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| Thread ID: 94149 | 2008-10-16 16:40:00 | Career advice | george12 (7) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 712675 | 2008-10-18 04:11:00 | Any specifics? I'm not very interested in the programming side, so I'm just making sure you're not referring only to those courses. I haven't actually studied at Vic, but have heard that Weltec is better in terms of the practical-theory split and the quality of teaching. I'm currently taking the Bachelor of IT course (first of three years) and it does include two modules of programming (out of six). The modules offered are: Year 1: FIRST SEMESTER (starting March) C++ (introduction) (3 hrs lectures, 4 hrs practical pw) Access Databases/System Analysis and Design (2 hrs lectures, 4 hrs practical pw) Communications (3 hrs lectures, 4 hrs tutorial pw) Year 1: SECOND SEMESTER (starting July) - choose 3 (VB and Maths are compulsory) VB.Net (introduction) (2 hrs lectures, 4 hrs practical pw) Networking Fundamentals (3 hrs lectures, 3 hrs practical pw) Computer Systems architecture (2 hrs lectures, 4 hrs tutorial pw) - I haven't studied this course - I chose Networking over it Mathematics for Computing/Statistics (2 hrs lectures, 4 hrs tutorial pw) All modules (except for Maths) offer some % of the module to be completed during the course. All others have a 40% exam at the end (maths has a 100% exam). I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about WelTec's BIT course :) |
jwil1 (65) | ||
| 712676 | 2008-10-18 14:24:00 | I had a look, and it seems that the parts of the course that are directly related to what I want to do, I already know most of. Of course there's plenty in there I don't know about, but it's not stuff that interests me as much. Are Polytec courses viewed by employers as being as valuable as university degrees? |
george12 (7) | ||
| 712677 | 2008-10-18 18:46:00 | Are Polytec courses viewed by employers as being as valuable as university degrees? Yes. And its more applicable to what you want to do. Like I said, Uni is for programmers. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 712678 | 2008-10-18 19:16:00 | A lot of Polytechs do degrees anyway I know Nelson Marlborough does look up NMIT | gary67 (56) | ||
| 712679 | 2008-10-18 20:15:00 | I was really, really hoping to be able to stay in Wellington... | george12 (7) | ||
| 712680 | 2008-10-20 01:40:00 | If you want to stand out from other job candidates when you apply for jobs 4 years or so down the track, go for the BE in networking engineering. And part way through your degree, apply for internships at local companies as well, this will give you some experience, and things to talk about when you go for your real job interviews. Ok some may argue you get "quicker results" and immediate vendor specific knowledge with a polytech diploma/certicate, but with a BE you will have a much better grounding for knowledge. Jobs are much more competitive these days, so give yourself the best grounding you can, while you're young. For me, I did a BSc in computer science quite some years ago, back then employers didn't specifically ask for degreed candidates, now it's Bachelors minimum, preferrably Masters degree. Also, with the first 6 months-year of employment, you will learn the vendor specific stuff anyway (Microsoft, Cisco PIX, VMWare, whatever), or if you're lucky you'll gain this experience through your internships. |
dyewitness (9398) | ||
| 712681 | 2008-10-20 02:27:00 | If you want to stand out from other job candidates when you apply for jobs 4 years or so down the track, go for the BE in networking engineering. And part way through your degree, apply for internships at local companies as well, this will give you some experience, and things to talk about when you go for your real job interviews. Ok some may argue you get "quicker results" and immediate vendor specific knowledge with a polytech diploma/certicate, but with a BE you will have a much better grounding for knowledge. Jobs are much more competitive these days, so give yourself the best grounding you can, while you're young. For me, I did a BSc in computer science quite some years ago, back then employers didn't specifically ask for degreed candidates, now it's Bachelors minimum, preferrably Masters degree. Also, with the first 6 months-year of employment, you will learn the vendor specific stuff anyway (Microsoft, Cisco PIX, VMWare, whatever), or if you're lucky you'll gain this experience through your internships. This is what my gut was telling me. It's just that a lot of people seem to think it's a waste of four years and I could do just as well not going to uni. I'm more than happy to spend the time and money if it puts me above others applying for the same jobs as I am. Could be the difference between getting a job, and getting a brilliant job. Some people have told me Victoria University is a bad choice for this? Do you have an opinion on that? |
george12 (7) | ||
| 712682 | 2008-10-20 02:56:00 | This is what my gut was telling me. It's just that a lot of people seem to think it's a waste of four years and I could do just as well not going to uni. I'm more than happy to spend the time and money if it puts me above others applying for the same jobs as I am. Could be the difference between getting a job, and getting a brilliant job. Some people have told me Victoria University is a bad choice for this? Do you have an opinion on that? Who's telling you that it's a waste of time (4 year BE)? - are they people who have done the degree? - are they people who are currently employed in a job that you would want? - are they hiring managers in a company you would like to work for? Same thing for Victoria University: - I can't really comment because I went to Auckland University - sure neither is Stanford or MIT, but does that really matter? Another tack would be approaching a company you think you may like to work for. Ask them what type of qualifications/experience etc they look for the role you want. (Make sure you dont just talk to the HR monkeys, actually talk to a technical manager making the hiring decision). Be a little wary of blindly taking advise from a webforum (mine included). Best is if you can be a position to make your own informed decisions. |
dyewitness (9398) | ||
| 712683 | 2008-10-20 04:36:00 | My Neice did her degree at Otago (the free place down south) then transfered to Wellington for the last year so that her degree was awarded from Wellington which in her field carries more cudos than the free one apparently. She originally went south because all her friends did and transfering was hassle free she said | gary67 (56) | ||
| 712684 | 2008-10-20 20:03:00 | Get into Virtualisation, that is the buzz right now and as server core increase, more and more businesses will be looking at migration to High Availability, Load Balancing VM Host Clusters, especially data centres... | SolMiester (139) | ||
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