[Gllug] VACANCY: Junior Systems Support

[damion.yates at gmail.com]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009, - Tethys wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Hari Sekhon<hpsekhon at googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > I'm surprised we're talking about degrees any more these days,
> > especially in a practical job like IT, I thought everyone already
> > figured out that degrees were a waste of time and money?

I don't think I'm that old (34) and my degree was essentially free.  You
needed high A-level grades, and only ~10% of people bothered/were
capable of getting in.

The reason I favoured graduates when hiring, was because back in the day
it generally meant you were smarter.  I suspect from this thread that
this is no longer true.

> At a guess, you don't have a degree. They're far from a waste of time
> and money. Certainly at the time I did mine, a degree in computer
> science equipped you to deal with the world of IT far better than
> learning on the job, and consequently, I'd always hire someone with a
> relevant degree in preference to an equivalently skilled applicant
> without one. Although that said, having seen the ineptitude of some
> recent candidates with first class honours in computer science, I have
> to wonder what on earth they're teaching them these days...

I'm not sure I agree entirely here.  Moving out of home at just 18,
fending for myself for 3 years, hacking away all night in the 24hr
computer labs, learning the ways of Unix systems.  This was extremely
useful.  About 1/4 of my course, AI, logic, pure computer science
theory, was great fun and really just and extension of a pure maths
degree I feel.  My degree was definitely easier than Further Maths
A-level for example, and if I were to do it over knowing what I know,
I'd have done physics or maths.

A polytechnic would probably have been much higher quality and more
vocationally focused, however I was too snobby as they only asked for D
grade A-levels.

Damion
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