For someone who's already established a career in software development, is correspondence university worthwhile?

Question

I've heard some arguments that doing a correspondence/online university course isn't worthwhile, since employers have a stronger preference for students who have studied at a "real" university (and hopefully a big-name one).

My question is - does this apply so much to those such as myself, who are already deep into their career as a developer, and simply want to educate themselves and increase their earning power?

Or should someone in my shoes not worry and just do a correspondence course since it's cheaper and is flexible enough that I can continue working full-time?

Or is it better not to do university at all and just read books and do the odd training course?

Answer 1

Put yourself in the situation of someone recruiting. They have a pile of CVs on their desk, how shall they decide who to interview? You're in a happy position, you're deep in your career and so have the experience to get into that pile, you were not excluded by the recruitment agency who filtered by considering the "must have 2 years of ..." criteria.

So how do we pick 3 or 4 from 10 or 20 pretty good CVs? For me, I look for two things: evidence of going beyond the simple demands of the role, proactive attitudes and leadership qualities and for evidence of continued growth. So for me, someone studying at a serious correspondance university (eg UK's Open University) is interesting. I tend to be impressed by the IT guy who is studying a non-IT subject, reckon it shows a breadth of attitude.

I think there is lots of value in "just reading the books" but unfortunately that doesn't work so readily on a CV. If you're going that route then I think you need somehow to be able to show you've learned something. Get published, write articles and blogs - that may be easier to sell.

Answer 2

I can only answer based on what I have observed. As with all things as subjective as this, your mileage may vary.

Generally, online classes do not make you a stronger developer. It can help round out some of the theory behind things but in general it is far more effective to read books on your own.

Training classes are usefull and will convey to a potential employeer that you have studued that specific technology. Outside that technology they are pretty worthless.

The best thing you can do to really push yourself is do side projects and maybe contribute to some open source projects. These things are far more interesting to employeers as it shows you not only know what you are taking about codewise but also have the ability to tackle a serious project.

I hope these thoughts give you some help. Just remember in the end it is what you get out of the educational path that matters.

Answer 3

Why only study about software anyway? Open yourself up to language, art and philosophy etc

Answer 4

There is a bit of a bang for the buck question to this as there may be a negligible gain for some degrees while others may work out nicely with a big boost as getting a degree can be meaningful. Another question is whether or not the university or college has as part of the program that a project be done through your current employer as this may be a way to show management that you want to pursue this or that.

I do have a friend that got her Master's on-line through a real university in Washington state and is still having trouble finding a job in her field of Communications here in Calgary. I've thought about possibly doing something similar through the University of Phoenix though there is still some more digging to do on my end.

Reading a book sounds like a good starting point, but I think there may need to be some more meat added in terms of what other than reading did you get from a book. Another way to put this is to say how does reading some book change how you work.