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Paul Watson wrote: I finished school and got a job straight away.
Same here, apart from a few night-school courses to pass the time.
School didn't teach me much about how to write code and develop software properly, all the important skills I've learnt either on the job or in my own time.
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I'm working real hard to get my bachelors degree done by august 2007. There's one positive side: I got a job already, the company that I contacted offered me a final years project with a job. So if everything goes as planned I won't be unemployed after I finished school.
I wished more people had that luck, because from what I have heard and read it's much worse in other countries. Lets hope it improves in the next few years.
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction?
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Paul Watson wrote: I finished school and got a job straight away. The only problem I have come across for not having a degree is getting work permits abroad.
Right. However, I can see another problem - http://thedailywtf.com is getting more and more popular. Even more popular than CodeProject is.
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What does no-degree and the daily WTF have to do with each other?
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Paul Watson wrote: What does no-degree and the daily WTF have to do with each other?
He is probably suggesting that no degree == more chances to create WTF code. I have to say that I've learnt more since leaving university than I ever did in university. I also learned that some of the things I was taught were just plain wrong.
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I think the computing they teach in varsity is great for one line of computing but horrible for any kind of business computing. They seem to think students are going to go out there and code weather simulators and research data analysers. It is all very scientific which is great if that is what you are going to be programming when you leave varsity. But most don't go into scientific computing.
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Paul Watson wrote: I think the computing they teach in varsity is great for one line of computing but horrible for any kind of business computing. They seem to think students are going to go out there and code weather simulators and research data analysers. It is all very scientific which is great if that is what you are going to be programming when you leave varsity.
Actually, I got very little in the way of scientific computing. My course was more business oriented.
However, some universities (e.g. The University of Edinburgh) do a more scientific course.
There is a joke in Edinburgh about the 3 universities there that if you give a 6 month project to a group of graduates from each of the universities the results will be that at the end of the six:
* The group from the Universrity of Edinburgh will still be discussing the relative merits of using an OO language.
* The group from Napier University will deliver the project a month late but it will look funky
* The group from Heriot Watt university will delivery the project on time and to specification regardless of what that specification was.
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Paul Watson wrote: I think the computing they teach in varsity is great for one line of computing but horrible for any kind of business computing
As Colin already suggested, it really depends on the school. I went to one that has the approach you described, but it is an engineering school so it was expected. Then, there are others with a lot of business/accounting/finances.
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I just want to say that no-degree is much better for thedailywtf.com popularity than for codeproject.com. Do not you think so?
P.S. Don’t worry, nothing personal.
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Errr. I don't know what you are saying Igor.
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Don't you perhaps think that it is more a case of people assuming they can do IT because they think it's easy, rather than people not having a degree?
If someone has no idea what is going on, then they will not know what is going regardless of whether or not they have a degree. Of course these types are far less likely to have a degree. But somehow I have still ended up working with people who have Masters degrees who are completely useless and other people without a degree who are brilliant!
However, I do think that it is necessary to have some form of professional qualification, it just shouldn't HAVE to be a degree.
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It sounds like the first requirement to be brilliant is not to have a degree 
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Of course there are people who have degrees who are brilliant too
But the question is whether or not they are any more brilliant based on the fact that they have a degree??
btw, thanks for the link to thedailywtf, I'd never heard of it and I'm sure it will help provide countless hours of humour 
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Paul Watson wrote: I finished school and got a job straight away. The only problem I have come across for not having a degree is getting work permits abroad.
I have a Bachelor's degree, and deeply regret not pursuing a Master's when I was still young enough to do so 
It all depends on the university I guess. Education (at the proper institution) rocks!
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What would a masters have gained you or is it a personal interest/achievement thing?
(BTW my sister got her masters. She has spent the past 8 years studying.
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Paul Watson wrote: What would a masters have gained you or is it a personal interest/achievement thing?
I lack theoretical depth in certain aspects of programming, and a Masters would have helped me by giving me direction and a reason to study those areas better. I could buy a few books and read up on my own, but since there's no clear direction, it's hard to push myself to do that.
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Paul Watson wrote: BTW my sister got her masters. She has spent the past 8 years studying.
Woah! I meant a regular 2-years Graduate degree (Post-Grad for Indians). What was she doing those 8 years? Is it some sort of path towards a PhD?
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A degree is 4 years, honours another year and masters about 18 months. The other time she was studying theology. Her masters is in botany.
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Paul Watson wrote: A degree is 4 years, honours another year and masters about 18 months. The other time she was studying theology. Her masters is in botany.
That is some academically oriented sister you got, Paul! She averages out your high school level, and keeps the family median at a graduate level 
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