What would you do in this situation??

When looking at resumes, schooling is good, experience is better.

James

There are a lot of things to consider to make this choice. First off, why does internet schooling not work for you. The University of Phoenix - Online (UoPhx) has great programs and you get the benefits of in class learning. They use newsgroups so that people are online when it is convienent to them, but the discussion topics are kept. Similar to TR discussions, but specific to your class.

I have found that the UoPhx has allowed me to continue working in IT and traveling for my job while getting my Doctorate. It is completely accredited and a good choice. Several of my cohort have gotten married, moved, or are in the Military and had deployment issues to Iraq while attending. It worked for them.

Try not to rule out a possible solution. List your pros and cons and see which is the longer list. Personally, given the IT job market, if you leave it, you may not get back into it.

If your ultimate goal is to move to Tampa and attend USF, then you might want to move up your schedule, get a IT job in Tampa, move and then start your schooling there. You can still attend a local community college in Tampa if you really don't want to do the online thing.

Just some thoughts. Good Luck to you.

Sit down and write out the pros and the cons of each option.

for example, a non IT job would allow you to finish school faster. That is a pro.

A non IT job would probably be a pay cut. That is a con.

Then compare the two lists. The one in which the pros out number and outweigh the cons is your winner.

Thanks, guys. Am still weighing the options.. I feel that a bachelor's (in MIS, fyi) increases my opportunities, but as was said given the nature of this field.. once you leave you may not get back. The biggest issue, I think, is the drive. It's a terrible drain on me, but I had no choice (as I said, pretty much zero IT jobs nearby, at least those that are advertised. Yes, I know that the good jobs are never advertised but still..).

The money isn't an issue for me, I have family who understands the situation and would help out (as they did when I was getting my A.S.).

Thanks again. I will make a list of pros/cons and see what I can come up with.

I'll plug ITT. They have some great programs that you can check out.

It is ALWAYS a good idea to get more education. Keep your job, but get educated. You don't have to be a full time student!

I plan on getting my MBA as well.

There's a community college near work, but the courses offered aren't as good as the one by home. I was thinking of going there to begin with but changed my mind because, as I said, they have better classes near my home. In particular they have an introductory programming course to teach the logical foundations (something I am interested in but do not have the proper grounding at the moment); they don't offer that at the school near work.

EDIT: I also have a year of courses already at the school close to home, which would simplify the admissions process for me.

If I were able to go to school full-time (or relatively close to that) to finish up the Gen Ed, I could go to USF sooner (i could actually go straight but it's cheaper to get the courses I can at a community college)..

One thing I forgot to mention, that's a BIG thing is that that intro to programming course I want to take is ONLY available afternoons (12:30). I mean.. it's not a BIG deal if I take it, but I like doing some programming, I just find it very difficult because I have never taken any courses so don't have the grounding in algorithms, data structures, etc. etc.

The best option is to go full-time at USF ASAP. The sooner you are done, the better off you will be. Going full time and living on or near campus minimizes the distractions, and gives you more time to study. You will get better grades and increase your chances of getting accepted into an MBA program.

Next best, go to USF full time and get a work-study job at the University. Then look for summer internships.

Next - Get a full time job at USF. Any job at all then take classs part time for free.

Next - Go ROTC

Next - get a full time IT job in Tampa. One that will pay 80% of your tuition.

Online/Oncampus courses are a personal preference. I prefer on Campus, my wife preferes on line. After graduation, location is key. If you are willing to move anywhere, you will find a job.

The thing is I want to mix networking (my current specialty), programming and business together. So I figure by having a solid logic foundation I can build on my analysis/design skills; fyi I checked the course description, it doesnt mention the data structures part.. my bad. But a required course at USF for the bachelor's talks about that (its called "Business Application Development" or some such thing).

Still weighing the pros and cons..

If you want to learn programming you don't learn a language, its like saying being able to hammer a nail into a piece of wood makes you a carpenter.
Nails being one way to join two pieces of wood.
You could try looking for learn programming with language X courses, but if you want to learn the basics, then it's C or Pascal i.e. non OO languages.
You won't bump into them very often in a commercial environment nowadays but most OO environments are built from them or derivatives particularly C and OO is a design method not a language, so you can learn that language free as well.

Well nobody said the CC that I was teaching at kept up. However, we were community driven and did regular checks with our community that we servered to determine course offerings. Eventually we started a course called Intro to Programming Theory and Algorithms. It was a great class to teach/take.

Yes I took it before I started teaching it to see if it matched with the real world I was working in. I only taught as a part time teacher in addition to working full-time and going to school - whewwww.

I agree with you Tony that more prospective and current managers should at least take some sort of Design type classes - programming, systems, project, etc. I worked for a guy who had the company pay for someone to come in and teach project management theory and software fundamentals to all the technical leads, business analysts, and PM's. Now during the class, he tells the instructor - this is all great, but we don't do it that way. ARGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!

The world is changing faster every day. You young folks have no idea what the economy, job market, technology, international politics, culture, etc., will be like in twenty years, and you'll still have thirty more years to work.

Unless you're willing to go into a field that has a good guarantee of not being automated or offshore outsourced out of existence during your working life, such as plumbing or possibly nursing, you want to broaden your skillset and make yourself flexible.

Programming, BTW, is already suffering both fates. The number of programmers in the developed nations will decrease, it just can't be stopped. Hands-on IT jobs that require an MCSE rather than a B.S. will be somewhat more resilient, but if I had kids I wouldn't be pushing them into that field either.

If you love IT go for it, but keep your options open by getting the business education as well. That will serve you in other fields if your future requires a change, and it will help you transition into management or lateral into an end-user department or client company.

Many of us are betting that liberal arts degrees will slowly become more valuable than they are today. Many companies have woken up to the fact that their organizational problems are due to poor communication skills, from the president's office down to the mail room. (Actually the people in the mail room are very good readers. ^_^)

They find that they can teach an interested history major to write Java, but a lot of IT majors simply don't have the aptitude to be taught to write a decent sentence, much less put together a proposal or a presentation.

You of the internet generation admittedly have better writing skills than your immediate elders because you've been typing since you were about four. The quality of the writing on this BBS always kindles hope in my heart, it's way better than I see at the office. But still, the segment of your generation that chooses IT as a career tends to be the demographic with below-average people skills, including communication.

Businesses will be looking for people with good communication skills, because they can be molded into any occupation. An education that requires a lot of reading and writing would be worth considering. After all, you're getting your IT training on the job, and everything you learn about IT will be out of date in five years anyway!

financially, you would be better off going to school full time. I know of people who have taken well over ten years to complete a BS degree, by taking one or two courses at a time, and others who have given up after going equally long times. Go for it and be done!

Good luck.

Craig Herberg