Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenB
That said, it's quite possible that FIRST would consider strong applicants who demonstrate that they have experience equivalent to an engineering degree. Why not submit your resume and find out?
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Education is a kind of experience but so is putting your feet on the road and figuring it out.
In fact the question really becomes increasingly: did your education prepare you to learn faster and solve problems faster than your competitor in any particular situation.
I've yet to see a college graduate with a warranty for performance from the school
Word of mouth about your actual work is really the proof you can do the big things people increasingly expect.
When you can make your customers/employers acknowledge your work.
Then again FIRST doesn't really care whom you employ if you are a vendor.
Guess it's the vendor's problem.
Certainly did not stop me from proposing a control system and several other things to FIRST.
In doing so FIRST got to see my ideas at the early stages while working on the RoboRio.
It is interesting actually I have a younger brother:
He followed me right up (this was before FIRST existed):
Same high school.
Same vocational school also a valedictorian in electronics.
Same community college.
Thing was he went to NJIT and finished the curriculum with a Bachelors.
His company at the time even paid for a big chuck of the Bachelors.
Meanwhile I picked up 2 extra years of experience.
For about 4 years he earned less than me.
Took a job at a semiconductor place here, made a little more than me for 4 years (evened it out).
Now I make about 4x (base salary only - not my bonus) what he did when the semiconductor place basically failed as a company and switched markets.
Over the last few years in fact I managed 2x, then 3x his salary to get to this level of compensation.
He's currently looking for work and every place around here wants to pay him less than he was making.
There's some luck here and there. Differences in where I spend my spare time.
However I actually count my blessings I did not continue down that path myself.
There was a very real pattern: the schools catered to the needs of a very specific list of companies.
Once those companies had issues the value of the particular set of skills they were teaching became less.
I decided I wanted a broader set of skills. Such that I can work in more than a dozen fields professionally.
This meant I could navigate around things other people couldn't and had I done that all via college it would have cost a fortune.
I never had a single student loan.
My brother is a great guy, he'll find work or he will be forced by the circumstances of the education/experience he has to abandon semiconductor work and move to another field.
It is interesting though to see the different directions we took from a common point.