Business Information Technology vs. Information System (Help)

Hi everybody, I am currently a senior and I have narrowed down my degree to these two choices Business IT (BIT) and Information Systems. I am going to attend a community college first of all (NVCC if anybody cares) and then I will transfer to either Virginia Tech for BIT or VCU for Info. Systems. These degrees look somewhat similar to me, I need help in someone differentiating the two for me. Also which of the two would be best over the other and why? Thanks for the help. (The BIT degree offers two different options or concentrations, I will post a link to both of them)

VA Tech (BIT)- http://www.bit.vt.edu/
Decisions Support Systems (Opt. 1) http://www.bit.vt.edu/academics/dss_index.html
Operations and Supply Management (Opt. 2) http://www.bit.vt.edu/academics/osm_index.html

VCU Information Systems http://business.vcu.edu/infosys.html

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zafeer20

Bumping the thread

Qord

"Best" is entirely subjective and only you can answer that. To see the real differences between them you're best bet is to look at the required courses of each program.

zafeer20

Qord wrote: »

"Best" is entirely subjective and only you can answer that. To see the real differences between them you're best bet is to look at the required courses of each program.

Hmm I understand your answer, I'll look into it again. Let me rephrase my question which of these degree would be best for the job market in the future. Thanks for the reply.

iBrokeIT

First, YOU need to answer for yourself what you want to do for a career THEN you pick a degree to allow you to accomplish that goal.

Most people here probably here arent familiar with exactly what classes youll be taking and which skills will be taught in those classes. Sounds like that would be a good question for admissions.

A person with ambition and the will to continuously learn new technologies will succeed in IT regardless of their degree.

Also, looks like both degree at that the same institution so why not take a few classes from each and see for yourself which YOU like better.

LittleBIT

Business IT v Info Tech

Business IT is for people who want to be in a management position with limited IT experience. These people don't need to know the systems in and out, or be enterprise architects, they are big picture people, and use technology to solve business problems. I'm pursuing this degree from WGU becuase I feel that is the direction I 'Should' be heading in. I want to either be in a management position or own my own company one day.

Info Tech can go several ways, its really what you feel your 'domain' is. Security IT, healthcaare IT, Network Admin, System Admin, Enterprise Admin, All those kinds of jobs. Theres so many fields in IT you can't go wrong.

However, do not rely just on a degree, while you are in school, I would urge you to seek alternate ways to stay up to date. Certifications are a big one. People with degree's are good, but people with certs and a kick butt resume are just as good. Cert's are used to prove your expertise in an area. A degree is kind of an 'overview' of stuff they bundled together.

Try to find out what you want to do. If your about to graduate high school, and going to a Com. College, try getting an internship or a job. Most people start at the bottom, rebuilding/building PC's, doing virus removal, things like that, then they decide from there. Theres 3 avenues, and they branch into different area's. A+ cert is basically everything to do with home user PC's and helpdesk. Net+ can lead you to networking and NOC type stuff, and eventually Cisco certs. Security+ depending on your market in your city can lead you to a good job, but its not easy and most good IT Security positions, you need a degree or military experience.

Do some research and find what 5 jobs you find interesting, post them here, and we can better assist with what you should pursue. The community here is full of professional and veteran IT's (Who I still pick their brains). IT is constant learning, getting a cert and stopping will get you no where. You must always stay on your A game.

Hope this helps.

zafeer20

LittleBIT wrote: »

Business IT v Info Tech

Business IT is for people who want to be in a management position with limited IT experience. These people don't need to know the systems in and out, or be enterprise architects, they are big picture people, and use technology to solve business problems. I'm pursuing this degree from WGU becuase I feel that is the direction I 'Should' be heading in. I want to either be in a management position or own my own company one day.

Info Tech can go several ways, its really what you feel your 'domain' is. Security IT, healthcaare IT, Network Admin, System Admin, Enterprise Admin, All those kinds of jobs. Theres so many fields in IT you can't go wrong.

However, do not rely just on a degree, while you are in school, I would urge you to seek alternate ways to stay up to date. Certifications are a big one. People with degree's are good, but people with certs and a kick butt resume are just as good. Cert's are used to prove your expertise in an area. A degree is kind of an 'overview' of stuff they bundled together.

Try to find out what you want to do. If your about to graduate high school, and going to a Com. College, try getting an internship or a job. Most people start at the bottom, rebuilding/building PC's, doing virus removal, things like that, then they decide from there. Theres 3 avenues, and they branch into different area's. A+ cert is basically everything to do with home user PC's and helpdesk. Net+ can lead you to networking and NOC type stuff, and eventually Cisco certs. Security+ depending on your market in your city can lead you to a good job, but its not easy and most good IT Security positions, you need a degree or military experience.

Do some research and find what 5 jobs you find interesting, post them here, and we can better assist with what you should pursue. The community here is full of professional and veteran IT's (Who I still pick their brains). IT is constant learning, getting a cert and stopping will get you no where. You must always stay on your A game.

Hope this helps.

That helped a lot haha, I am currently reading up on my A+ and I live in the DMV area which supposedly has a very strong IT market. I was interested in cybersecurity at first to be honest but I couldn't find a bachelors for it, just a minor or a masters. I know getting certs and working my way up through experience would be good, but I'm expected to get a degree (parents). I also use this site called Usajobs.gov and they offer internships which are targeted at students in IT I'll try to get an internship from there and if I can't then I'll try what you said and do home projects on fixing computers. These are the career pathways I'm interested in
-Cybersecurity
-Database admin
-Network systems/Database analyst

I honestly appreciate the help, it helps clear a lot of things going on in my mind.

zafeer20

iBrokeIT wrote: »

First, YOU need to answer for yourself what you want to do for a career THEN you pick a degree to allow you to accomplish that goal.

Most people here probably here arent familiar with exactly what classes youll be taking and which skills will be taught in those classes. Sounds like that would be a good question for admissions.

A person with ambition and the will to continuously learn new technologies will succeed in IT regardless of their degree.

Also, looks like both degree at that the same institution so why not take a few classes from each and see for yourself which YOU like better.

I appreciate the reply, but that would be costly for me to go to both schools and take classes. My CC counselor said that a business administration associates would be best for you to get if I wanted to transfer into BIT program at tech. That made me think wouldn't BIT be more business oriented rather than IT, but they also offered the two options or different routes you can take. I was somewhat interested in hearing peoples thoughts on Option 1. And for info sys I can take get an associates in IT to transfer into the info sys program at VCU.

zafeer20

zafeer20 wrote: »

I appreciate the reply, but that would be costly for me to go to both schools and take classes. My CC counselor said that a business administration associates would be best for you to get if I wanted to transfer into BIT program at tech. That made me think wouldn't BIT be more business oriented rather than IT, but they also offered the two options or different routes you can take. I was somewhat interested in hearing peoples thoughts on Option 1. And for info sys I can take get an associates in IT to transfer into the info sys program at VCU.

Here is what it says for option 1
"Students in the DSS option take a variety of specialized courses in the information technology field that enhances their ability to develop computer decision support systems. Course topics include information systems, database management, networks and telecommunications, security, decision support system development and implementation, visual interface design, artificial intelligence, client/server systems, internet systems development, and simulation as well as various mathematical modeling techniques. Specific computing language skills include C++, Visual Basic (VB.net) and JAVA."

zafeer20

Bumping the thread

LittleBIT

-Cybersecurity (Security Focused). Obviously, a degree in Computer Science is an obvious one. WGU and AMU/APUS offere online cyber security degree's. I would search up on info for the CISSP (Business oriented/big picture) or CEH type stuff (Certified Ethical Hacker). Its hard to find schools or classes that specialize in this type stuff.

The job market for Cyber security is mainly Gov't jobs, and you need damn good experience and to be credentialed. There are entry level jobs, just with anything else, Security+ (Not just the certification, but the realms it covers and can lead you further) would be a good place to start.

-Database admin (I dont know anything about this, my assumption, is a Computer Science degree is a must)

-Network systems/Database analyst. Net+, Cisco type stuff, Novell, Juniper, etc etc, are all good leads to what you will be doing. As for classes, those should be plentiful. As for classes, or a degree, ITT Tech, WGU, AMU/APUS offer stuff online, as for local classes, you need to look for network stuff, which I doubt you will find sadly.

Honestly, and probably most tech's will agree with me, Schooling can only get you from point A to point B. No Degree, to Degree. Your experience will count more in the long run. Most people get certified first, before pursuing degree's. Why? They are industry recognized by companies, you demonstrated (to some extent) your knowledge , and can land a job while you go to school to build up on your experience.

Look to compliment cert's with your degree, again, you have Cyber Security, which unless you have military training, is going to be hard to break into... As for the other two, experience, experience, experience!

I hope this helps you a bit bud, any other questions please ask away!

I have been away for a couple of weeks, so I will check on this thread when I can.

AverageJoe

There is already some really great advice provided in this thread, but here are a couple of additional points:

1) NVCC's programs look like they try to incorporate preparation for appropriate level professional certifications. For example, several of their database classes try to parallel the requirements for Oracle certs. Similarly, their cyber security classes try to help prepare students for Security+ and CISSP. The classes are NOT boot camps for the certs, but they aim to at least introduce you to the topics required for the certs. How well they do probably varies based on the instructor and the amount of effort students put into it. I do disagree with one comment that said "most" people get the certs and then get a degree. There are a lot who do that, but there are lots who earn a degree first or while they are earning certs. In other words, it's very hard to say what path "most" people take, and it does not have to be an "either-or," especially if you take classes that help you earn those certs. Then you kill two birds with one stone.

2) But the most important thing is, if you're not sure what you want to do, then that's one major benefit of these school programs. Try them!

Seriously, it's much better to do a semester or two of a degree and find out you don't want to do that subject for the rest of your life (because it's boring/hard/silly/whatever) then to go lock into a career and then determine it's not for you. And, some of the introductory classes for the programs may well be common to both programs, so you might be able to change after a semester without losing anything. But even if it adds a semester or two before being able to graduate, that's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

Good luck!
Joe

AverageJoe

I think iBrokeIT meant that one school offers both programs, so you can take some classes from each program and then decide which one you want to stick with. That makes a lot of sense. After all, how do we know if we like math or English or biology? We generally know because we were introduced to those subjects through the classes we took. So how do you know if you like BIT or IS or cyber security or database admin (etc.). Take a few classes and see which ones you like. If you don't like the class then you probably won't like doing it as a job either.

zafeer20

I forgot to check up on the thread, I decided that im going to be doing Business Administration at NOVA and transfer into BIT. I was also thinking about pursuing a degree with WGU afterwards. I'm currently trying to find a help desk job or an entry level job in the NOVA area, since your'e in DC and if you wouldn't mind answering, would you know of any openings for a job or internship? I can forward you my resume if you would like. Thanks