Harvard, MIT, Carnegie...U Penn...

 

Rice! And I like Rice cuz I'm ...but, they have a good MBA program too.

 

Best time to apply to top school is when economy is good. It's less incentive for people to stay in school when they can be making money now. When the economy is bad, they get flooded with applications.

 

Butt it's in fucking Houston.

My butt buddy from HS went to Rice. He had perfect SAT, had 60 college credits with a 4.0 in all classes. Harvard turned him down, Stanford turned him down, MIT turned him down.. Rice accepted him.

He's gwairo.. dad was a banker. Probably not interesting enough nor rich enough for ivy reague.

 

It's okay! TacoTime is from Alberta...going to Houston is like "home". Without the snow.

 

When peeps ask what it's like to be where I am, I just say: think of Texas except with winters like Cleveland.


And no guns. But, aside from firearms...ridiculously close.

 

Maj, was that (thanks for visiting don't forget to leave) directed towards me?

 

Just passing through. I'll go ahead and let you continue to educate the Ramblings troops.

 

Nope, nope and nope.

Like I said, I'm a lowly engineer. Or also known as a Civil Engineer. I used to build big buildings ( $300-600M) but I've since transitioned into transportation engineering. Definitely not the best paying, but I definitely do alright. I grew up loving Lego and building shit.. so I figured I'd do it as a career :P

 

No doubt, man...
yeah, Dad is a Suisse minimalist type...he always jokes about wishing he could just go live in the woods a la into the wild...then he says but now he's part of the problem too cause he wants his youtube and ipod to listen to hendrix.

Gotcha, thanks for taking the time to elaborate. I consider myself pretty sharp and I'm always pretty astounded by how vast and encompassing your knowledge is...I can tell you know a lot about a lot...Yum too, Franch too...Justin knows some stuff too, I think.
I'm business degree...I tried to go engineering after taking 4 years to get my AA and they said I would basically have to start over. I said, thanks anyway and settled for Marketing degree. Considered MBA, but it didn't get the blood moving in my pants...I said if I went back and put effort and cash into furthering my education it would have to be with a predetermined career goal or something I'm super passionate about. Then I found Acurazine...

Between my parents' Florida Pre-paid and the pay for college program at work, I'd make a grand every quarter! No reason not to finish...plus, Mom wouldn't have it...she's like, sorry, both my kids will be college grads. She always complained that my Grandfather was typical old school Mexican macho and told her not to go past dental hygienist to dentist because she was a woman.

 

Sh*t...just realized, next month will be a decade out of college...I'm gettin old!

 

do you live in Texas? Then NO

 

fucking civil.. you guys would fucking party all the time while we were stressed the fuck out all the time. We despised you guys.

Always had the fine ladies too.

Move to a bustling populus, make bank.

Civil is an interesting engineering major.. lots of political ties.

 

how many greased palms can this gauge rebar support?

 

I wanted to do mechanical...i love taking sh*t apart and "fkng sh*t up" as you said. I'd be a pro at that.

 

Ahhhh...okay okay. Yeah, believe it or not, I don't know any Civvies...all my friends, well, all being were either electrical, computer, physics, aeronautics, or mechanical. I think the parents threatened death if anyone studied anything else in Eng.



And per Maj, yeah...you Civvies had it good in school.

 

So, for the record, I was in CompSci before finishing up in Business Skoo. So, BCom with MIS/systems major.


In other words, too lazy and stupid for CompSci.

 

I started working for IBM 7 months out of high school. The job kind of fell in my lap. Looking back, it was a job anyone can do, but at the time, I was working at Jiffy Lube, so anything paying more than minimum wage was a step up. That was 8 years ago.

IBM gave me enough rope to hang myself; thankfully I didn't. I really credit my managers there for trusting me enough in certain situations to navigate the IT field. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am today.

With that said, I feel like I'm getting close to reaching my ceiling; without a degree that is. I know I'm capable of much more, I just need that piece of paper to get me there - which is kind of depressing in a way.

My father is 62 years old. He's been in the insurance field since the 70s. He was laid off back in 2008, at which point he tried to start his own firm. It didn't work out for him, due to a number of reasons (some, out of his control). Searching for a job was very difficult for him for two reasons:

1) His age. No one wanted to hire a guy to lead their company that was less than ten years from retirement.
2) He didn't have his Masters, even though he had about 40 years of experience.

It's sad, but it's how the world works

I do want to go back to school. The company I'm with will cover part of my tuition, but I need to be an associate for that to happen. I'm playing the role of subservient contractor at the moment, and my manager, his manager, and even our director want to make me an associate. We're just waiting for that to happen - impatiently, of course. I hope to be an associate by the end of Q1 2015, but I've been looking at other jobs as well as I refuse to let a good opportunity pass me by.

Either way, I'm going back. Even if it's community college - which I tried doing straight out of high school, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind at time.

Ultimately I want to become a mechanical engineer. I also have a strong interest in aerodynamics and design. I used to draw a lot as a kid, but that stopped around age 14.

/novel

 

butt... butt..

I'm smart enough to know I don't know shit.

 

Oh we partied real good, lol. Mojo, what did you take in school?

Aeronautics and physics? How's the non-job market lol? ME can be cool but everyone thinks they'll be building cars when they're done, when in reality, they design ventilation systems in buildings, or calculate forces on a screw. Some do get wicked jobs though. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do civil again, but oh well. I enjoy what I do.

 

K...so, without me getting into it, the IT world is split into two general realms...you're either in dev (programmer, systems analyst) or you're in business consulting (BA, PM).

At some juncture, it is generally (key word here) to go into the latter field. You have more rope...the BS that is involved in PM and BA work allows for a far more iterative process which, always buys you time. So long as you are organized and not a brain-dead moron, being a BA/PM is unbelievably...easy. IMO.

These roles segue into management/lead roles as well. So...if you were to get my two cents on what to do M, I would suggest you just get BA-certified. This does NOT require college degree and most community colleges will offer evening classes that will teach you PMIBOK or BABOK principles...write the exam and voila, you've got your own buy-yourself-a-job paper.

Easy. And without the university/college BS and loans.

 

And one more thing, getting a BA/PM certification is one of the FEW professional pieces of paper OUT there you can get from anywhere (regardless of school rep) and get the "street cred" you need.

The IIBA and PMI are recognized organizations and so long as the learning institution offers courses from those places, you're fine. Go with the cheaper place.

 

But, if infrastructure/hardware is your passion...even those have certification programs that can be taken on evenings/weekends a la bootcamp style. I like the Cisco certifications...but, that's cuz I'm biased as I am one.

So, start with the CCNA and work your way to CCNP...CCIE is really hardcore...and only if you are ambitious and want to be part of a l33t group.

 

ME is okay. If you want to just do it for fun, go for it, otherwise check what these guys typically do for a living. A lot of the fun jobs are few and far between. Being that you live in FL.. AC repair.




Hang in there M.. I hope your dad landed on his feet. Lots of age discrimination indeed. Working and going to school is fucking tough. Might be better to save money to support yourself then take time off from school when you're ready.

 

Yummy just dropped some knowledge.. soak it up with your sphincters.. closer to the brain and all.

 

EE.. was in reliability field, now in semicon.

 

Thanks, Maj. I try.

 

M, my butt buddy in college was in IT. Had all the certs, but the big boys wanted the EE degree. So he went to school and earned it to raise his ceiling. He jumped ship to ship because he had over 15 years IT experience and all the major certs plus EE degree. Companies kept throwing money at him. Now he works for the city as a director in a plush job paying him 150k.. forever. fk.

Make it happen cap'n.

 

Well, both my buddies who went into aeronautics worked in aerospace. And sh*t, dude...they have a kick@$$ pickup back then: Rocket scientists. No one could beat that...

Other areas for applied aeronautics is in pipelines...and in Alberta, um...yeah. Heaps from Enbridge, Syncrude, Halliburton, and etc.


Physics...? The guy was too freaking smart for all of us. He's a prof now out east. So, he did well.

 

Development is not my field. I'm actually in Logistics for a data center now; no more hardware/software support. I like it but don't want to be doing the same thing five years from now. I'm not sure project management is where I want to go either, but I have thought about it in the past.

 

He was making 60k at the age of 19.. obamanotbad.jpg

That was great for him, he bought a brand new miata (nohomo), and an omega seamaster watch. Even though he managed many businesses, he couldn't break through ceiling until he got the degree.. Can definitely understand your situation.

 

You just need to know how to crack the whip or spit on the tip if you want to be a PM. It's a fine line.

 

 

He did, although it's in a town he hates (Bakersfield) in a state he hates (California). It pays the bills, but he's been looking for an out. He also wants to move back to the east coast; all his family is on the east coast. I'd love for him to move to Charlotte so I can take some time off from work, move in with him, and focus on school.

That is a pretty sweet gig.

I'm not trying to talk myself up - it's not my style - but for a 25 year old without a degree, I make pretty damn good money. My greed wants more though

 

And so, I suspect you'll like business analysis. Elicitation of requirements business and functional.

Getting trained up on ITIL, COBIT is also not a bad route to go. There are still lots of options outside of dev-work or hardware-stuff.



But, give it some thought. The key here is, you need to get certified...you are still young though and so, going back to school to earn a degree in some applicable field is not horrid. But, if you want to get in and out quickly...then, certification is the way to go.

 

 

I'm gonna follow my true passions...

I'm either going to open up an Asian rub n' tug, or a pho restaurant

"Ding-a-ring!" Goes da cash legister!

 

Where you going to find an old lady to make pho or boss a bunch of young asian bitches around?

Furthermore.. where you going to find a bunch of young ladies to serve pho or suck dick in Alberta?

 

Must move out of Alberta..

 

Mudder-fawking-...