I am an IT Manager at an international company, and I have seen techs come in and hit glass ceilings because of the lack of a degree. Basically, if all you aspire to be is a tech, maintaining the day-to-day, then go right into the job market if you can, but be warned, chances are you will get bored or dissatisfied with the daily grind. A degree in, in say business, can open your possibilities into many more opportunities to use technology to benefit the 'business' (after all, this tech stuff is here to make our lives easier/faster/more convienient, right?) which will get you the higher positions where you get to be the leader, not the slave who onlt does what he/she is told....
I have this service for work, and although it isn't cable/dsl/isdn/name-your-favorite-high-rate-line-h ere, it is functional for what I need. Figure it this way, you are on the road going from meeting to meeting when a mission-critical service on your internal network goes down. From inside the airport, you fire up your laptop, plug in the phone, connect, and tunnel into your network using your vpn client. Start ssh with your favorite server, and start diagnosing the problem...we are talking text here folks...the server/router/etc... comes back up, you are a hero, and business continues normally. No hunting for an analog port. No hunting for an internet cafe. No kidding. Fix the problem right now. No, its not the fastest, but it is -less- frusterating than being bumped from the older cell dial-ups, and there is no waiting for the person on the only analog-capable pay phone at the airport who wants to tell their family about how Shamu V.23 soaked them and then they got to fling a dead fish at the captive whale as a reward....
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I am an IT Manager at an international company, and I have seen techs come in and hit glass ceilings because of the lack of a degree. Basically, if all you aspire to be is a tech, maintaining the day-to-day, then go right into the job market if you can, but be warned, chances are you will get bored or dissatisfied with the daily grind. A degree in, in say business, can open your possibilities into many more opportunities to use technology to benefit the 'business' (after all, this tech stuff is here to make our lives easier/faster/more convienient, right?) which will get you the higher positions where you get to be the leader, not the slave who onlt does what he/she is told....
I have this service for work, and although it isn't cable/dsl/isdn/name-your-favorite-high-rate-line-h ere, it is functional for what I need. Figure it this way, you are on the road going from meeting to meeting when a mission-critical service on your internal network goes down. From inside the airport, you fire up your laptop, plug in the phone, connect, and tunnel into your network using your vpn client. Start ssh with your favorite server, and start diagnosing the problem...we are talking text here folks...the server/router/etc... comes back up, you are a hero, and business continues normally. No hunting for an analog port. No hunting for an internet cafe. No kidding. Fix the problem right now. No, its not the fastest, but it is -less- frusterating than being bumped from the older cell dial-ups, and there is no waiting for the person on the only analog-capable pay phone at the airport who wants to tell their family about how Shamu V.23 soaked them and then they got to fling a dead fish at the captive whale as a reward....