Comments on: Choosing a Career Path – Work or Learn?

By: jonas

jonas — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:20:46 +0000

I bought my daughter a brand new car for her 18th birthday – but sometimes I insist she takes the bus.
“But I can get there just fine with the car!”
but its not just the destination – or even the journey – but the people you meet along the way (on the bus)
ensconced in your little steel and glass bubble, you zoom along in your daily travels, passing thousands of people and never actually meeting (or smelling) one. Our lives are the poorer for that lack of experience.

Its not what ‘college’ teaches you – it’s what ‘going to college’ teaches you – and there is a BIG difference.
Going to college you meet friends, bond, form alliances and networks – sure you do that now too in a way, but its not the same. I’ve referred (and been referred by) tons of friends ‘who knew me in college’
My only wish I suppose, is that I had done my degree in something else, maybe something you have to be taught in – like accounting or some shit like that instead of computers :lol taking to computers as I do like a fish to water, I would now have the benefit of a different discipline to work with and leverage my skills (since most programmers dont really understand account, and of course most accountants cant program for shit!)

By: redswish - a web design blog » A real web design curriculum

redswish - a web design blog » A real web design curriculum — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:47:33 +0000

[...] constant discussion in our industry about the merits of education vs self-teaching. The general concensus seems to be from those that studied at University and further education that [...]

By: site update service

site update service — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:01:29 +0000

I think the right question would be “school or work?” if you stop learning then your risking your working. that means stopping to learn is being stagnant. finishing school with degree gives you a wider option whether in employment or in entrepreneurship.

By: Brock | Online Education

Brock | Online Education — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:47:49 +0000

As you state in your post “…life is all about learning…”, (not just formal learning) a degree also opens up many doors, without any formal qualifications it might be hard to realize your dreams. In some countries it is perfectly alright to go out finding a job after collage and later return to school, for many people they then have a better understanding, learning capacity and not least motivation and more defined goals.

By: Thomas | Santhos Webdesign

Thomas | Santhos Webdesign — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:05:32 +0000

I tried to study about ten years ago but that didn’t work out. When you’re young you don’t take things that serious I guess. Other things were more important. At least in my case.

After two years I left school and started to work. That lasted for five or six years. One moment I somehow wanted to try school again! Went pretty well for 1 year but at that point I also started my own company which went quite good.

That was the moment I really had to choose between work (in my own webdesign and graphics design company) or learn (for something completely different). I chose to go on with my company and till today I havn’t had any regret. In fact, I’m also learning every day too!

Besides my personal story I don’t think webdesign, the creative aspect as well as the technical aspect, can’t be learn easily at school. It’s more a ‘learning while working’ thing I guess.

Good topic!!

By: Dape

Dape — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:15:55 +0000

Thanks for your comments about education I don’t want to sound to cynical but education can always be the path to freedom. For example when you work two mile underground extracting a mineral for the energy industry all you think about is when you are going to breath fresh air. After some time working in this environment you begin to value the real things in life like companionship, comrades and the willingness to learn new things. I was fortunate to be given the chance for higher eduction and I grabbed it with open hands and never looked back. Many years later I now know this was the right decision because once you get these bits of paper with letters after your name nobody can ever take them away. By eck, you young uns, you dont know ow lucky you ar!

By: Sanghmitra

Sanghmitra — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:47:47 +0000

I agree to the rest as well.. web designing and creativity are not something u learn from univ.. and it is one industry which respects these traits more than a degree.. but this won’t be true for other professions..

By: Clay McIlrath

Clay McIlrath — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:20:15 +0000

Web developent: Don’t need a degree. In fact my business (and many other US based agencies) frown upon degrees if they’re not attained via an online University. The reason for this being the fact that the web is so dynamic that those in the age and point in their lives to teach it are often teaching outdated tactics. I’ve experienced MANY developers fresh out of college with 10 year old practices (tables, old coding styles, no knowledge of frameworks or dynamics, etc).

As for design: I think CREATIVITY and artistic ability can be a natural talent or self taught, but I still think it’s important to learn the principles of design. It’s one thing to make “cool” or “cutting edge” websites.. it’s another entirely different process to make a client happy.

By: Luc

Luc — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:03:37 +0000

I’ll expand a bit on my 140 character initial response; I think in this industry (and it definitely isn’t the case in others) it’s not essential that you have a degree. What’s more important is what you can actually produce.

This blog is a case in point, I had no idea you were only 19, I’d have guessed from the quality of your work that you’d worked in the industry for some time, whereas some of the stuff that gets sent to me from recruitment agencies from “highly qualified graduates” barely covers what I’ve been looking for, in terms of real-world production (not to say some aren’t excellent).

I’d love to know if any of the big name web designers (I’m thinking Pieters / Snook / Bennett-Chamberlain, those kind of guys) went to uni to study design (or specifically digital design) – I’m sure a lot of them did, but it wouldn’t surprise me one iota if some of sites we all drool over are produced by people who decided to dig in when they were 18/19 and just got on with getting better in a real-world environment.

When employers add “must be degree educated” to a job spec, what they mean is “won’t flake out after 6 months” – some of the most productive people I know have CVs that read better than the fiction section at Waterstones…

(That may all be an incoherent ramble.)

By: Phil Thompson

Phil Thompson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:59:31 +0000

I went to university and got my degree – did it help me become a good web developer, no but then I don’t think it’s always about that.

There’s life experience to be had both by going to university and by going straight to work – there’s no blanket rule to say one is better than the other because it’s different for different people.

Despite the fact that the majority of my degree course being awful I’d still go to uni if I could have my time over because it was such a happy time in my life. However, I probably would have studied something more interesting (to me) like Politics, History or Psychology and as opposed to reading Computer Science.

Since graduating, no web agency has asked about my degree and no interviewer has asked what grade I got – all anyone cared about was the experience I had.