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Re: Certification (and the old college student blues)
Subject:Re: Certification (and the old college student blues) From:JIMCHEVAL -at- AOL -dot- COM Date:Wed, 18 Jun 1997 02:25:47 -0400
In a message dated 97-06-17 19:19:18 EDT, alexiap -at- SEAGATESOFTWARE -dot- COM (Alexia
Prendergast) writes:
<< Response to Shawn, busting his behind, getting a degree in TW: >>
And my own:
Two hard facts of the 'real' world:
- Most interesting professions require more experience (and native
intelligence) than they do whatever degree supposedly qualifies you for them.
- You need a degree in SOMETHING to get a certain level of respect (it's just
tjhat there's a good chance you'll end up working in something unrelated to
whatever that degree is in.)
When I worked in radio, I knew more people who DIDN'T have degrees in
Communications than people who did (and the latter were often interns, hoping
to get that big break.) (Or secretaries.) On the other hand, my literature
degree, which I'd considered useless for anything but teaching (which I never
wanted to do), probably helped me do that job, if not actually get it.
When I was a coin dealer, almost everybody I knew (except me) started either
as a collector or a salesperson. Most of them (except me) were making
obscene amounts of money. Whoever had college degrees certainly didn't have
them in numismatics.
When I worked as a programmer, I rarely met someone in the profession with a
technical degree, much less a degree in computers. But just about everybody
had a degree in *something* (Music, Philosophy, Ancient Cultures, Literature,
Art or whatever.) And two people who did have scientific/technical degrees
(one a physicist, one an engineer) were hopeless.
So yes, you need a degree, but unless you want to do something very
specialized and highly codified (astrophysics, surgery, or the like), I
wouldn't worry too much what it's in. My own unscientific guess is that, if
you can write well and have some basic understanding of technology, you could
get an entry level position as a writer with or without the TW degree. That
hardly means the degree is useless. WITH it, I'd think you'd be guaranteed
that first position.
Personally, I'd suggest doing contract work to start. Partially because
you'll make better money, partially because you'll get a variety of
experience. Plus, you'll begin your career by learning to be independant,
rather than having to learn that precious skill later in life.
Jim C.
Los Angeles
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Visit Chez Jim: Jim Chevallier's Home Page - http://www.gis.net/~jimcheval
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