-term planning that's most important - unless you like slaving away chained to a pager/laptop while your friends are dating, marrying, parenting, etc.

Go to college!

From a system administrator without a degree (me):

Reasons you should go to college:

1) Getting good at programming will make you a better administrator.

2) The job market isn't great now. You're better off spending your time expanding your skills.

3) Right now, your dream is to be a system administrator. Once you have been a system administrator for a few years, you may find that some other career area looks more interesting. If all you have is your experience, you're stuck. If you have a degree, you can switch around much more easily.

4) Even strictly within the administration field, lots of places require a BS degree just for system administration. Even if you have all the experience, wouldn't it suck to have your resume trashed by some ignorant HR flunky because your resume didn't match everything on their checklist?

5) In hard economic times, if you find yourself looking for a job, people with a degree will be chosen over people without a degree if both are experienced and otherwise qualified.

6) College is fun! Night school is fun, too but not nearly as much fun as it would be if I didn't have to hold down a full-time job at the same time. Whoops, we were talking about you. Oh well, take it from a guy who is five years down the "road less travelled". At this particular fork, you want to take the road more travelled.

Young, free and careless

You're young. You're free. You're careless. WHY DONT YOU GO TO COLLEGE ?

A few point for college :

- Early 20s is the best time to go to school. When you are nearing 30, got debt to pay, kid to feed and a full time job you must keep, going back to school is a major undertaking requiring serious sacrifice. I am speaking from experience here. Why not play it safe and go to college when it is actually EASY to do it ?

- You will actually learn useful thing in school. Unfortunately it is hard to put that into perspective when you dont have much experience.

- It is a common misbelieve that sysadmin don't need programming skill (or anything else taught in CS). That is false. The best sysadmin are at least passable programmer, if only to write an odd script here and there. Also, a little C will go a long way toward understanding those cryptic error you get when you are compiling a new kernel. Plus getting the big picture is important if you want to be polyvalent.

- The chicks. The partys. The network of friend you are building in college.

- Certs are useless. Period. (Ok, maybe if they are backed by serious experience ... but then, you don't need the certs anymore to get hired !)

There is a lot more to say, but these are the most important one to me. Personnally, I wish I had gone to college/university back a decade ago. My life would certainly not be the same (probably better).

go to college

A couple hundred posts from other wise Slashdotters will tell you why to go to college to better your career. It will make you more attractive to employers, yada yada yada.

My advice - go to college. But for these reasons:
1. Beer parties
2. Doing stupid shit with people you barely know
3. Road trips
4. Sororities (no, not being in them)
5. Girls exploring their female assertiveness
6. An excuse for lousy clothes (I'm a student)
7. Student discounts for another 4+ years
8. Awesome buddies that will be different from those you made in high school
9. A happier mom