HND - Have No Degree

[Cowboy Bob]

Be honest. Most contracts are for run of the mill donkey work. Except for the blaggers amongst us, how many contractors will get on to a contract where they learn lots of news things i.e. add to their skillset ?
Not many I would imagine.

I make sure that every contract I do contains at least one new skill to learn. Obviously I'll have all the other requisite skills that the client needs - which is another point. I only take contracts where I get to use a wide variety of skills - I'm not into donkey work, I'm a senior developer/architect.

[oraclesmith]

Ok, that's all very helpful. Thanks everyone. Developing this a bit further, do you think it would it be worth booking some training in learning a language, tool or method which I haven't currently got, given that I'm unlikely to get a contract on the strength of being 'initially trained' in it and I might not be offered a contract where I can actually use it ?

To give you a bit of background, I have mainly voluntary sector experience but with technical specialisms (Oracle) which are not widespread in the sector. I also have a wide range of experience in business analysis, DBA, team leading and project management but haven't done PRINCE2 certification or Oracle Certs or management diploma's or SSADM etc etc. So my CV is mainly a narrative of (fairly impressive) experience with just two organisations rather than a list of the buzzwords that agents presumably look for when sifting CV's. My tech experience is, for example, is Oracle Developer but not J2EE. On the other hand I am (IMHO) very good at what I do.

So I was thinking that I go and do one of these courses while I'm on the bench, thus consuming quite a chunk of company profits. I've only just started looking for my first agency contract (I have gone direct for contracts to date) so I can't gauge my success rate at the moment.

[mcquiggd]

What are peoples thoughts on a Degree / MBA to ease emmigration to a foreign land (and no I don't mean England ).

With 14.5 years experience in the industry it does'nt make any difference to me in THIS country, but I am thinking in the next couple of years of 'getting out' - possibly another Western European country (France, Holland, work in Luxembourg), or possibly Canada. This would be before I reach 40, and guess is I would find it easier if I to Emmigrate outside the EU with a Degree plus recognised industry qualifications, and to Trade / find work within the EU for the same reasons....

And if so, can anybody recommend a reasonable Computer Science distance learning course that is not Mickey Mouse / laughed at by recruiters?

[DaveB]

What are peoples thoughts on a Degree / MBA to ease emmigration to a foreign land (and no I don't mean England ).

With 14.5 years experience in the industry it does'nt make any difference to me in THIS country, but I am thinking in the next couple of years of 'getting out' - possibly another Western European country (France, Holland, work in Luxembourg), or possibly Canada. This would be before I reach 40, and guess is I would find it easier if I to Emmigrate outside the EU with a Degree plus recognised industry qualifications, and to Trade / find work within the EU for the same reasons....

And if so, can anybody recommend a reasonable Computer Science distance learning course that is not Mickey Mouse / laughed at by recruiters?

Open University.

[Pondlife]

Open University.

How well are they thought of in the market place for something like an MBA?

I guess a number of you review CVs as part of your roles - would you give OU any credibility?

Cheers.

[DaveB]

How well are they thought of in the market place for something like an MBA?

I guess a number of you review CVs as part of your roles - would you give OU any credibility?

Cheers.

For Bsc / BA the OU is definately worth it. MBA not so sure. Most of the big MBA schools run distance learning options anyway with brief residential sessions along the way.

In any case the university you got your degree from is less important than the fact that you have the degree to begin with. Unless it's an Oxbridge college it's pretty irrelavent.

[boredsenseless]

It's a bit trickier than that, TBH. For one thing we usually spend 80% of the time sorting out technical specialists who insist on telling us why a business solution they know little about won't work

Agreed and strangely they only give these gigs to people with a track record of being able to deliver a corporate vision that can be demonstrated as achievable and given the fact most of the muppets they then contract to deliver it spend their time asking questions like 'how much can I claim for lunch even though I brought sandwiches cos my umbrella says I can claim £30?'... It's amazing it even gets past the first week without their incompetence f@cking it up.

[ratewhore]

I think that degrees will become a necessity as time goes on simply because New Liebore want 50 percent of the population to have degrees.
With that policy in place, soon every man + dog will have a degree anyway. It's just a way to screen out thousands of applicants when you advertise a job.

Hang on...

If 50% of the population has a degree, doesn't that devalue it as a differentiator and consequently it should be less of a necessity?

I have my MSc on my CV as it is directly relevant to the work I do as a security architect. Otherwise it would form part of the education section which, yes, my CV has. I'm not into all this company brochure rubbish for agency work, they're not interested whether your 'CV is written on the first, second or third person as long as it is directly relevant to the role...