Discussion on:

What's more important to become an IT consultant: education or experience?

How does your education stack up against your real-world experience? How do you think that affects the kind of gigs you can land?

If you're working as a contract programmer, you could have a third-grade education and it does not matter if you can write good code.

If you're working at a college or government computer research facility, then having that PhD will get your foot in the door, as will the MBA at a bank or investment firm.

When you say 'education', do you mean advanced degrees or training/certification (or both)?

Education can get your foot in the door, and the more experience you get, the better the gig.

"If you're working as a contract programmer, you could have a third-grade education and it does not matter if you can write good code."

Sounds like the voice of experience (LOL).

Let's define education as any sort of "book learnin'", as opposed to applying the principles to a real problem in the working world.

If we're defining "education" as (formal) "book learnin'", my answer has to be "neither".

Both "book learnin'" and "experience" are valuable not in and of themselves, but because of the knowledge, skills, and attitude they engender. Sometimes, experience and formal education can even have detrimental effects on knowledge, skills, and/or attitude.

There is one other factor that really matters and comes to mind for me: aptitude.

If someone has the right aptitudes, attitudes, knowledge, and skills, I don't care where (s)he got it. It could be primarily from formal education, on the job experience, personally motivated exploration of the possibilities ("playing" with technology), or surgically implanted, for all I care. It's those qualities that matter, and not how someone got them.

So, with the understanding that by "education" you mean "Education", I say neither is more important than the other, because neither is really important at all for its own sake.

Well said. How many times have you seen someone who "got religion" from learning about the latest programming craze, only to crash and burn when attempting to apply it to every single problem domain they can find? (points at self)

By aptitude I assume you mean an ability to quickly learn the essentials. I'd add one important quality: wisdom -- which I'll define as the ability to discern what is essential, coupled with a knowledge of the principle that no principle is a panacea.

I considered including "wisdom" in my list of qualities, but figured it was covered somewhere between the others. Maybe I should have explicitly mentioned it anyway.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not using it in a fruit salad.

I love that explanation of wisdom. It got a chuckle out of me.

... is how it demonstrates the flexibility and deficiency of human language. When a person says "fruit", s/he may be using the term scientifically or qualitatively, and it's left to the wisdom of the listener to determine which is intended, based on context.

A lot of government jobs require certs and/or education (based on the points system(s)). In the private sector, experience usually means more. However, sometimes, you have to have those certs/degrees or you are put at the bottom of the pile.

Yes, the degree and certifications do provide some measure of the reputation that I mentioned in the last paragraph. But only so much.

Some places won't even consider your resume unless you have the degree pluss X number of certs.

Some go so far as to require a degree in Computer science ONLY.

I tend to not be too broken up about those places when they don't want me, as it usually displays a kind of rigid thinking that makes us autistics blush.

I really got a kick out of your post...DEAD ON!

I never would have guessed you're autistic, Locrian_lyric. I have an autistic child (who is brilliant, BTW), and I have learned to recognize some of those features in myself (though I manage to conform well enough to keep them unnoticed).

Many people consider autistics to be frequently guilty of "rigid thinking" (insistence on sameness and all that), but the type of rigid thinking you're talking about is apparently of a different order.

And yes, I am on the spectrum. I keep it under control with a few drugs and most of the time I'm just fine.

People can generally only tell when I have a meltdown....

Then I tick, blurt things out, etc. It's clear as day that I'm autistic at that point. And yes I did nearly knock myself out by baning my head against a doorframe repeatedly.

... for my son's future. Obviously you've managed to build a successful career for yourself. Thanks!

If I or my parents had given into the words of those experts, my career would involve cleaning restrooms at finer fastfood resteraunts.

Use the autistic obsessiveness and route behaviors to create an expert.

If your son has any savant skills, help him find a practical and marketable use for them.

We definitely take all expert opinions with a grain of salt.

I do think that he'll someday find a niche in which he will excel and be happy with his life. He has phenomenal math skills. One of our friends said to me that he'll probably solve the whole time-travel thing someday.

Thanks for your encouraging words.

Convincing the client you can do the job in time and for less than somone else is charging is all that matters.

Doesn't have to be true, usually isn't in fact.

Opinion based on my experience of the highly experinced fully qualified consultants who convinced my bosses to vacuum up the rest of the budget to land me with some unmaintainable crap.

You took the opposite approach.

In my answer to robo_dev's subthread above, I answered from the perspective of being good at the work.

In your comment here, you answered from the perspective of being financially successful.

I suspect the difference is that I'm a consultant who takes pride in his work, and you're someone who deals with consultants who don't take pride in their work so much as they do in their ability to leech off a corporate budget.

I've found too many consultants that don't take pride in their work and see what they are doing as "better" than what the folks in house could do.

When I was consulting I tried to be better than those I'd dealt with in the past as well.

It's not so much that consultants do shoddy work, it's more that they get forced in to positions where it's impossibble to meet desirable standards and make a buck, unless you plump for repeat business through quality. That's only possible because 'your' familiarity with the client's needs and the last solution, plus a hopefuilly good relationship are allowed to count.

Doesn't matter how much effort you put in though if the client looks at each job fresh, and goes on price.

So I submit the ability to sell yourself, is way more important than anything else.

...akin to hiring nine women to have a baby in one month.

consultants/contractors are often called in once the situation is near FUBAR.

"...akin to hiring nine women to have a baby in one month."

I haven't heard that one before. Too true.