Re: FLASH: Salaries - MBA thoughts?

[Neal Cabage]

To all those people considering going to grad school for this stuff -

DON'T!!!


Some of the people I know who (a) get paid the most $$$, and (b) know the

most / are the most talented ... never even finished undergrad!!!.  If that

doesn't tell you just how much your grad degree is valued, I don't know what

will.


An MBA is perhaps another story ... but for production/programming skills

... I believe this is absolutely accurate.


My advice: Take a class when you're jumping into something brand new (only

when you don't yet know which questions to ask...and thus which books to

read)...but only one on the topic.  Surround yourself with a community

online, at work, or from that class.  From there, you'll learn just as much

from reading the damned book ... and if you begin to become even slightly

skilled along the way and choose to take another class ... you'll probably

come to realize what I did ... that 1/2 the time you'll know more than the

people your shelling out major bucks to teach you! This is going to be more

true in some areas of production than others and in some schools more than

others ... but especially in something like Flash I bet this is true!


If there's one thing grad school taught me ... it's that I can teach myself

by sitting down with a cup of Java and the local Barnes and Noble....


If you're looking to spend some money proving yourself ... certifications

such as MCSD or the Java certification (presuming you're a programmer) will

probably pay off more ... though any good developer will still argue their

validity.


More than anything - Just do it!  Your portfolio (presuming you don't suck)

will be far more valuable that any piece of paper.


Neal



----- Original Message -----

From: Sonja *** <

dear_sonjahotmail [dot] com

>

To: <

flasherchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2000 8:02 AM

Subject: Re: FLASH: Salaries - MBA thoughts?



>

>

>

> >I think work experience is a better educator than the classroom.

> >8 hours a day grinding out code teaches you what you need to learn.

> >It also helps when some of your co-workers teach programming

> >on the side. Web technology moves too fast to be taught in the

> >classroom. How many XML, DHTML, ASP classes are available

> >anyway? Probably none.

> >

> >jb - everyday student

>

>

> I agree with you that experience is a better educator, but I have just

> completed an ASP class in the same graduate program that I mentioned prior

> and that sad thing is that many of the students are permitted into the

class

> without any prereq's.  Also, there are a number of tech schools where I am

> located that offer scripting courses every other month.  Many of the

> students are duped into believing that once the course is over they know

> ASP, XML..etc, but it's not so.  I'm not saying that it's fair, but I have

> heard of many cases recently where the paper won out over the degree

because

> the employer figured that anyone disciplined enough to complete a degree

> would be just as disciplined in the work place (that ain't always the case

> either).

>

> Sonja, the almost bald student who got little sleep due to having

> querystrings on the brain

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