ok i was thinking of getting an aas degree in c# specialization,and i want to do it using distance education,is there any problem with that? i want to take the courses at the local community college and i am sure it's really cetified and all that ,i read at monster.com that distance education degrees are just as good as regular ones and when you get the degree it doesn't say online degree and it's just like a normal degree.

would there be any problems in finding jobs if you took distance ed to get your degree?

please any answers are welcome.

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

One bummer is you are missing out on the camaraderie, social, and team experiences. During an interview if you have no team experience, that may present a problem. Working together, discussing issues with the teacher, learning good coding practices, those all come through in-person experiences.

Will you also be required to take General Education (English, Biology, Chemistry, Math, Physics, Art/Music, etc.) classes as well?

Although a particular degree may give a resume that extra oomph, separating it from others, an interview is also used to find out someone's 'soft skills'. These are things like social skills, how well they work with others, do they enjoy working with computers, do they keep to themselves, can they help others, are they team-oriented, self-driven, and more. Different companies will weigh these completely differently, so I'm not necessarily saying certain ones are good and certain ones are bad. Only the hiring company can decide what exactly they look for in a developer.

Personally, when I look at a resume, I really don't care what school they went to, or even if they went school. I am interested in knowing their skillset and how long they have been working. Honestly, the ONLY reason I like to know what school they went to is to know if they went to my alma mater or perhaps if they were near where I grew up.

quote:

---

Will you also be required to take General Education (English, Biology, Chemistry, Math, Physics, Art/Music, etc.) classes as well?

---

that's the man reason i wanted to take online education i really don't like taking classes i really don't like like composition,accounting,college algebrea,etc...but i if i have to take them i'd rather do it online,i don't have much problem taking the actual programming courses on campus.

and really the reason i asked you guys(hired full time coders) is that i never been in an actual coding enviroment with other programmers and working on a team and all that and i don't know how often the whole team thing is required but i do like the idea of working on a team .

other than talking about coding and Christanity i really aint that social
that's probably why i did bad in most of my highscool classes(hope that don't get in the way of getting a job).

other than that whether i take the course on campus or online i do have to take a co-ed thing(i think it's like internship or something).

i see that you mentioned that you hire people or something would a coding experience of doing something for www.planetsourcecode.com or on sourceforge or being involved in any opensource/linux coding be seen as a valuable experience?because other than doing that and the co-ed i don't see where i could get any experience.

thanks for the reply though.

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I think having stuff on a coding site is a definite plus. It's something I keep meaning to do myself. Although you need to be really sure it's something good. Not that the project itself is some stunning piece of work, but for the content and coding to be clean, well coded, and well documented. Being involved in an open source project is an excellent decision. It is definitely something you can put on the resume as it will spur on discussions. "What was your role?" "How did you interact with others?" "Was it difficult with everyone working in different locations?" and so on.

Depending on where you go, the team thing can be quite important. For me, it is an extremely important quality I look for in a potential candidate. But other companies may be happy with the lone wolf. My current employer has several lone programmers. Pretty much everyone works on completely different things, although that is now changing. Yeah!

------------------
Visit my portfolio (and check out my projects):
www.JestermaxStudios.com

i am going to houston community college so i don't think an online degree from a community college is the same as an online degree from other colleges like phoenix uni,itt tech or so... but i am not sure about the whole thing.

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

is there a big difference b/n someone who has 4 year degree and a two year?
as long as they can code?

i mean i want to get a 4 year degree but i want to pursue a 2 year degree get a job and maybe someday move up to a 4 year degree, is that so bad?

if you were to hire someone would aas or 4-year degree make a big differnce ?

i hope i didn't ask too many of this questions i should be asking a counselor but i just thought experienced coders would know better

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

What I've noticed between 2-year and 4-year really depends on the company.

Larger companies will tend to run all resumes through the Human Resources (HR) department first. This means, they will look over all resumes before submitting them to the hiring manager. They do a quick scan to look for keywords and education. The tendency is to look for a 4-year degree before sending the resume to the manager.

Smaller companies are willing to consider anyone as long they have the necessary background and skills to do the job. In smaller companies, the resumes go directly to the hiring manager, so it will still depend on the manager's view on 2-year vs. 4-year.

I think the one consistency between 2-year and 4-year is a pay difference. 4-year will provide better leverage when deciding on salary. Likewise, 2-year will pay better than having just high school. This discrepancy will last for a few years.

what are your comments on that? lot's of people wanted me to become something else like a doctor or something but i just chose this

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

But then, you're talking to a guy who lives in the Silicon Valley, tech capital of the world(yes, I said it), and who plans to jump ship to the business side when things look lucrative.

For finding jobs, I'd suggest keeping yourself open and diverse. the people who can't get new jobs are those who center their expertise around one type of technology that nobody no longer needs.

------------------
"The generation of random numbers is too important to leave to chance."
Soterion Studios

[This message has been edited by ArchAngel (edited August 27, 2007).]

I've never really liked outsourcing and lately, the outsourcing locations may not be liking it either. The dollar has fallen so much that it is becoming less attractive to do business with the US.

The software industry goes in waves. Sometimes there are plenty of jobs and sometimes there are few jobs. As for the difficulty in finding a job, location really does play a big part in it. Like Arch said, the Silicon Valley has plenty of jobs. I currently live in a smaller city and computer jobs are extremely scarce. Although web development positions seem to pop up quite often.

One of the most important factors when choosing any profession is whether or not you enjoy doing the work. Or if you even consider it work.

In regards to outsourcing, I don't know if you know, but amazingly, medical work is now beginning to get outsourced. People can get medical work done less expensively overseas. I talked with a co-worker who was looking into it for his own family.

Not sure if I reall helped any.

but the nice thing about going to hcc(the local community college) is that you can choose to take one class on campus and the other distance ed. i'm thinking of taking the actual coding classes on campus and the others off-campus.

this thread and another thread i checked out started by someone else has been really informational and interesting.

and thanks for all of you guys for taking your time for helping out

------------------
John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.