Getting a job without going to UNI?

I managed ok with nothing more than A levels, experience and attitude count for more than any qualifications ever could in IT
 
I left school at 16 with 6 good GCSE passmarks and I am now 30 and in that time I have owned and sold 2 businesses and spent some time working in europe and the US .

I'm not wealthy but my standard of living is higher than the guys I know who went to UNI and I can now afford to work part time and raise my daughter.

What I am trying to say is that experiance and a good work ethic will always be valued more than a paper qualification, If you choose your career path wisely and stick at it the sky is the limit.

I know a lot of guys who go to UNI with a Job in mind and once they finish the course they are left with a deep hatred of the path they have chosen.

Find something you enjoy and stick at it.
 
triggerthat said:
Why do companies have graduates schemes then which require a degree.
Click to expand...
Do you need to enter a grad scheme to get a job with said companies?
 
Some aspects of I.T. certainly require you to have a degree. Particular fields require them as well as experience. I.T. Support is a common aspect where you can get in providing you have experience and a few certificates behind you. Of course, if you want to do I.T. Support, then University is not necessary. However, some areas at particular levels want a degree.
 
There are certain areas of IT where it would be extremely beneficial to have a degree. I didn't argue that.

There is no requirement for a degree to work in IT. Full stop. No argument. If you choose certain niche areas that want one then thats your own lookout.
 
When I left college, I got a dead-beat helpdesk job paying £10k. I was the only one there who wasn't a compsci graduate...

Four years on, after working helpdesk, doing project management, netadmin work, training, desktop support and so on (a couple of very varied jobs ;)), I've recently left an IT account management role that, while the basic was quite low (comparatively), had an obscene bonus system which more than doubled my income.

And what am I looking to do..?

Get an apprenticeship as an electrician, plumber or similar.

Look carefully at what you really want? I started in IT because I was into computers. Within six months, it had completely killed any enthusiasm I may have had for the subject and after four years I just need to walk away.

I want a skill that I can use anywhere I live. Something that will guarentee me work for the rest of my life. For me, IT no longer offers that.

*n
 
I went the degree route into IT and I suppose I’m doing okay….

But if I had skipped uni and gone straight into a lower paid/requirement IT job at 18 by the time I was 21-23 I would have had enough experience to be creaming the contracting jobs in the late nineties.

Swings and roundabouts I suppose, but if you can afford to do the uni thing for the experience/fun (rather than just the qualifications) then I’d recommend it.

Degrees may get you the interview, but it’s you that gets the job.
 
Going to Uni and getting a degree isn't always the best thing. I always look at 5 of my mates who didn't go to Uni and got a trades job instead.

They all own 2+ houses which are paid for so no debt or mortgage to pay and they are not even 30 yet.

TBH, they laugh at the one's going to uni and getting into debt while they are making big money buying new cars and houses. I wish I got a trades job.
 
There are more graduates than graduate jobs these days so there's nothing wrong with skipping it. IMO attending uni is usually only worthwhile (from a career perspective) if:

-You attain a grade high enough to open doors which would otherwise be closed (2:1 or above)
-You have a fairly clear goal about what you would like to use your degree for
-You attend a university which is reasonably well regarded in your chosen discipline

Failing to do the above can leave you arguably in a worse situation than if you had gone straight into employment and gained 3 years experience / vocational qualifications.

I guess it also depends on your long term goals. I know some people without degrees who have done quite well for themselves, earning 'good' money, but what stops them taking that extra step and being on 'great' money is the lack of a degree.
 
What I find quite interesting is that over the last year, when my old college friends have been getting their first out-of-uni jobs, most are not employed in the field in which they have studied. Of those that are, all but one have had to enter at a low point in their companies and are "going to work their way up over three or four years" to...reach a point where they would be right now if they hadn't gone to uni ;)

The only one who has gone in where he wanted is a code monkey; it's all he's ever wanted to do.

*n
 
It depends on what degree you are doing and where you do it. Getting a 2.1/1st from a top university will open doors to lots of jobs that arent open to those without them. If it is a highly rated degree (especially sciences) from a good institution you probably will never be contending with people with experience but no degrees for any job you go for.

BUT if you are good at what you do and degrees arent essential for your field (any of the professions basically), you can get very far with no university education. A guy down our street started off as a builder and then moved in to PVC windows (bought factory and used his workmen to install) and made an absolutely ridiculous amount of money.
 
I would submit that degrees are pretty much pointless accross the IT spectrum. As a developer without a degree I've worked with people with degrees. I've been at least as good, if not better than them at the job. In the IT industry, proven real world experience doing the job is worth SO much more than an expensive bit of paper that says you should know how to do the job generally... I've sat on interview panels before and we have had this same discussion, the consensus has always been that we'd rather have the experienced people over the graduates.
 
I guess there is no right or wrong answer to this. A degree does not give you the "right" to obtain a good job, but having one can certainly help.

A good degree from a good university will only increase your options and open more doors to you. The problem today is that there are too many people leaving University who quite frankly don't know squat. But, don't let this fool you into thinking that degrees are worthless, assuming you are a hard worker, bright, and the sort of person a compnay would want to employ anyway, then a degree will help you. It may only help you to get beyond the paper sift and get an interview, but than can often be half the battle.

You will hear many stories of individuals that excelled without a degree, this may happen to you. But I fail to see how a bright hard working individual will not gain from a University education. You may find that you don't like your choosen career path, in which case experience may not be of much use if you want to change. A degree can help with this.


Alas, many companies in my field require a degree for individuals to move up the ladder. Not enough weight is put on experience. This mainly applies to people younger than around 35.

There is also the option of the Open University, you could pursue this while working. From my experience an OU degree is highly regarded by employeers as the appreciate the commitment required to study while working full time.
 
I didn't go to university.
The main reason was that I knew my parents wouldn't be able to afford to get me through.
Sure there were loans and I would have got some part-time work to help me and I'm sure I could have done it.
However only very few people I've spoken to have been able to do the university thing without financial support from the parents.
Also I felt that I'd spent a long time learning things and maybe it was time I got out there and started using some of this knowledge.

So, after I got my BTEC National in Motor Vehicle Technology I went job hunting.
Eventually I got myself a job at £8000 a year as.......Showroom sales for a UK PC firm (Evesham Micros).
From there I'm totally self-taught.
I spent every lunch hour in the technical department at work asking them to teach me things.
Eventually a job came up in Technical Support which I applied for and got and I worked there for a few years doing customer facing technical.

Moved on from there into internal support - went to another company as a "Technical Support Assistant"...
I'm now the IT Manager for a company that write software for and make STB's that are sold all over the world.

Do I regret not doing the university thing?
Yes to a degree as I didn't do the whole moving away from home and gaining some independance until quite some time after I would have done had I gone to university.
On the other hand I enjoyed my work, even from those early salesman days and working up the ladder was fun to a degree.
 
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