Ask Slashdot: Best Degree For a Late Career Boost? 234
Qbertino writes "I'm in my early 40s, and after a little more than 10 years of web, scripting and software development as a freelancer and some gigs as a regular, full-time employee, I'm seriously considering giving my IT career a boost by getting a degree. I'm your regular 1980s computer kid and made a career switch to IT during the dot-bomb days. I have quite a bit of programming and project experience, but no degree. I find myself hitting somewhat of a glass ceiling (with maybe a little age discrimination thrown in there). Since I'm in Germany, degrees count for a lot (70% of IT staff have a degree) so getting one seems fitting and a nice addition to my portfolio. However, I'm pondering wether I should go for Computer Science or Business Informatics. I'd like to move into Project Management or Technical Account Management, which causes my dilemma: CS gives me the pro credibility and proves my knowledge with low-level and technical stuff, and I'd be honing my C/C++ and *nix skills. Business Informatics would teach me some bean-counting skills; I'd be doing modelling, ERP with Java or .NET all day. It would give me some BA cred, but I'd lose karma with the T-shirt wearing crew and the decision-makers in that camp. I'm leaning toward Business Informatics because I suspect that's where the money is, but I'm not quite sure wether a classic CS degree wouldn't still be better — even if I'm wearing a suit. Any suggestions?"
Re:MBA might be a good choice. (Score:5, Informative)
Yes an MBA might be a good choice depending on the person. As an IT manager myself, I work(ed) with and supervise a variety of individuals who are very well suited for IT but are not at all suited for management.
Just because you earn an MBA doesn't mean that you will suddenly have the personality or qualities required for IT management.
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On a related note: I chose to go with an MPA instead of an MBA. Why? Well, I'm personally interested in the public sector but both types of degrees provide a fairly similar background--just with one providing more for the public sector's unique needs.
I still get the HR, finance, etc, etc, etc, but I have the ability to leverage both sides of the fence more easily. If the government changes its focus to move away from "smaller" to "larger" I may have an advantage that MBA degree holders do not.
Well, hope this helps. . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Informatics is more likely to be useful (Score:5, Informative)
The submitter's not in America, he's in Germany, so ranting about US attitudes is off-topic. I don't know much about the German market, but having a BA is pretty commonly useful in business, and if you're thinking about doing project management professionally, here in the US it helps to have some professional certification in that. Also, I don't know how much college you have taken already; whether you're looking for two years or four can make a big difference in your plans.
If you haven't had a good course in algorithms and data structures, you'll benefit from that, and you're going to need math if you don't have that, but you can take those along with the Business Informatics, and if you're thinking about going into management, you're not going to be doing compiler design or operating system development yourself anyway.
Career Boost in 40's (Score:5, Informative)
I'm in my 40's and just completed a Masters degree in IT Management from Brandeis University, I already had a Bachelors in both Business and Computer Science. The degree spanned two employers, both of which offered employee education reimbursement.
I guess you could say that I am now three degrees above zero... ; - )
A Masters degree is 10 courses and can be completed in 3 to 5 years when going part-time. For most Master's programs, if not all, you first need a Bachelors degree. Some educational institutions will recognize work experience as an equivalent.
It sounds like you have not completed a Bachelors degree. A Bachelors degree takes 120 credit hours or 30 per year over 4 years. It's a lot of work and time which is why most students go full time. Basically, you wouldn't be completed in time for it to help your career.
The first step to get a Masters degree, assuming you are working full time and are not a contractor, is to determine if your employer has an education reimbursement program, what their limits are per year, and what you need to do to apply. If they do, you next need to research the type of Masters degree you want and the schools. Narrow down the schools to your top 5 and begin calling their Admissions department to determine if you can use your work experience and what, if any, additional courses you will need to take. While doing this, talk to your manager and let him/her know that you are interested in advancing your career by taking a Masters degree. Go into how it will prepare you to take on a greater leadership role, in project management and as team lead. Once you have all of the information about the school, put it together in a package with your employer education application and begin the employer approval process. Once approved at work, you then need to apply to the school and get accepted. The rest is just a lot of hard work...
David
Re:Law... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MBA might be a good choice. (Score:5, Informative)
You will need an undergraduate degree before an MBA
You often don't need an undergraduate degree to do a post-graduate degree like an MBA - I didn't - if you can demonstrate long term, relevant experience. It would depend on the institution where you were doing the MBA, many offer this option.
The "work experience" option exists for a degree like an MBA, because the OP would have worked in a business environment for most of his career. There is an understanding that an undergraduate degree prepares you to a specific level and often work experience can teach the same level of preparedness to complete a post-graduate degree (note, that's your ability to study, not your preparedness to work in a specific job).
There are technology/management post-graduate degrees also, which is what I did, and I do not have an undergraduate degree, and that's never been an issue for me. For the most part it's been having a degree of some kind that gets the "tick" when applying for jobs, again at least in my experience.
You would often need to complete the initial graduate certificate (in my case, that was 4 subjects) with a specific grade point average to be able to continue on to the full degree.
And that was going to be my suggestion to the OP - not to do a full degree initially, look at post-graduate options that he may have access to as a mature-age student. Advantages include, there is an early exit point (graduate certificate, graduate diploma) and they are faster to complete, as there are less (but harder) subjects. In my case my degree was 12 subjects, the undergrad would have been 24... I finished it in 2 years, while working full time.
consider enhancing your portfolio with a PMP certification.
I completely agree - PMP or maybe CAPM if he doesn't have the PM experience to do the PMP straight away - and/or Prince2 (just do the foundations cert if you're short on cash). These are "quick wins" also, doing them is an instant line to add to your resume.
Re:MBA might be a good choice. (Score:5, Informative)
Nice of you to recognize that you (and nearly everybody else) is blowing hot steam.
There is no college in Germany. Until very recently, we didn't even have Bachelor degrees at all. There are full universities and "universities of applied science". (Fachhochschulen). The latter are, in theory, not staffed and equipped for research and cater to a lower qualified student tier, but these days everyone and his dog are offering masters programs under the new Bologna rules, and depending on their motivation and other factors they may or may not do research.
I do assume the OP has the necessary requirements for university attendance (Abitur for universities, "Fachhochschulreife" plus relevant experience for universities of applied science).
The MBA market in Germany has become especially intransparent. Here Bologna has really ruined the educational system. Crappy provincial Fachhochschulen compete with first rate universities offering the same title. Moreover, the MBA is NOT part of the "consecutive" system (where a Master require a Bachelor) but are basically given to everyone who completed the course, whatever its requirements were. There are MBAs that can be had after 2 years of distance learning.
If you want a regular masters degree in Business Administration, otoh, you'll get a M.A. in Business administration. Bologna at its finest.
Re:Any suggestions? (Score:2, Informative)
What are you talking about? Libertarians have never been a significant political force and are relatively small in number. Socialists and fascists and truck loads of innocent people are the ones that end up dead after revolutions (depending on the situation).
Libertarian (in concept) is a human rights platform where all consequences derive from a "no use of force" antecedent. Your personal political philosophy (assumption here) is a grab bag of biases and opinion plus the belief that you can do whatever you want to other people as long as you get majority consensus (that is of course assuming that you even believe in democracy).
Just so you know also, libertarian != anarchist (most people don't seem to understand the difference).