#college #education #certifications
Ah the college days, the generic causeway we all get ushered into the day we accept our high school diploma, off to higher education and get a leg up in life. If college isn't exactly your cup of tea, of course there is the option of trade schools that will assist in obtaining highly coveted certifications, and once again garnish your resume with brilliance and impeccable knowledge. Without a doubt you've riddled your brain, and a couple sheets of paper with qualifications that make you the most worthwhile future prospect in all of any companies history, let them know who is boss.
Well... we need to pump those brakes a little bit first before we actually fit any of what was said above. Yes there is education, yes there is lavender scented resume fluff, but does it really make that much of a difference? Or is it just kind of a crutch to hold up for lack of experience?
Both are entirely true, but let's look at them somewhat piece by piece.
How it helps.
Many places of employment filter out resumes based on certain criteria, do you have a college degree? Check. Do you have certain certifications required? Check. Do you have experience? No, but you have two out of three. Two out of three looks good to the big wigs in Human Resources. Human Resources LOVES resume fodder and is more than willing to call anyone up who has fancy paper on their resume. Knowledge be damned you can land a gig pretty easily.How is it a crutch?
A couple pretty important parts of experience are sacrificed by being only book smart and one crucial character flaw is adopted to fill the void. With the key benefit of experience being real world scenario's and education giving pseudo real world scenario's, the flaw becomes apparent. IT related catastrophes and problems NEVER go by the book, leaving a book smart person in the dust pretty quickly over an experienced individual.
How does it hurt?
But that doesn't highlight the character flaw, its not universally true but with a huge quantity of cases being accurate, is arrogance. Landing the job was the easy part, keeping it is the challenge. With lack of knowledge or understanding for real world scenario's and knowing that no two networks are alike, those with college degree's are at a loss up front. Although from my experience, most with college degree's don't seem to see it that way, they generally THINK they know best over someone who has years of hands on experience. This (for me) usually leads to some pointless spat over who is right and who is wrong, when the experienced individual has on multiple occasions fixed this issue, the college grad wants to talk down and say he's wrong? The college degree does not grant omnipotent super smarts.
What is the point of the paper?
It gives a baseline understanding of the fundamentals, some more intricate information is slowly introduced in, but it is not a full substitute for real world knowledge by any stretch of the imagination. It is fodder for the HR department to even consider giving you a look over, and the realization that the learning hasn't ended, and in certain fields it'll never end, as things are always changing and improving.
Final words
Learning to be humble in IT is important, learning is important, a college degree or certification does not make you better than someone with experience, and the converse is true as well. A college degree and flashy paper gives you the root basics to the career, but only with experience will you fully grow into something greater. Experience is the goal.
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