Question about non IT related degrees

I have been in IT for 5+ years and have accumulated a few certifications along with way, however my BS is in Hospitality Management. My degree is from a solid University in the states, which is regionally accredited. With that being said, I will admit that I am insecure since this major has nothing to do with business or IT, yet I find myself in an environment that encompass both of these very heavily.

My question to the board is, should I worry about this or should I stop thinking about it? Would you recommend getting another bachelors or even a master degree? Would even getting an associate degree in accounting or finance be a wise idea?

Just wanted to know your thoughts and ideas.

Forgive me for spelling errors I have a lot of people talking around me at the moment.

Kind Regards,

Patrick

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Comments

brianeaglesfan

Honestly for most positions it's not going to matter. Probably half of all IT workers today either lack a degree at all or have one with a non-IT major, and depending on what your goals are it may not matter going into the future. If you're shooting for management you could always go for an MBA with an IT focus or maybe pursue an MS in MIS or IT. Otherwise for many companies it's more about your experience than your paper. Even those who request a BS in CS or IT usually will take equivalent experience.

[Deleted User]

I think having a Bachelor's degree in general would be a plus. You can easily relate it to how you might be a great prospective employee in the future. It may even play into management roles in the future for IT. Personally, I only have an Associates in Network Design and Admin so I don't really know how an unrelated Bachelors might fare. There are probably several people on here that have a Bachelors in something unrelated to IT that might be able to weigh in. Having a Bachelors degree might put you in a good position to obtain another degree also because you probably have generals and such that would transfer over.

brad-

I wouldnt worry about it. You have 5 yrs experience. I know plenty of people that majored in English or Communication that work in IT.

The masters may be worth your time and effort if it means something to you, but I dont see the ROI in it unless you want to teach.

You have a BS and certs...most people just have certs...you already have a leg up, and exp. Dont worry about it IMHO.

arwes

I wouldn't worry about it at all. A friend of mine works in IT security at a NASA base, and they didn't care what your degree was in, just as long as it was a bachelor's degree. He told me there's people on his team with bachelor's degrees in real estate, accounting, and there's a few general studies people. You've got experience under your belt now as well, and that helps quite a bit. I wouldn't go for a master's unless I was looking at a teaching position.

Devilsbane

Shouldn't matter, just need that credential.

erpadmin

I would think that a Masters would at the least get a few interviews for a management position in IT. A Masters for just getting a helpdesk job I agree is a waste.

But as someone who does work at a college, don't knock teaching. I'm seeing more and more adjuncts (part-time profs) every day and less and less tenured professors. These adjuncts still have a day job and just do the teaching bit for some side cash. OR in the case of my colleagues, to pad their already sweet pensions (it adds to pension credit). It's something I myself may look into in my last few years.

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

I would think that a Masters would at the least get a few interviews for a management position in IT. A Masters for just getting a helpdesk job I agree is a waste.

But as someone who does work at a college, don't knock teaching. I'm seeing more and more adjuncts (part-time profs) every day and less and less tenured professors. These adjuncts still have a day job and just do the teaching bit for some side cash. OR in the case of my colleagues, to pad their already sweet pensions (it adds to pension credit). It's something I myself may look into in my last few years.

Yeah, management is something I want to get into eventually. A helpdesk manager would be fine or even a supervisor job. I am currently a helpdesk technician for a manufacturing corporation. We are an SAP shop and I would think think having an accounting background would help. Do you think getting an associate degree in accounting or finance would help me get a functional support job in our SAP group? Since you are an ERP guy I figured I would piggy back off of your response and do a follow up question.

We do have a lot of online training with our BW and R3 modules. In your opinion would that be enough?

Sorry to go crazy with the questions, I feel selffish

One a side note we use Peoplesoft in our environment. We utilize the payroll, HRMS, HR, and Service one ticketing system. I personally love the modules I have interaction with, which is mainly Service One, and the HR module. Its a blend of SAP and Peoplesoft.

Devilsbane

erpadmin wrote: »

But as someone who does work at a college, don't knock teaching. I'm seeing more and more adjuncts (part-time profs) every day and less and less tenured professors. These adjuncts still have a day job and just do the teaching bit for some side cash. OR in the case of my colleagues, to pad their already sweet pensions (it adds to pension credit). It's something I myself may look into in my last few years.

I know serveral college instructors in that very same position. There are some full time teachers with their B.S. that don't know crap and walk all over the adjuncts who actually know what they are talking about.

Your getting rep for this post!

erpadmin

Devilsbane wrote: »

I know serveral college instructors in that very same position. There are some full time teachers with their B.S. that don't know crap and walk all over the adjuncts who actually know what they are talking about.

Your getting rep for this post!

Much obliged, sir--thank you.

It is possible to be an Instructor, though it is rare, and you have to do some real fill-in-the-blanks to someone who will hire you as an Instructor (Instructors=B.S. only. Professors=Masters to Ph.D [crap Piled high and DEEP...) I only know of one guy who is an Instructor and he has no desire to get his Masters because he already sold his sole to be in Management [on top of him having a busy family, to be fair to him]. Also, you're not lying. Someone I know in management is an adjunct and one of the courses he teaches is Computer Security at a graduate certificate level. That means basic stuff like SSL protocols (SSL v2, SSL v3, TLS 1.x, though TLS 1.0 seems to be what's used now even though TLS 1.2 has been out for like forever), Encryption strength and type, etc. He's asking me if I know the difference. At first, I'm thinking he's just testing me, but he really didn't know. And I asked him if he was supposed to teach this stuff at his NSA-approved course, and he said it doesn't get that detailed.

Bottom line with adjuncts professors/instructors...it's really hit-or-miss, and that's really a darn shame.

N2IT wrote: »

Yeah, management is something I want to get into eventually. A helpdesk manager would be fine or even a supervisor job. I am currently a helpdesk technician for a manufacturing corporation. We are an SAP shop and I would think think having an accounting background would help. Do you think getting an associate degree in accounting or finance would help me get a functional support job in our SAP group? Since you are an ERP guy I figured I would piggy back off of your response and do a follow up question.

Trust me when I tell you this: An accounting degree will only help you IF you are going the functional route (being an end user) OR perhaps doing application developing for your ERP. It does absolutely NOTHING for you if you wish to be a technical support person of any capacity in an ERP (be it SAP or Oracle/PeopleSoft [it will ALWAYS be PeopleSoft...yes Oracle owns it, but Oracle also had it's own ERP that NEVER surpassed PeopleSoft and that's why it's owned by them]. You are much better off trying to focus more on how SAP/PeopleSoft internally works. PeopleSoft for example is a three-tier application. You have a Web Server that connects to an Application Server that then connects to a Database via ODBC. Then you gotta know other things like JOLT, Tuxedo, etc. That's just a terribly basic example, but coming from someone who barely knows the difference between a credit and a debit, I am pretty sure an Accounting degree will not help you on the technical end UNLESS you are going to do developing. As an admin, though...not so much.

N2IT wrote: »

One a side note we use Peoplesoft in our environment. We utilize the payroll, HRMS, HR, and Service one ticketing system. I personally love the modules I have interaction with, which is mainly Service One, and the HR module. Its a blend of SAP and Peoplesoft.

One thing you may want to keep in mind is that PeopleSoft has a TON of verticals [education (from pre-k to higher ed), healthcare, government, corporate [financials]] SAP seems to do well in Financials and Manufacturing. I have only met one admin in PeopleSoft who does support SAP for HR and PeopleSoft for everything else but that's not typical. Though this admin is at a very popular Div-1 school, which I won't name. If I have a bias for PeopleSoft, in part it's because that's what I worked on the last 7 years and in part it is pretty much everywhere. SAP of course is too (it is still number one in market share), but it would be easier for me to find a job if I needed to because of my PeopleSoft background. BUT...I won't get the type of job I want without a degree. Got the knowledges, but currently not the smarts....one day I hope that changes.

I don't want to hijack this guy's thread, so if you want to know more, please feel free to PM me. If I get enough folks doing that, I will start a thread somewhere.

erpadmin

LOL...I didn't realize it was your thread to begin with N2IT. LMAO. (really...)

Seriously, I sent you a PM, and if I can, I'll answer whatever you (or anyone else) wants to know.

dynamik

N2IT wrote: »

Sorry to go crazy with the questions, I feel selffish

That's sort of the entire point of this board. I don't see there being a lot of activity here if people aren't asking questions...

I wouldn't worry about it at all. Most places just want you to have a 4-year degree. Like others already mentioned, having that much experience will certainly make up for any perception of shortcoming from having an unrelated degree.

I think a masters is a good next-step for you. You can get something that's more in-line with what you're doing, and again, that'll certainly trump whatever your undergrad is. I wouldn't waste the time and money doing an associate or another BS/BA.