Who makes a better programmer?
I read the following on Kirk's Blog. I dont think I quite agree with it. I have had to work with people that all they have is an MCSD and a AS degree from a tech school. There are some good people out there, but when you look at a majority of the code that they produce, I am not impressed by most of the code. I have a friend of mine that calls this type of code "Bobby Logic" as it was named after a guy named Bobby. Bobby Logic is this type of logic produced by programmers that try and make things harder or use the latest coolest thing when a simple approach would have been the quickest way to satisfy the customer's needs. I think a full four-year degree shows that someone has made a commitment to education and is capable of more. Obviously, things like experience need to be taken into account. I just feel that it takes a number of items to create a successful programmer (experience, education, intelligence, understanding what the customer's needs are, familiarity with the programming environment, and programming language skills).
Wally
PS. And I do understand frustration.........
"MCSD" versus "BS"
I guess it depends on the dev work you do. I got by BS in CS ;) and while I agree it does give you a great foundation, it did not teach me to program half as good as those people going to the tech schools to get their certs. Unfortunately, I have found, when it comes to getting the interview and getting the job a lot of times the letters "MCSD" do better for you than "BS"
Sad, but ain't it the truth? I studied my arse off for 4+ years (OK, my wife might read this one... 7 years) and endured more than my fair share of financial aid flunkies, student aids with a chip on their shoulder, obscure and unreadable text books priced just shy of a mortgage payment while trying to scrape enough pocket change together for really cheap beer on the weekends... all of which I continue to pay for for the next 10 years in student loans.
Or just buy a study guide and Transcender tests and wing it.