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

[Jim Cox]

James:

First off thanks for the reply, you made some really good 
points.  Secondly, I think I have asked a similar question 
a while back.  Oh well, I guess I'm showing my age.

I thought that the BSET may be a way to move into an 
engineering tech position.  Maybe that's not the way to go 
then.  For reason's I won't go into, I am looking at 
changing jobs, so your comment about getting the BSET not 
being a good decission is making me think about some other 
options.

One option is to take advantage of the resources I have 
(CoCo, 6809 trainer, Ethernut, etc...) and use those to 
refresh and improve my skill set.  It's cheaper, and more 
fun.  Some things like math and C I can also do on my own.

Thanks again for the input.

Jim

On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:02:29 -0500
  jdaggett at gate.net wrote:
> 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
>