Thread,
Here's an article that ran in today's Seattle P-I. The topic of the article is the discussion of the need for a college degree in the high-tech field, and Go2Net is used as a case-in-point.
seattlep-i.com
Work is not a matter of degree
High-tech pay lures many from college
Tuesday, September 14, 1999
By TRICIA DURYEE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
In hindsight, the view from Yang Lim's office in Wells Fargo Plaza downtown is sweet.
At the age of 25, he can retire.
But a few years ago, with only a couple more classes left to finish his undergraduate degree, the future was unclear, much like an overcast day in Seattle. His options: stay in school or land a high technology job that would lead to his position at the Internet start-up Go2net Inc.
Lim, who opted to seize the opportunity, is just one example of today's youth who see a wired future, one that sometimes demands they leap into the work world regardless of whether they're done with school.
"It wasn't impatience," Lim said. "I just didn't see a need for it. I was learning more there (at an internship), than I did at school."
Through a mix of real-life experiences, not necessarily college courses, a handful of students are going for it just like software guru and college dropout Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. Others realize they aren't geniuses and can't skip a formal education.
For those facing such a choice, history provides no clear-cut answers.
"In general we look for really sincerely highly motivated people, whether they have a specialized degree or not," said Mark Peterson, director of public relations at Go2net, which has "dozens" of openings currently. Like many technology firms in the Puget Sound area, he said they often "find that some of the greatest workers" don't have a complete college education.
Peterson doesn't know for sure how many of its 215 employees didn't complete college. But it certainly is no rarity in Seattle's halls of software.
The trend for students to leave school will continue, according to employers, students and educators. High technology in a lot of ways is a new frontier and the gold rush of the '90s. Until there's the equivalent to the lawyer's bar exam or a lot more workers for the number of available jobs, the difference between the self-taught, the Ivy Leaguers and the community college grad isn't rigidly defined.
"A college degree is one form of evidence that you possess a set of skills," said Pete Saflund, associate director of the Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies at Bellevue Community College. There's a lot of ways for people to develop those skills, and employers he said, "look at the individual rather than strictly the education."
Saflund stresses that education is still important. He said it just usually comes in non-traditional forms, like certificates from private institutions, vendor-specific schools, evening courses or community colleges.
Maybe in the end, every box isn't checked off the student's list of requirements, he said, but students are choosing courses carefully, allowing them to get the most appropriate experiences in the shortest amount of time possible.
With a simplified version of a bachelor's degree, there's no regrets, Lim says.
He sets his own hours, lives in a penthouse with two other friends, walks to work and takes martial arts classes in the evenings.
But work is hard. He's on call 24 hours a day.
"I always work more than 40 hours a week," he says, which "is fine, some days."
The environment, however, is comfortable. Most of his co-workers are young and wear anything to work, including T-shirts, cargo pants, carpenter jeans and running shoes. He shares his office with friends, and just around the corner is a leather couch with a big-screen television and video games. Visitors to the domain might start to wonder if it's really in the downtown skyscraper and not a college dorm room or fraternity house.
A toy helicopter sits on Lim's desk, and behind him a structure built out of business cards more resembles remnants from a party than an icon of corporate America.
It's almost college.
At the Microsoft campus on the other side of Lake Washington, there's a similar scene. Among the soccer fields and basketball courts, there are buildings full of offices only slightly bigger than a bathroom stall. They're occupied by computer programmers and engineers.
Robert Ream, at the age of 23, is a contract worker for Microsoft. For a year and a half, he's worked an average of 40 hours a week there. He first got a taste of the relaxed circumstances while interning as a sophomore and junior at Garfield High School in Seattle.
Now, instead of worrying about going to class or making basketball practice on time, his work week is undefined. In the winter he skis all morning and works late into the day. His tasks are fairly easy, so he saves energy for his personal ambitions.
But once again, Ream opted to get a job because he just didn't see the point in going to school much longer. Much like an NFL or NBA recruit, a degree from Clarmont-McKenna in Southern California would have only taken him more time. His first year at Microsoft, he made $100,000 instead of sinking into college debt by about $6,000. This year he expects to make $140,000 and save himself another $6,000.
"After the first year (at Clarmont), I really wanted to leave, but somehow my grandmother talked me into" the second year, Ream said.
One of the first things he did, as a non-student, was pay off the debt he'd already accumulated -- a dream many graduated students don't achieve for years. Ream's education, he says, doesn't come from college but from being a childhood computer user and by reading everything from textbooks and Web sites to magazine articles.
"These things are available in other forms," he said. "Everything I knew about computers I taught myself."
Ream is self-taught because he doesn't think colleges are teaching people the right stuff, he said.
Harris Miller, president of Information Technology Association of America Virginia, says that can be the case.
Universities "are going to teach reason and not care what the hot language is," said Miller, who added that he is an advocate of students staying in school.
At Go2net, Lim and his degree-toting co-workers make the same amount. Because of stock options, compensation depends more on when workers joined the company.
But the office is full of opinions. Walter Korman, who sits next to Lim, actually regrets completing college.
"Had I known then what I know now, I would have never finished college," he said, adding that because of his decision he was about the 60th person to join Go2net, instead of maybe the seventh.
What's even more frustrating for Korman, he says, is that nothing he learned in college is benefiting him now.
Educators dispute that. There's much more to college than a degree or the promises of a job, they say.
"Education is not a set of skills," said Ed Lazowska, chairman of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at University of Washington. College teaches students "about learning and how to think," Lazowska says.
And his school's dropout rate is close to none.
"We almost have nobody leave," he said. "Microsoft and others appreciate the value of a degree."
One of Lim's office mates agrees. Tony Istvan, a computer programmer at Go2net, said it took every one of his classes from his undergraduate and two master's degrees to get him where he is today.
"We all wish we could have been here at day one, so that we all could be rich and retire," Istvan said, but "I needed the education."
Lazowska said the fact that there is flexibility in the information technology sector is what makes the business so great.
"It's the American dream that a worker is regarded on the basis of what they can do rather than what's on their paper credentials," he said. |
