Comments on: How Important is Formal Education in Web Working?

By: How Important is Formal Education in Web Working? | Bum No More

How Important is Formal Education in Web Working? | Bum No More — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:00:06 +0000

[...] Article: How Important is Formal Education in Web Working? [...]

By: Arjan`s World » LINKBLOG for September 17, 2008

Arjan`s World » LINKBLOG for September 17, 2008 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:10:08 +0000

[...] How Important is Formal Education in Web Working? – Celine Roque The idea here that being successful is not completely dependent on your formal education but mostly what you make of it; apart from the fact that it is not a requirement to succeed [...]

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:49:35 +0000

I work for a staffing company in Boston, Hollister Staffing (www.hollisterstaffing.com) and constantly get asked the question of degree vs. experience. While both are extremely important, most of the time it is completely circumstantial about which is preferred. If someone has the skills and experience for the job then they should also be a candidate, degree or no degree. I will say this though; in this knowledge based world, it is much harder to find a job without a degree. The job market is extremely competitive, and more often than not whether or not a candidate has a degree is a huge distinguishing factor.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:54:18 +0000

I think a degree is very important. It shows strength in discipline, maturity, critical thinking, and commitment. I have 8 years of “Real World” experience plus a BS in Comp Sci. Although I would argue the definition of “Real World” experience, having 3 of my 4 college years programming with an array of languages beats those 18-19 year olds doing production work and writing HTML all day. Stop fooling yourself that a degree doesn’t matter, a degree is an extension of the person, it is an upgrade. It is not a waste of time; you have your whole life to work.

By: stef

stef — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:19:26 +0000

despite the fact i work for a large digital agency, doing challenging work on big sites i very much feel like a hobby coder, only having a “certificate in web apps development” from the Open University. when i see the work my (younger!) colleagues here do, i can really tell the groundwork laying courses they must have done (C#, db theory, …) pay off.

After a year as a php developer, i still have to check books to see how complex arrays and stuff like that work. Id imagine that wouldnt be the case had I done a real degree in Computer Science.

By: Jtag

Jtag — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:10:10 +0000

Many web framework and technology is still in beta phase, and new technology or web standart is coming almost everyday, so it is quite time consuming for web developer to learn a new framework –regardless he/she has degree or not–

Between the day job and catch up the changes…

Thanks for posting this great article. It makes me think…~~

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:08:18 +0000

Formal education is ALWAYS an asset. I have never been asked about my own education and have found that no one cares, as long as your professionalism and skill can deliver a job well done. One author (unfortunately, I cannot recall her name) called it the “GSD Degree” (Get S*** Done).

If I still had a very expensive education to pay off and discovered this, I’d be a bit miffed. ;-)

I think a degree will always matter to larger companies – and it depends a lot on the specific work, but in my experience it matters a lot more to keep up with trends and technology and to easily adapt to constant and rapid change.

Great discussion!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:36:15 +0000

I think it really depends on where you’re headed with your career.

For designers, yes, it’s essential to have a formal art education. Don’t underestimate the importance of that.

If you’re only interested in freelancing or contract work, it couldn’t matter less. Clients only care about your portfolio and how quickly you can turn out a quality project.

But if you plan on landing a high-income salaried position somewhere, remember that 95% of the time you’ll be competing with and working for marketing and business managers that hang their hat on that MBA. If you don’t even have a bachelor’s degree, you’re just going to have to work that much harder to prove that you’re worth being paid more than a meager hourly wage.

By: Gemma

Gemma — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:38:34 +0000

At the very least, a degree is a seal of competence; it shows employers that you can do things like work to deadlines, carry out research, write a coherent report, etc. And in your working life, those skills that enabled you to *complete* the degree are often more important than the specific subject of the degree.

But of course a degree isn’t the be-all and end-all.

By: Michael Pelz-Sherman

Michael Pelz-Sherman — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:39:27 +0000

Lack of formal education becomes especially apparent when one is asked to write software documentation, or a design spec. Perhaps 37signals doesn't care about those skills because they don't believe in functional specs. For designers, a solid foundation in visual art is extremely helpful. Being able to draw well, to articulate ones ideas clearly and back them up, is a tremendous asset. Having said this, clearly there are talented people out there who are able to do good work without formal training. However, I think this was more true in the early days of the Web, when everything was so new, and few people understood what good Web design was. The "wild west" days of the Web are drawing to a close, and good web design practices are becoming more codified and more "teachable". I hope the art departments out there are doing a decent job of preparing students for a career in web design.