Ask Slashdot: Best Degree For a Late Career Boost?

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday May 12, 2012 @10:07AM from the definitely-philosophy-for-the-big-bucks dept.

Qbertino writes "I'm in my early 40s, and after a little more than 10 years of web, scripting and software development as a freelancer and some gigs as a regular, full-time employee, I'm seriously considering giving my IT career a boost by getting a degree. I'm your regular 1980s computer kid and made a career switch to IT during the dot-bomb days. I have quite a bit of programming and project experience, but no degree. I find myself hitting somewhat of a glass ceiling (with maybe a little age discrimination thrown in there). Since I'm in Germany, degrees count for a lot (70% of IT staff have a degree) so getting one seems fitting and a nice addition to my portfolio. However, I'm pondering wether I should go for Computer Science or Business Informatics. I'd like to move into Project Management or Technical Account Management, which causes my dilemma: CS gives me the pro credibility and proves my knowledge with low-level and technical stuff, and I'd be honing my C/C++ and *nix skills. Business Informatics would teach me some bean-counting skills; I'd be doing modelling, ERP with Java or .NET all day. It would give me some BA cred, but I'd lose karma with the T-shirt wearing crew and the decision-makers in that camp. I'm leaning toward Business Informatics because I suspect that's where the money is, but I'm not quite sure wether a classic CS degree wouldn't still be better — even if I'm wearing a suit. Any suggestions?"

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Re:Any suggestions? by cyber-vandal · 2012-05-12 10:23 · Score: 4, Funny

Age discrimination must be the government's fault since no business would ever discriminate against any particular group of people for fear of going instantly bust due to the magic market fairy [/libertarian]
Re:Wow! by Mr+Z · 2012-05-12 11:59 · Score: 4, Funny

Mr. Plow, that's his name, his name again is Mr. Plow.

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Program Intellivision!
Re:Glass Ceiling @40s by Mr+Z · 2012-05-12 12:04 · Score: 4, Funny

We should set RidiculouslyCleanPC (2637867) and LookAtThatCleanBooth (2637863) up on a date. Maybe they can spend some quality time cleaning each others... erm... PCs.

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Program Intellivision!
Re:Wow! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-12 14:37 · Score: 0, Funny

I had a similar problem. Only it wasn't my PC, it was my asshole. MyCleanAnus cleaned my asshole and made it faster than I thought possible. MyCleanAnus.
Re:Wow! by Surt · 2012-05-12 17:55 · Score: 1, Funny

It's the same thing as the gamemaker posts. An attempt to drive people away from slashdot.

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"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking