show your stuff -- education anyways.

After browsing around the forums for some time, I have seen quite a few posts. Some of the people here seem to not only to possess a healthy knowledge of the topics posted here but also of other related technologies that aren't. Is this result of education, experience or both?

Really interested to hear from some of my biggest helpers such sepodaticreations, rycamor, noxcuz, jdk, freebsd and some others I am sure I am forgetting.

I am posting a poll with generic years in school just because I am not sure if other countries use the same degree system.

As for myself, no higher education that can be really counted. Going back to college in the fall to finish what I started. God help the other students!

I studied for four years in a business collage, specializing in computer science -- if that's what you can call it. But all that's learned of web development is through use of bought books, online tutorials, work experience, and from a few good helpers of these forums. That's basically my education. Sure we had a lil web course in the collage but the teacher didn't really know much about the subject.

I don't know about other countries but in Finland, there really isn't any formal education when it comes to web development. A school that I'm applying now does have extensive computer programming and network courses, but nothing specific to web development. That leaves it pretty much for people to learn from other sources and on their own.

Business 'collage' is that like a college but more colourful and made up of pieces of other colleges?

I would say experience, everything I post here is the result of experience as University education has taught me very little internet related, and even less that I could pass on. You can tell when somebody who has been told something at University forms an argument from knowledge and not experience, the result being a very stylised organised response. University really doesn't promote the hacking methods needed for dealing with the requests people make. At University the answers are usually methodical, but here you often need to be able to just hack a fix together. Self tuition and experience promotes the ability to hack fixes together, especially in a work environment when things have to work (you don't just get a lower mark).

I would have thought there are plenty here with higher education under their belt, but their posts rely more on experience and self taught knowledge than education.

Business collage is the same as a commercial school that starts from the point that you will enter into a work position in the business world. This is a very wide perpective and it is only the first degree in the area. After you have past it, you can move forward, and specialize even more on almost anything you want, any that involves business. For me, goals include becoming a system administrator, computer programmer, web developer, etc. But there are also further educations involving marketing, secretery, finance, etc.

Sorry mate, was kinda poking fun at the fact that 'collage' in English means a picture made up of pieces of other pictures, or from a number of different materials.

That's the English for you though, we have a generic function that assumes everyone can speak our language it's just that they're not trying hard enough. Also, that if we speak loud and slow then foreigners will understand what we are saying. Stupid eh?

Oh, sorry. Didn't know collage had other meanings. I gotta start thinking about buying a dictionary


That is stupid, but who's perfect eh?

I think that goes for every nationality...

I agree with Binky on this. Nothing beats experience. Although it's great to have some theoretical knowledge as a foundation for your experience, it's not a must. And you kinda forget a lot of it really fast...

At least I have, but that may be due to me not working with what I'm (mainly) educated to do... And it's been a while since I left school, although I have since returned and got some more university degrees.

Since then, I tend to learn mostly from hands-on stuff (the trial-and-error approach?), tutorials, forums like this and some specialized corporate educations. And plain life experience...

//NoXcuz

I'm currently on my second semester at University of Hawaii..
For web development, I started on my own two years ago, just on the net and stuff (screw books ok.. I do read'em sometimes in the bookstore.. but I don't buy them. lol). Learn lots of stuff about Javascript, CCS, HTML, SSI, PHP, MYSQL, some Perl, and crap like that.
I'm doing Java, stuff about computer machine, assembly, and such on my first Computer Science course, and that's about where I am. No web courses here either.. (I think there was one, but it's for beginners..)

I spent six years in school to earn my Bachelors of Electrical Engineering degree that is being wasted away while I do paperwork for the army....

As for this web stuff, I started off with a tutorial on hotwired.com about PHP and MySQL and never looked back. Spending a lot of time reading tutorials and asking questions on here in the beginning got me where I'm at today.

Now I'm writing a huge web based personnel administration system for the Army...as an extra duty. Sure I volunteered, because we need it, but if I wasn't working for the Army, I could charge them 10 grand for this thing. But, since I do work for them, I just do it along with the rest of my work...sucks, eh?

---John Holmes...

Do you get excused from other things while you're doing this admin system? As for me, I prefer to be doing this thing than probably the stuff they're gonna make me do there

Well...it's supposed to be my "main focus" but when you get a dozen other calls or emails each day asking for this or that in the next five minutes...it's kind of hard to focus on...

oh well...

---John Holmes...

Sounds like everyday life to me...

//NoXcuz