[Coco] OT: Thoughts about going back to school full time.

[jdaggett at gate.net]

Jim

In the current climate I would state this based on personal 
experience. IF one is over 50 yrs of age and contemplating a BSEE 
or even a BSET to move and gain advancement with another 
company is not a good decission. If you are doing it to advance 
within the company you are working at then by all means go for it. 

Right now if there are two engineers equally matched in skills, one 
over 50yrs old and the other say 35 yrs old, the younger enginner 
will win out. Simply because of cost of benefits.  To gain 
advancement with in the company you work for is okay. To gain the 
education to move on to another company and if you ar older than 
50yrs old  will be a mistake. 

There is not supposed to be age descrimination in hiring, but in a 
quiet way there is. Proving it is far more difficult than it is worth the 
time and effort. 

In some circles the BSET is  not as prefered as the BSEE is. 
Reasoning is the BSET has less math requirements. A BSEE will 
have 23 semester hours of mathematics in a 128 hour degree 
program. There are two courses that are not part of the BSET that 
are apart of the  BSEE program. These are:

1) Analysis of Linear Systems
2) ElectroMagnetic Fields and Waves. 

Linear Systems is the main course that separates techs from 
enegineers. Heavy in theory and in math. Fields in Waves is to 
some a brutal course as it requires visualization of three 
deminsional concepts and mathematics. I just loved those triple 
spherical integrals and gradients. Not to leave out Maxwell's 
Equations either.

just my opinion

james

On 4 Dec 2005 at 14:43, Jim Cox wrote:

From:           	"Jim Cox" <jimcox at miba51.com>
To:             	CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Date sent:      	Sun, 04 Dec 2005 14:43:33 -0800
Subject:        	[Coco] OT: Thoughts about going back to school full time.
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> I realize this is OT, but there is a lot of wisdom on this 
> list and I thought that besides search the web for info, 
> I'd ask here for toughts, ideas, and strategies for going 
> back to school full time.
> 
> Right now I am taking C programming on the side and while 
> I enjoy it, I am finding that between work and everything 
> else, I am running out of bandwidth.  I know that there 
> will be a lot of sacrifices, but I am wondering if going 
> back to school full time might be the answer.  Also I am 
> dealing with a major case of career burnout, and I mean 
> major.
> 
> I'm looking at a program at local university for a BSET 
> degree, since that would allow me to leverage my 23 years 
> as a tech plus my AAS in Electronics.  My one concern 
> though is most of my experience is in test, and I want to 
> move into engineering.  Is a BSET the right choice?
> 
> For those of you who after working for a while, quit and 
>  went back to school full time, how did you do it?  Did 
> you take out loans or did you just save up the money.
> 
> If you have any thoughts, I'd like to hear from you, but 
> please reply off line.  Thanks!
> 
> Jim
> 
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