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When Tech Schools Go Bad?
profet asks: "I am currently in the middle of my senior year at Polytechnic University. When I began my journey here I was told by all that it was a good school. Since attending I have gone through much discomfort. The University decided to close down the campus that I attended. Then they decided to change course requirements so that they no longer offered courses that were required for graduation. After talking to others in college it seems that being 'shafted' is common at tech schools. I was wondering how others have faired at their schools." For those who found themselves in this situation, what did you do to resolve your issues?
The downturn in the world economy can only have a negative effect on the numbers of American students going to university - when times are bad, people who don't have the benefit of a college fund built up by their parents since birth are less likely to find putting themselves into heavy debt for the foreseable future an attractive proposition for a qualification that won't necessarily get them a well-paid job. And, when there are thousands of people out there who already have those qualifications and years of real-world experience competing for almost every opening, the odds of a new graduate finding his/her dream job - or even a relevant job in their field - can become an impossible task.
(Conversely, in Europe, Australia and elsewhere, where the cost of education to the individual is either paid for or subsidised by the state, a poor job market can be a greater incentive to go to university.)
Fewer students means more choice for students, as colleges are forced to fight harder to get the numbers they need to fill their programmes. Inevitably, this means that the most prestigous universities, such as the Ivy league, MIT, Caltech, will continue to prosper, whilst those lower down the ladder suffer. At the bottom end, it becomes a dog eat dog scenario, and universities that fail to meet their projected student numbers can find themselves vulnerable.
(Of course, the fact that research funding will follow a similar pattern during tough times doesn't help either.)
My guess is your college is one of the vulnerable ones. It's cutting cost where it can (closing down an entire campus surely suggests a fall in student numbers) and making its courses more attractive to students (dropping the need for everyone to take required courses in order to graduate).
Of course, as you're almost finished there, there's little you can do except to bite the bullet and finish your degree. But, if you're going to supplement your education with a masters or a doctorate then you might be better off looking to read those elsewhere - if the college's student numbers and graduate quality falls in the coming years studying elsewhere higher up the food chain should help you from being pigeon-holed as someone who only has "a worthless degree from a third-rate college".
Sure, it's a harsh assessment but, believe me, it's a harsh world out there. Compared to the real world, college is paradise.
Good luck for the future.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
He forgot to mention that the guy to girl ratio is like 1000:1
Hey buddy. I feel your pain. I REALLY do! However, let me provide a little bit of perspective for you. I graduated college way back in 1993. If you don't remember 1993 very well, that was the year we were coming out of the Bush Senior recession of the early nineties. The situation wasn't that much different then than it is now.
Like you, I was graduating with a tech degree which I thought would be my ticket to riches and glory. Unfortunately, not a lot of companies were hiring entry level people, and the ones that were offered salaries that were in the $20K-$30K range. Hardly what you'd call a booming job market.
Here's the thing though. I love CS and I love technology. Even though I had a fallback (I took a couple of the actuarial certification exams in college), I knew that I would enjoy working in the software field more than any other (legal) occupation. I kept pounding the pavement and through a combination of hard work and luck, I was able to land a job doing software development for $30K. Sure it sounds low by dot-com standards, but the dot-com salaries are the exception, not the rule.
Fast forward to the late when everybody and their mother was looking for software developers.... I was in a great position to take advantage of the boom. I had several years experience, a proven track record, and a passion for what I was doing.
In summary, all I can say is this: if the reason you went into CS was to get a six-figure salary as a "web developer" without any effort, then you shouldn't have majored in CS in the first place. If you do enjoy CS, then do some work and look for a job, take that "low" $30K job like the rest of us had to, and when the next boom hits (and there WILL be another boom), you'll be sitting pretty.
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www.moneybythenumbers.com
... was to branch out and add some meat to my degree by taking other classes. In my particular case, I graduated with a dual major in Pure Mathematics and CS, with a minor in English Lit. I took more coursework than I would have otherwise, but I think my degree is more impressive to potential employers than it would be otherwise. I'm a programmer, but the English minor demonstrates that I have some skill with words as well, which is valuable. Of course, in our innumerate society, the math degree convinces a large number of people that I must be some kinda genius math whiz. Silly, but their lack of understanding works to my benefit.
For me, however, it's been equally important that I can speak to people. Those skills are really, really important. I'm not naturally gregarious, and I don't have a silver tongue, but I spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Mexico doing nothing but talking to people all day, every day -- all kinds of people, from every walk of life. The result of that investment (made for completely unrelated reasons) was that I largely overcame my bookish nature. I also became fluent in a foreign language, which hasn't ever been a clear differentiator that I can see, but has to have been an advantage.
In addition, I also spent 8 years in the US Air Force Reserves being, of all things, a cop/security guard. That experience has proven surprisingly valuable and, when combined with the interest in cryptology I developed while completing my math degree, has made it very easy for me to move into the particular sub-field of computer security that I currently inhabit. The leadership opportunities I had as an Air Force NCO taught me a great deal about working with people in a superior/subordinate role (though I think I'm still not great at it). Even my year working part-time as a convenience store clerk has proven to be very valuable in my software career.
In summary: Most geeks in training are pretty bright people, who are capable of doing a lot of things. Broaden your background, add some "softer" stuff, do something that requires extensive human interaction (and not just with other geeks!) and you'll have more to offer a potential employer. For example, my current boss values my programming skills and my expertise in cryptology and secure system design, but he also appreciates (even more, actually), the fact that he can send me in to deliver a technical marketing pitch to senior execs of a multi-national corp, or to talk to a group of line workers in a factory to understand their jobs and how IT systems could facilitate them, or to lead a team of software developers, testers, technical writers and subject-matter experts in defining, building and deploying a solution.
My company (IBM) just went through a couple of rounds of major layoffs but I wasn't ever really concerned. Why? Because I'm *flexible*, and that makes me more valuable than many geeks. That's not to say that I couldn't end up on the street also, but (a) my expertise is sufficiently broad-ranging that I can fit into a lot of technical niches and (b) there are a few other things that I can do, even though they'd pay quite a bit less.
Anyway, breadth of experience, and not just technical experience, has worked very well for me, and I see plenty of reason why it would work equally well for others.
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