RE: RE: My career path and Oracle?

> Age and experience play a part I guess.
Yeah but you can't rely on your youthful good looks forever. ;-)

Like I said, I was amused when it made a difference. I guess that means they were clueless to begin with and may explain why I was hired. ;-)

Back in my "Slick on Valley" days I saw the opposite where they wanted energetic youngsters fresh out of the university. I guess the thinking was... "It's too hard to re-educate the dinosaurs so why not indoctrinate some bright, young wet-behind-ears geek who lives and breathes computers. They'll work 70 hours a week because they love this stuff and don't have a life. Those old folks with kids are less flexible and harder to abuse."

Ah yes, those were the dot.com glory days... Steve

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 12:32 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Hmm, I don't have a degree in anything, but it hasn't seem to have hurt me too much.

Age and experience play a part I guess.

Jared

On Wednesday 07 May 2003 10:31, Orr, Steve wrote:
> I hold a generic MBA... hold the applause please. To my amazement/amusement
> it's actually made a difference in successful gig acquisition. It doesn't
> seem to matter whether the institution is ivory tower or run of the mill,
> paper mill that is. Getting an accredited online degree in your spare time
> could be a strategy for folks that don't want to give up a job. I guess the
> question is whether the degree is for personally vanity or part of a well
> thought out career plan.
>
> Teenage hackers who are smart as a whip and can write their own ticket
> without any degree may be an even better career strategy for geeks. Just
> ask Billy G. Or for a real laugh check out the offensive commencement
> address Larry E. gave to a bunch of ivory tower grads.
> http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.satire
>wire.com/news/0006/satire%2Dellison.html (btw, the above speech is actually
> a hoax as it never occurred.)
>
> It's getting cold around here... 4 degrees below zero:
>
> 0
> M.B.A. More Banal Accolades
> B.S. Bull S**t
> M.S More of the Same
> Ph.D Piled High and Deep
>
>
> Steve Orr
> Bozeman, Montana
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 9:52 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> If you are planning to stay on the technical/practical/nuts and bolts side
> of things, then a masters is the way to go. I wouldn't bother with a Ph.D
> unless you are shooting for a teaching/research position. At best most
> places will ignore it and at worst you will be overqualified. If you have
> the extra time, get a second masters, perhaps an MBA. Your training should
> say, "I understand the practical side of all this" not "I am Ivory Tower,
> go away."
>
> My hope is to retire to a teaching position at a local university in 20
> years. In a case like that I will want that Ph.D, but not for some time
> yet.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 8:42 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
> Ive noticed that not having a technical degree really hurt me in my latest
> job search. Getting another bachelors would actually take as long as
> getting 2 masters degrees and almost as long as Ph.D, since Universites are
> 'difficult' on transfer credit.
>
> Ive also noticed that alot of positions these days really want technical
> degrees and preferably graduate degrees. Masters only takes 2 years and its
> interesting since. Havent decided on the Ph.D, will take me a while since I
> have a non-technical degree, so I have to take a bunch of math to qualify.
>
> Im only 28 and basically while Im still young, I want to make sure Im
> position so that in the future I can do what ever is needed. I doublt Ill
> be writing PL/SQL then. I worked with a guy who was a mainframer for 30
> years and the demand for him was extremely high through the early 1990s,
> but has fallen off the earth. He got into Oracle development, but he had to
> step down to a junior level position. This gravely concerns me.
>
> Ph.D... is a real pain.

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Author: Orr, Steve
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