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bluerules009

This is going to kill online universities and liberal arts colleges

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12 hours ago, retrofade said:

All exams are proctored, and WGU has a vast resource library. Face it, you're an out of touch boomer.

And to add, WGU unlike other Online Universities, is non-profit and is Regionally Accredited by Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) like Boise State, UNR, UNLV, and rest of the northwest schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation

 

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12 hours ago, bluerules009 said:

Proctored exams are a joke.   As is a resource library for the totality of your resources.   You have a degree in "information technology and you have never been in a clean room.  You have never seen a mainframe computer, the inside of a phone or a tablet, let alone have any clue how they are constructed.  You have never done anything that couldn't be done over a bad internet connection.   You have a hobby not a degree.

WGU IT programs requires you to be in the field already. You need have a couple of years experience or have an industry certification like Cisco or Comptia. The school is designed for people in the industry but hit a roadblock because they don't have a four year degree. A lot of the classes to pass requires you get the Certification and Cisco Certs are no joke.

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12 hours ago, Jackrabbit said:

If you cant tell the difference in value  between an engineering de gr ee and  political science degree you just like to argue...

I am sure you want your kids to go out and get a valuable german degree.  ..at least they will be able to write good. 

My dad got a German degree. He certainly did better for himself than I expect to for myself.

Jack, you are a dipshit.

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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7 hours ago, TGIFaanes said:

WGU IT programs requires you to be in the field already. You need have a couple of years experience or have an industry certification like Cisco or Comptia. The school is designed for people in the industry but hit a roadblock because they don't have a four year degree. A lot of the classes to pass requires you get the Certification and Cisco Certs are no joke.

The certifications seem far more valuable to an employer than the degree.

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21 hours ago, bluerules009 said:

The certifications seem far more valuable to an employer than the degree.

They go hand in hand. There comes a point in most IT careers where you can't truly advance unless you have the combination of experience, certifications, and a degree. I was lucky to have made it to a senior level position without one, but not having one blocked most of my career prospects from this point because corporations still put a significant value on degrees. 

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On 3/16/2019 at 1:21 PM, bluerules009 said:

The certifications seem far more valuable to an employer than the degree.

Yes and no, it really depends on where and what field in Information Technology. Every company is different.

Information Technology is really broad field that can be broken into 2 categories. Development and Operations. Majority of IT is in operations side.

On the Operations side, from my experience, is the degree is only important on the initial screening and the HR interviews. It's just to check a box. When you get to the Technical Interviews they really don't  care about the degree and only care about the experience and if you can actually do the job.

A lot of people I've worked with don't have any degrees. For the entry level you just need show you can do the job or if your never in the right place or time, like me, then an associates degree is recommended. Most of these guys though are stuck at where they are now and if they leave the company they will have harder time getting hired at the level they are currently at because some HR departments require these degrees or certs.

Like @retrofade said above is that to advance especially to the senior level or management a lot of companies HR require a combination of degree, certifications, and experience. I've seen people who were with the company for over 10+ years got passed up because they didn't have degree and it went to someone outside the company with a MBA in IT with no technical experience.

Most of the degrees from 4 year brick and mortar universities usually focus on the theory aspect. Which is great for the development side of IT like the software engineers. But the issue with them is it really hard to teach troubleshooting in school which 95% if the job with operations. Big reason why I liked WGU is their degree focus on the operations side with Certifications in Cisco and others.

Certifications is great but you need to have the right ones. There is a lot of Certifications that is only internally company specific and useless else where. Also there is a lot of people who cheat and study brain / test dumps to pass their certification test. But most of these people get exposed in the technical interview.

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1 hour ago, TGIFaanes said:

Yes and no, it really depends on where and what field in Information Technology. Every company is different.

Information Technology is really broad field that can be broken into 2 categories. Development and Operations. Majority of IT is in operations side.

On the Operations side, from my experience, is the degree is only important on the initial screening and the HR interviews. It's just to check a box. When you get to the Technical Interviews they really don't  care about the degree and only care about the experience and if you can actually do the job.

A lot of people I've worked with don't have any degrees. For the entry level you just need show you can do the job or if your never in the right place or time, like me, then an associates degree is recommended. Most of these guys though are stuck at where they are now and if they leave the company they will have harder time getting hired at the level they are currently at because some HR departments require these degrees or certs.

Like @retrofade said above is that to advance especially to the senior level or management a lot of companies HR require a combination of degree, certifications, and experience. I've seen people who were with the company for over 10+ years got passed up because they didn't have degree and it went to someone outside the company with a MBA in IT with no technical experience.

Most of the degrees from 4 year brick and mortar universities usually focus on the theory aspect. Which is great for the development side of IT like the software engineers. But the issue with them is it really hard to teach troubleshooting in school which 95% if the job with operations. Big reason why I liked WGU is their degree focus on the operations side with Certifications in Cisco and others.

Certifications is great but you need to have the right ones. There is a lot of Certifications that is only internally company specific and useless else where. Also there is a lot of people who cheat and study brain / test dumps to pass their certification test. But most of these people get exposed in the technical interview.

This is a pretty decent synopsis.  I currently hold a VP level position on the design side of the house,  every IT person strives to be out of OPS but never escapes.  I am currently what would be classified as tier 4 in most organizations.  I do know when I look to hire people I dont put much emphasis on a degree since all theory is useless in a true IT support role.  There is no theory that can explain why a firewall starts randomly chucking packets after being in service for two years.  

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On 3/16/2019 at 8:08 AM, happycamper said:

My dad got a German degree. He certainly did better for himself than I expect to for myself.

Jack, you are a dipshit.

Good for him, ,there is always an exception.   Friend of mine has one in Russian....he works in a bookstore... wait, it closed.

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On 3/16/2019 at 6:46 AM, TGIFaanes said:

And to add, WGU unlike other Online Universities, is non-profit and is Regionally Accredited by Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) like Boise State, UNR, UNLV, and rest of the northwest schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation

 

I really like that school.  They are cheap and accredited.  If I am going to stay here in Costa Rica I need to figure out a good higher ed option for my kids at an online school that isn't a diploma mill.  

I am also kind of surprised that countries like Costa Rica haven't tried to get some of the higher education dollars to flow down here.  Texas Tech has some kind of campus down here but I think it would be a pretty easy sell to get some students and faculty down here.  Colorado State University now has a cost of attendance of over $40k per year.  You don't think Costa Rica can setup a nice campus for half that?  This model of kids going off to some country club to do a working vacation for 4-6 years seems like maybe its time has passed.

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On 3/18/2019 at 1:35 PM, Akkula said:

I really like that school.  They are cheap and accredited.  If I am going to stay here in Costa Rica I need to figure out a good higher ed option for my kids at an online school that isn't a diploma mill.  

I am also kind of surprised that countries like Costa Rica haven't tried to get some of the higher education dollars to flow down here.  Texas Tech has some kind of campus down here but I think it would be a pretty easy sell to get some students and faculty down here.  Colorado State University now has a cost of attendance of over $40k per year.  You don't think Costa Rica can setup a nice campus for half that?  This model of kids going off to some country club to do a working vacation for 4-6 years seems like maybe its time has passed.

I like Costa Rica but there is no way I would raise teenagers in that environment especially San Jose.

Way too dangerous.   The crime rate is probably 100 times greater than the worst places in the United States and most of it is unreported.   There are big areas of San Jose that are seriously dangerous to the point where I wouldn't go there alone.  The cops won't go there.  We had to negotiate with gangs to just be able to go down to certain parts of town to give out free vaccinations and then still have guards with automatic weapons.   There is no place in the United States that is even close to that dangerous.   A black man in the center of a KKK rally would be safer than a white teenager in most of San Jose.

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12 hours ago, bluerules009 said:

I like Costa Rica but there is no way I would raise teenagers in that environment especially San Jose.

Way too dangerous.   The crime rate is probably 100 times greater than the worst places in the United States and most of it is unreported.   There are big areas of San Jose that are seriously dangerous to the point where I wouldn't go there alone.  The cops won't go there.  We had to negotiate with gangs to just be able to go down to certain parts of town to give out free vaccinations and then still have guards with automatic weapons.   There is no place in the United States that is even close to that dangerous.   A black man in the center of a KKK rally would be safer than a white teenager in most of San Jose.

For me living in a sprawling USA suburb or rural location and waking up every day for 50 years to go to a cubicle and living to mow my lawn every weekend sounds like hell.  Having the only source of danger being a random mass shooting doesn't sound like fun to me.

I live in Guanacaste so our biggest danger is probably lack of medical care that is available more readily in the city.  Hitting a cow in my car, get attacked by a croc, drowning while surfing are probably my biggest sources of potential peril.  Crimes happen but it is pretty similar to a small town in a tourist area, I would say.   People sell drugs and someone robbed a pharmacy this week but this is basically what you would see on the evening news.  Driving here, especially at night, can be dangerous because they don't have very good sidewalks and pedestrians have to basically walk a tight rope on the white line.  

That being said, I don't imagine my kids will just have a car the minute they turn 16 as some kind of right of passage like it is in the USA.  Most adults here don't have a car and they take the bus or a motorcycle.  I don't think having them able to galivant all over the countryside all night long is probably a smart idea nor would it be something that would be common for other parents to do here.

However, having a bit of "danger" is what makes life worth living.  A bubble wrapped USA existence is not what I am seeking.  I guess I am a bit of an adventurer like the people who settled the west who wanted to get out of the "safety" of their prior homes.

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4 hours ago, Akkula said:

 

However, having a bit of "danger" is what makes life worth living.  A bubble wrapped USA existence is not what I am seeking.  I guess I am a bit of an adventurer like the people who settled the west who wanted to get out of the "safety" of their prior homes.

Amen...I ride my bike w/o a helmet and drink water out of the garden hose all the time.

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5 hours ago, Akkula said:

For me living in a sprawling USA suburb or rural location and waking up every day for 50 years to go to a cubicle and living to mow my lawn every weekend sounds like hell.  Having the only source of danger being a random mass shooting doesn't sound like fun to me.

I live in Guanacaste so our biggest danger is probably lack of medical care that is available more readily in the city.  Hitting a cow in my car, get attacked by a croc, drowning while surfing are probably my biggest sources of potential peril.  Crimes happen but it is pretty similar to a small town in a tourist area, I would say.   People sell drugs and someone robbed a pharmacy this week but this is basically what you would see on the evening news.  Driving here, especially at night, can be dangerous because they don't have very good sidewalks and pedestrians have to basically walk a tight rope on the white line.  

That being said, I don't imagine my kids will just have a car the minute they turn 16 as some kind of right of passage like it is in the USA.  Most adults here don't have a car and they take the bus or a motorcycle.  I don't think having them able to galivant all over the countryside all night long is probably a smart idea nor would it be something that would be common for other parents to do here.

However, having a bit of "danger" is what makes life worth living.  A bubble wrapped USA existence is not what I am seeking.  I guess I am a bit of an adventurer like the people who settled the west who wanted to get out of the "safety" of their prior homes.

People settled the west to become wealthy.  To be independent.

There is no reason you have to work in a cubicle just because you live in the United States.

The biggest source of danger in the U.S. isn't a random mass shooting, getting hit by lightening is a bigger danger.   More people die from African sleeping sickness in the U,S. than die from mass shootings and you have to go to Africa to get it.

Costa Rica is a second world country with little opportunity in comparison to the U.S. and reduced law enforcement that goes along with that.  There is a reason people walk from central america to illegally cross our borders for opportunity.   You are shackling your kids future if you force them to grow up there.

I considered moving to Costa Rica, I love the place.  But reality and stuff.

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1 hour ago, bluerules009 said:

People settled the west to become wealthy.  To be independent.

There is no reason you have to work in a cubicle just because you live in the United States.

The biggest source of danger in the U.S. isn't a random mass shooting, getting hit by lightening is a bigger danger.   More people die from African sleeping sickness in the U,S. than die from mass shootings and you have to go to Africa to get it.

Costa Rica is a second world country with little opportunity in comparison to the U.S. and reduced law enforcement that goes along with that.  There is a reason people walk from central america to illegally cross our borders for opportunity.   You are shackling your kids future if you force them to grow up there.

I considered moving to Costa Rica, I love the place.  But reality and stuff.

I have an online job and I am making more than I did in Colorado.  Why would I ever want to shackle myself to a $500k mortgage when my house here will be between $125-$150k to build?  There are only so many people that you are going to cram into these coastal urban centers and only so high salaries will rise.  The USA needs to figure out a way to spread work around the country more by encouraging online so people can fill out some of these midwestern cities with tons of available affordable housing.  San Francisco can only hold so many people and prices can only rise so much.  My kids have a passport so they can surely go to college in the USA and I suspect their time here looks good on a college app!

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3 minutes ago, Akkula said:

I have an online job and I am making more than I did in Colorado.  Why would I ever want to shackle myself to a $500k mortgage when my house here will be between $125-$150k to build?  There are only so many people that you are going to cram into these coastal urban centers and only so high salaries will rise.  The USA needs to figure out a way to spread work around the country more by encouraging online so people can fill out some of these midwestern cities with tons of available affordable housing.  San Francisco can only hold so many people and prices can only rise so much.  My kids have a passport so they can surely go to college in the USA and I suspect their time here looks good on a college app!

I live on a 110 acre farm with a 5 bedroom 4500 square foot house built in 2004.   It cost me $250,000 for the whole thing.    I have Turkey, quail, pheasants and deer hunting available from my second story balcony if I desired.    You don't have to live in a shithole city to live in the U.S.

You can work online anywhere.

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