Another education/career advice thread..., but please help!

Whiteout

Hey guys, just trying to figure out what my next move is. Here is my background:

Got my BS in Information Technology in 2010.
Joined the Air Force Reserve and am now a Client Systems Technician. Basically IT support.
Got my A+ certification in Spring of 2011.
Studying for S+.

My two ideas right now are to go University of Washington to get another Bachelors in Computer Science or to start WGU's MS in Information Assurance. The reason I am considering another Bachelors is because I enjoy coding and creating things.

I cannot decide what be the best step forward would be for me to take. I am 23 years old and don't mind going to school for a couple more years before starting my career, because I have the military paying for most of my college.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated and what would you do in my situation?

Devilry

Masters, even if its for computer science, go masters.

There are plenty of CS masters programs that will accept you with an IT degree.

Whiteout

@Devilry - Really? The only OOP experience I have is a couple Java class's. What are some example's of programs? Most of the ones I've seen want you to have pretty extensive coding knowledge.

Devilry

http://www.online.colostate.edu/degrees/computer-science/

http://www.online.uillinois.edu/catalog/ProgramDetail.asp?ProgramID=38

http://online.georgiasouthern.edu/index.php?link=grad_ComputerScience

I think most of them do, its CS or a 'related field, including IT': here is a good list:

Online Degree Search Results: 140 Accredited Degree Programs | GetEducated.com

DigitalZeroOne

Whiteout wrote: »

Got my BS in Information Technology in 2010.
Got my A+ certification in Spring of 2011.
Studying for S+.

My two ideas right now are to go University of Washington to get another Bachelors in Computer Science or to start WGU's MS in Information Assurance. The reason I am considering another Bachelors is because I enjoy coding and creating things.

Everything that you have seems to point to the opposite of computer science. What projects have you coded just for fun? If you like to code, you can still code with scripting. Powershell, Perl, etc. I'm a Windows and VMware guy that does not like programming, but powershell has won me over. I have always known about the value in scripting, but until powershell, I always avoided it. I know scripting is not the same as C++ or C# coding, but you are still writing lines of code to accomplish a task, so you may want to look at powershell and the MS in IA, not a second bachelors.

Whiteout

@Devilry - Thanks for the links. I will look into those. One thing that is hurting me is I got a 3.1 GPA in my Major and a 2.9 GPA overall, so I have to be selective on where I apply to. To much partying in college...

@DigitalZerOne - Yeah I know my experience points towards IT right now, but I really want to try to break in the CS field before it's to late. I haven't done anything huge, basically read a couple Java and C++ books. Coded some stupid programs, IE: number guesser, clock, and some other stuff like that. Like I said my coding experience is not very extensive, but I like the idea of being able to create a product that people will use. I've done some very basic scripting at work, to simplify some of the task's I do. For example creating a batch file to map all the network drives on a new computer and some other simple scripts like that. I like it, but how far can you really go with scripting? Can you get into a software engineer position after enough experience with scripting?

Thanks guys.

DigitalZeroOne

Whiteout wrote: »

I like it, but how far can you really go with scripting? Can you get into a software engineer position after enough experience with scripting?

Since I can really only speak from a powershell point of view, I have seen some massive scripts that I can only dream of writing right now. Just search for powershell scripts and you will see a ton, they can become very complex. If you truly like programming, I don't think you would need a degree in CS to work as a programmer, especially since you already have a degree. Unless you really want to be in a class with the convenience of a Professor, I would avoid the added expense. If you want or need to learn more, I would search for the MIT open courseware videos, I have watched a few and they are very good.

What may help you is to code some projects on your own, take the code or the complete project to a potential employer, show them what you can do.

Whiteout

Whiteout wrote: »

@Devilry - Thanks for the links. I will look into those. One thing that is hurting me is I got a 3.1 GPA in my Major and a 2.9 GPA overall, so I have to be selective on where I apply to. To much partying in college...

@DigitalZerOne - Yeah I know my experience points towards IT right now, but I really want to try to break in the CS field before it's to late. I haven't done anything huge, basically read a couple Java and C++ books. Coded some stupid programs, IE: number guesser, clock, and some other stuff like that. Like I said my coding experience is not very extensive, but I like the idea of being able to create a product that people will use. I've done some very basic scripting at work, to simplify some of the task's I do. For example creating a batch file to map all the network drives on a new computer and some other simple scripts like that. I like it, but how far can you really go with scripting? Can you get into a software engineer position after enough experience with scripting?

Thanks guys.

Yeah I have checked out the MIT open courseware videos, they are very cool. I am thinking I will just get my Masters in some IT related field and then go from their. If I went to pursue programming I will and if I want to go network security I will. thanks for the advice.

Devilry

Good plan. Certifications aside, I still think school is more theory than practical use, so I stick with a more general it degree.