Tyler1989 said:
Well your sig certainly suggest you have alot of certifications so you should know how vaulable they are. A cert today is probably more usefull than. I have no clue at all what you are saying if you knew that most people now are indepenantly getting their certifications. Less and less people are going to school for degrees in the field of computers. +30 years ago it was degrees all the way but the new trends suggest differentkly.
Everything you said is a contradiction. 30 years ago degrees wernt as important, as you were 1 in a hundred and fortunate to even be able to go to college. But now in todays world if you dont have a 4 year degree you wont survive or you will survive, but you will be working you're ass off the rest of you're life, barly getting by, you choose. There are tons of oppurtunities to get to college now a days, that there wasnt back then. The U.S government gives a lot of money to kids, and the interest rates are so low anyone can afford to go to a 4 year school.
I see you are only what 17? You have a lot to learn, no offense. Certifications are only good with experience, and you can only get that experience with a 4 year college degree. Unless ofcourse you call computer repair a serious job? It's a job yes, but I doubt its what you want to do the rest of you're life getting paid 7-10 dollars an hour. If you get certifications without any experience, people like to call you "paper experience." Meaning you have the certifications but no experience to back it up. These people rarly get hired, infact they are looked down upon as lowering the actual certifications value. I'm ofcourse talking about the upper level certifications, not something like A+, which is a very entry level certification that anyone could obtain at any age.
If you plan on going into IT, be prepared to get a 4 year degree even a masters degree if you want to get a really good job. As in the United states IT jobs are VERY limited, and its very cut-throat enviroment. They only hire the up-most qualified people. If you go for a job with just entry level certifications and a hs diploma, and a hundred other ppl have applied for the job, and 90 of them have 4 year degrees, and other experience, your not going to get the job. You will get a letter that says "Tough luck." (just kidding) But it is a very cut-throat enviroment atleast in the IT world. This is due to all of the outsourcing of IT jobs.
PS: I'm not trying to be mean or prove you wrong. A lot of kids think the same thing, "All I need is certifications to get into IT." This is just a myth, and I run upon hundreds of kids who think this. The reason I do believe they think they just need certifications is 30 years ago, many people just got work experience, without a degree, then got certifications and these are the people that are parenting our children today. A lot of people honestly dont know any better. But once you try to hit the IT job market with just certifications you will find out the hard way.
Some people do indeed get into IT without a 4 year degree, but they spend 10 years getting the beginners experience they need to get into IT. Rather then getting a 4 year degree and being paid triple the amount of a person that will do you're same job. Only difference is he has a piece of paper from a 4 year school. Another big aspect for getting a degree is people who dont have the degree, will not be able to move-up in the company as the guy with a 4 year degree will.
There is no "field of computers." If you're talking about IT, which I believe is Networking, ISP work, Databases, then yes you do need a 4 year degree. If you're talking about PC repair, then I guess you dont need a degree. There are literly 1000's of fields that deal with computers, for instance you will never see a computer scientist, bioinformatian, or computer engineer without ATLEAST a 4 year degree. These are what I consider the "Field of computers." They are the ones that are on the cutting edge of computing.