How useful was school for you?

[mouseling]

Re: How useful was school for you?

Btw: I've been strongly considering putting together a panel discussion on Hacking Academia for defcon - I got in through a backdoor, and have been taking notes on how the game is played.
Do you think there'd be an interest in this?
Anybody else want to be on the panel?

-mouse

[DJ Jackalope]

Re: How useful was school for you?

Btw: I've been strongly considering putting together a panel discussion on Hacking Academia for defcon - I got in through a backdoor, and have been taking notes on how the game is played.
Do you think there'd be an interest in this?
Anybody else want to be on the panel?

-mouse

I would be interested to be on the panel -- I also think there would be an interest in this because of how old I am thinking the average defcon attendee is... school age!

[Z^2]

Re: How useful was school for you?

I'm in physics school (in a physics PhD program at the moment). I'm finding college for physics was pretty cool for the first 3 years of undergraduate work (and by that I mean the new physics I was learning), and then I got bored for some reason. It was a good way for me to realize - undergraduate work - that all that 'stuff' that they made you take in high school actually applies to a real world job. It's great if you need to be led through the things that you want to learn, but as I become more of an independent learner, I despise classes more, which is what naturally happens in grad school (2ish years of courses, then pure research for a couple of years, until you find a thesis).

I think that school was useful for the people I met, and the things that they didn't cover in classes that I went on to learn on my own, more than the courses in the academic program itself. I don't see going to most universities as a way to prepare your technical skills for your job so much as to expand your horizons and develop good critical thinking skills in your field of choice.

[DaKahuna]

Re: How useful was school for you?

Let me start off by saying - the period between my high school diploma and my bachelor's degree was 28 years.

When I was in High School there was no such thing as Computer Science. I took the college prepatory curriculum and it included some of the same things that are there today - Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, etc. However, there was no computer club or anything like that. In 1967 when I graduated High School, computers occupied entire buildings and were things only few universities and governments could afford.

During my stint in the military I took the occasional college level course, getting three different Associates degree's until finaly deciding as I was about to retire from the military to get a four year degree. One of my mentor's at the time made a very sound argument that to get ahead and truly succeed in the corporate world that a combination of a degree - proof of ones ability to apply oneself across multiple disciplines and ability to learn, and real world experience - proof of ones ability to put what one has learned to use, were a winning combination. In a pure technical sense one can get a long way without a degree but there is always that wall that they seem to hit, unless they go into business for themselves (Bill Gates being a favorite example).

My actual degree is in Business (BSBA) and I find that in my day to day job that plays just as important a role as my years as a Unix, DNS, and Windows Systems Administrator.

So as many have said, a college degree in just about any field is useful and will help. Not having one will, in a corporate world, always be something that will be found missing and may restrict one's ability to move up the ladder.

Just my $0.02.

[converge]

Re: How useful was school for you?

... Hacking Academia ... -mouse

Better scope definition? That brings back several groupings of fond memories since my last dance with that snake.


<----- omggigglez, now i can't post again for a while.. and fate brought me to this post.

[sharxbyte]

Re: How useful was school for you?

haha! i thought this was going to be about how useless english class is...

but let me see... right now my HS computer tech class is totally freelance. =D that means that i can get credits for lurking here! so how much of the schooling is useful? since i have to get a stupid paper to say that i can draw on a computer, i might as well get it out of the way asap... as well as getting my A+ etc... so in my book, do as little schooling as possible to get the nessesary training (and documentation) and learn the rest at cons =).

[Suriyawong]

Re: How useful was school for you?

I'm majoring in Networking Technology (formerly Information Technology and Design). I'm also minoring in Web Development... I've realized a lot of the things people have been mentioning too. School is for maturing and getting a basic knowledge of the field you're studying. The real learning begins once you get into the work force and doing on-the-job training. Or just doing a lot of it in your free time. Thats exactly the reason I'm trying to learn some of the skills that everyone here possesses. Since I'm in networking, I should probably know what to do to protect against some of the methods of security penetration, or at least giving the best protection that I can. Plus, its fun to learn about. =)

[nak]

Re: How useful was school for you?

I went to Gateway CC to obtain an associates degree in network security... the classes were canceled constantly due to low enrollment so I just graduated with a AAS in [Cisco] Networking, just before/after/during the time in which I was expelled (it was a prank... come on!).

I got some education on the foundations that I never looked into when teaching myself, ie memorizing the OSI layers, subnetting, cisco specific things like IOS etc etc

I am currently working at an electronics retailer as sales, so my networking/computer knowledge is used to tell people all about what kind of router they will need and why they need some sort of encryption. So no, my schooling is not being used during my day job. Does driving around the country in a van responding to craigslist ads for computer help sound like a good way to live for a while? :)