[Sussex] An odd question....

[Steve Dobson]

Adam

On 06 January 2003 at 09:49 Adam Smith wrote:

> Hi.  You guys seem like the right sort of people to ask about this, and
> I know I'm not going to get my head bitten off for asking here, so I
> have a little query for you.

I don't think we've ever bitten any newbie's (to the list) head off on this 
list.

> I'm currently at Park College, Eastbourne doing AS levels, planning to go
> onto university, as this is the normal path to take to get a good career.
> However, I'm hearing a lot of stories about graduates having serious
> problems finding work, even after spending ~6 years of their life and
> thousands of pounds getting a degree.

That is the route I took, and I'm now doing very well thank you.  I still
believe that this is the best way to go.

> From what I've read/heard, IT is the kind of industry where experience
> is highly sought after over other "paper" qualifications.  I know this
> is not strictly true, however I'm wondering how possible it would be
> for someone like me with extensive knowledge but basically a school
> leaver, to get a foot in the door?  

Experience is the driving factor.  But it is also useful to have a Degree.
Whenever you start "real" work getting your foot in the door is always a
problem.  I did a course with a year out in industry, and you should think
about that sort of course.

> I wouldn't be bothered in the slightest by lowish wages (hopefully better
> than my peers who left school to go into full time work), or doing donkey
> work to begin with.  I do have experience, as I have been working since
> the age of 13 as a "freelance computer consultant", advertising in the
> Friday-ad, which basically involves mainly simple work such as replacing
> dead hard drives, ugprades, troubleshooting Windows problems, networking
> etc.  I've never touched on web design, but I managed to come up with
> www.modders.net in the space of a few hours by extensively editing a
> template (without any prior knowledge of html) and also (semi)
> incorporated a PHP/MySQL backend with no prior knowledge of that either,
> just be using pieces of sample code and things I picked up through skim-
> reading tutorials.  I'm an extremely fast learner, and I'm pretty certain
> I could have a working knowledge of html, php and mysql with minimum
hassle.

This experience will hold you in good steed, it shows that you have worked
with people and that is important to an employer, but times are hard at 
the moment, so keep plugging away and get that degree - thinks should be
much better by then.

> Can anyone offer some insight as to whether it's possible?  This isn't
> purely hypothetical as I'm not really enjoying college, not because of
> the teachers, pupils or lessons, but because I want to get my teeth
> into something slightly more practical.  Sorry if I've gone on a bit
> here, it's just something I've been thinking about for a while now.

You've had my 2p worth above, my final comment is that the computer 
industry has always had more work than people to do it.  When times are
hard (like now) some projects never get started, when times are good 
more training is done.

Hope this has helped.

Steve