Looking for advice School/Career.

chaser7783

For the past 6 years I have been working full time and taking some classes here and there, no more than 6hrs max a semester because of having to take classes around a work schedule. I have also gained my CCNA, and Sec+ is not far off. I'm at a point where I could enter the Infosec or Networking field, but the new school semester is about to start, and I still have quite a bit of school let to go.

So my question to everyone is, should I put my everything into the field, start focusing more on my career, and start to specialize, or should I still chop away at school?

Also how many people have advanced throughout their career with a college degree?
When it comes to the Networking or Infosec field can not having a 4yr degree hold me back?

Raisin

Many people on this forum work in IT, without having a degree. It depends on the company, some will value a degree more than others. Most will be happy to see that you're working towards a degree.

paul78

Without really knowing your personal situation, my suggestion would be to continue with the school as a secondary priority as you focus on building your career.

To answer your specific question about being able to advance without a college degree, I do not have a college degree but it has not held me back. But I do not believe that it's the norm and my own ability to grow my own career may have been attributed to timing and luck for all I know .

If you are able to continue to slowly chip away at the degree, it can only increase your likelihood of success.

chaser7783

In some of your experiences have you found companies willing to work with someone who is also in school?

paul78

Do you mean in school full-time? It's very common for folks to be doing night-classes, part-time school. Most employers and managers shouldn't really care what an employee does outside of work unless (a) it impacts their job performance (b) there is a conflict of interest.

Also - some larger companies will actually have tuition reimbursement programs as a benefit so in those cases - being is school is actually encouraged.

Valsacar

I work for one of those large companies, they are paying for my Masters degree which I'm doing basically full-time while still working. I've already been assigned a few side projects, that are outside my current position, that capitalizes on my studies.

I finished my BS working with them (used GI Bill to pay for that) and there were no issues before with having a degree but they also had no problems with me doing full-time study on my time (online and night courses, 3-4 courses/semester).

ptilsen

chaser7783 wrote: »

In some of your experiences have you found companies willing to work with someone who is also in school?

I have been a part or full-time student when starting at three different jobs, including my current one.

Keep working at school. I would recommend going for 6-8 credits a semester, more if you work a low-hours and/or low-stress job. There's no rush, but no reason to dawdle, either.