Career and school advice please (IT field)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am currently employed as a database developer in a mid size company in New York. I’ve been doing this for about five years now, and am looking to expand my horizons and branch out in other areas in IT.

I am now in my mid-thirties. When I was a college-age teenybopper, I earned a B.A. degree in Television and Radio (production) from Brooklyn College. I graduated with a GPA of 3.2. I never took the SATs, but got into college on the basis of my high-school grades. When I was in college, I did not take a single science (or computer) course beyond that which was required to graduate. About five years ago, I completed a year-long certificate (non-credit) program at Baruch College where I learned programming and database development.

The problem is that I am unsure where to go next. I have several options:

(1) Go back to college and get a B.S. in CIS
(2) Go to college and try for a M.S. in CIS
(3) Try to find additional non-credit training.

I have several questions about each method.

B.S. in CIS
Am I wasting my time in doing this? Should I go directly for a Masters? Will having a B.S. in CIS make me substantially more attractive in the job market than my B.A. in a completely unrelated field? Will the fact that I already have a Bachelor’s Degree make it difficult for me to get into a school? Will my five years experience in database development count at all toward earning credit for some of the courses?

M.S. in CIS
I have no doubt that I will have to take a few undergrad courses to qualify for a Master’s Program. Will my 3.2 GPA be enough to get me into a halfway decent Master’s program? (Keeping in mind, that if I do get into a program, it will likely be at a CUNY [City University of New York] school - which is about all I can afford at the moment.) Will my experience benefit me in gaining admission despite my lack of computer/science courses in my undergrad studies. And is a Master’s really even necessary anyway? What do I gain out of having a Masters? What fields open up to me that would have been closed to me with just a B.A. or a B.S.?

Continuing education
This is the least expensive option, but at the same times seems to be the one that I would get the least out of. I was lucky to get a job when I finished my initial education at Baruch when my employer was willing to take me as a raw rookie with no experience to their just-forming IT development department. Others whom I took the program found it very difficult to get IT jobs.

Any further education opportunities that I pursue would be on a part-time basis, as I have to hold down a job and support my family. Unfortunately, I’m not certain which of these options is the right one to follow and would appreciate some advice. I’ll be checking in on this thread, but please feel free to email me (zev at izev dot com) if you need further information.

Thanking you in advance for your time,

Zev Steinhardt

2

bump

Anyone?

Zev Steinhardt

3

As far as the industry is generally concerned, a master’s degree is a master’s degree.

Now, you may run into a bit of trouble given that you don’t seem to have a very strong programming background, which is what a lot of CIS programs would be looking for. Your best bet is to call up the CIS department at CUNY, explain where you’re coming from and what you’re looking for, and see what they have to say.

4

My take on this (four years in MIS, currently a manager with hire/fire discretion, formerly a database analyst): The BA CIS is useless as you already have a BA and some experience. I personally think you’re better off going for a certification. Both Oracle and Microsoft have certification programs for their database suites (Oracle Certified and MCDBA).

I’d advise against the MA. Unlike engineering fields, where the MA/MS provides advanced technical training and is often required for entry level positions, in CIS the MA is mainly a bailout degree for people who don’t finish the PhD; about the only other reason people seek the MA in CIS is to become promotion-eligible in a company that requires an MA for midlevel positions. If you get the MA before you have the experience to match, you may lose positions on the grounds that you’re “overqualified” – the MA would command a higher salary that your experience won’t warrant. On the other hand, if you have a job in the field now that you are comfortable with for the time it’ll take you to earn the MA, you might find that a satisfactory option as by the time you have the MA you’ll also have the experience to qualify for the midlevel positions. Still, I think the certification option offers better bang for the buck at this point in your career.

5

I would agree with KellyM. (I’m not a manager or HR person, just a lead software engineer with an unrelated degree.) For someone young just starting out, a degree in the field would be helpful. But you’re already a database developer! If you feel the need for some additional credentials, you could get some kind of certification. Or if there are jobs that occasionally open up in your current company that you’d be interested in, you could take some courses that would specifically be geared for those positions. I would think that your job experience is worth more than a degree, unless there are specific areas you think you need to bone up on.

6

Another option that occurs to me since you have five years experience: the MBA. Five years is enough to be looking at management roles in MIS, and having an MBA may help convince some people to give you a closer look. Frankly, though, at this point, I would think your experience should speak louder than your education, and your main selling point should be that experience. I know that when I evaluate candidates with more than two years of experience, education is largely irrelevant.

More specific advice depends a lot on what you want to be doing down the road, which I really don’t know from what you’ve said so far.