Advice on Degrees and Certs

redz

DissonantData wrote: »

But in what situations would you be inclined to hire someone with a business or finance background

I operate primarily in risk analysis for several clients. A business or finance degree is as effective (or more, provided the same technical experience) within information assurance as a technical degree when assessing the high level IA business processes of a client.

It's why companies like FishNet Security require either a technical or a business degree for their GRC consultants - one, situationally dependent (of course), can be far more useful than the other (EDIT: when putting a team together)... Provided the same experience.

EDIT: It's all in marketing - a law degree with a CCFP? Insanely valuable. Some degrees just can't be marketed as an advantage in IT, in which case they're still better than no degree, but not going to beat out relevant experience.

paul78

redz wrote: »

To be clear, once my consulting schedule slows down (or I accept a real person job), I intend to begin taking classes at WGU.

Feels like dejavu. I said the same thing 20 years ago but things never slowed down for me. I agree with all you said but hope you consider starting on your degree. Two decades ago, there were no online schools like WGU. It sounds like you have a successful career and it may never slow down.

@op - I won't pig-pile but perhaps you may want to reconsider your comments.

blueberries

In cool-ege they lie to you. Telling you all degrees are equal. I drank the koolaid (and plenty of beer) and took an economics degree instead of something challenging like EE. This was the biggest mistake of my life. Afterwards I always got hired for my one practical skill (speaking Spanish) not for the degree, which meant nothing to nobody.

Had I several years to do over with, I'd either have gotten an EE degree or just focused on getting my CCIE right out of high school.