MIS degree worth getting

MIS degree worth getting? It would be paired with my A.A.S degree in computer science / information systems. My ccna expired last year and instead of putting time and effort towards that. I feel a bachelors degree would be much more beneficial.

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ptilsen

Obviously from your other thread, I think getting a bachelor's degree is going to be very beneficial. However, I think CCNA is a big deal as well. While I would encourage you to get your bachelor's degree, re-earning your CCNA at this point is what would be called low-hanging fruit. It won't take you that much time or money, and having it is going to make a big difference in your job prospects, or it should.

Also, as many will be quick to point out, you can certainly do both. Unless you take a lot of classes or have particularly hard classes, studying for CCNA on the side is well within the realm of possibility.

krjay

My MIS degree got me in the door where I'm at now, but taught me nothing relating to my current role at work. My CCNA studies have proven extremely useful at this job. I'd do both.

LarryDaMan

A bachelor's degree is going to be required for some positions and you'll be more competitive with one. But for where you want to be in the next few years, is it a requirement? Are people asking for it? If not, can you spend that time and money more wisely? Check out job descriptions, do some research.

celticsfan89

Really. What kind of job do you have now? Was it easy finding a position with this degree?

celticsfan89

Yeah i agree. Except i don't plan to work with switched, routers,etc. I would like more of QA analyst, product support, product marketing specialist, application/software support job. So i feel a bachelor's in MIS would prove to be more beneficial. The biggest reason is degrees are for life and you don't have to renew them compared to the ccna. Even though i could go back and get my ccna security and it would automatically renew my ccna and ccent certs. Which is very tempting.

celticsfan89

Yeah true. With my A.A.S in csis and ccna, ccent, network + certs. I would probably be good to go. I'm more worried about in the future when i'm older. That bachelors could become a major comfort later in life....

celticsfan89

Do you feel like you learned a lot through your MIS degree?

Akaricloud

As someone who did get his MIS degree I would say it's definitely worthwhile but have realistic expectations. A MIS degree itself will likely not get you a job, it won't give you much technical experience and won't win out over a lot of other degree choices. If you do choose to go this route realize you still need to find a way to gain experience on your own and you'll need to become an expert at selling yourself to employers that likely have 5 CS graduates interviewing along side you.

celticsfan89

Yeah i'm thinking the CIS degree would hold more weight than a MIS. I don't think i want to do a CS degree becuase of the intensive math..I would get a minor in business also with my CIS degree.

BoneSpur

I have MIS degree and I am currently unemployed. You will not be able to get a tech job with just the degree. You must have a certification in the area you want to work in. At my last interview the CEO of the company (who was conducting the interview) told me the degree was just the sheep skin. He also told me to find my tech passion and get certified in that passion. He then proceeded to tell me that he would hire a guy with diploma and certs over a guy with a degree and not certs. Don't be stupid, get the cert you need now, get your foot in the door and work your @$$ off. Hopefully, you are with a good company that will pay for you to go back to school to finish your MIS. MIS is geared more toward project management and IT management, so getting a Project Management cert is worthwhile if that is the path you want to go. Just my 2 cents...

lunchbox67

Get a degree in business. Get cert's for the areas of IT you want to work in.

celticsfan89

Yeah i'm thinking the degree in CIS would be the best option then with a minor in BA. I'm not exactly sure what i want to do. Just want want a jobs making decent money to be honest. I mean i don't care to deal with switches and routers. Which is what the CCNA would be. Even though i know it looks really good on my resume.

celticsfan89

So if i got my degree in BA or Marketing. What certs would go good with those and what jobs prospects would i be looking at???

Akaricloud

Honestly I think you're going about this quite backwards. Don't look at degrees and figure out what jobs you could obtain with them but rather figure out what you want to do every day for work and then decide the best degree to help expand your knowledge in that area.

If you're only looking at IT for how well the jobs pay make sure you consider some of the long hours and constantly having to learn new technology to keep up. IT isn't a career field where you can just get a degree and sit back in your comfy job; You'll need to constantly be learning new technology throughout the entirety of your career.

Iristheangel

In almost every field you go with decent pay, you will need to remain up to date.

Whether you become a doctor, nurse, lawyer, etc, you'll have to get through college and/or grad school, get certified, retake the board exams every couple years, need to attend conferences for your continuing education credits, etc

If you want an outstanding job with outstanding pay and great job security, you should get used to constantly educating, keeping up to date, and recertifying yourself because that will be your life to some degree.
If you want just a 40-55K job without job security or advancement opportunities then you can probably find a job like that with just a college degree in anything and half-arsing your way through an interview.

celticsfan89

Yeah true. What are some jobs that i could get with a bachelors in BA and A.A.S degree in CSIS? I don't know what i won't do everyday because i haven't had a chance to do much. I've mostly done just tech support and stuff which really isn't helping my knowledge. I feel like i've forgot a lot of things. It's hard to know what these jobs will be like day in and day out cause you never get a chance to. It would be nice to do that a test them out.

Iristheangel

I can't tell you that a CIS degree will get you XYZ job. I've seen people who can't get help desk jobs with CIS degrees and people who are senior UC engineers with a BS in music. Your degree is going to matter in checking off a box for HR for 99% of IT jobs out there and teaching you some basic baseline stuff. As others have said, that's not really going to primarily get you the job. Your certifications, experience, etc will get you the job and depending on what you decide to specialize in, gear your resume towards, and seek experience in will guide your ability to get that kind of job

NetworkVeteran

celticsfan89 wrote: »

I don't know what i won't do everyday because i haven't had a chance to do much.

You have more life experience than you give yourself credit for. You completed elementary school, middle school, high school, some college, and likely some sports, clubs, volunteer work, hobbies, summer camps, contests, and/or jobs. What did you excel at? What did you enjoy? When you dream, what do you dream about (besides love, fame, or fortune!)

celticsfan89

That's the problem. How do you know where to specialize these degree/qualfications towards without knowing what that work is even like? becuase you can't get a job in it becuase you don't have the neccassary requirements. I'm not exactly sure what i'd be good at to be honest.

UniqueAgEnT

What experience do you have right now? MIS degree is useful, but you need experience or else you will have a hard time finding a good position. Certifications will help a lot. I think renewing your CCNA would be a great idea if you want to continue down the networking or sys admin path.

I currently have my BS in MIS and MS in MIS and the mixture of education/certifications/experience will set you apart from other applicants.

celticsfan89

I'm not interested really in doing stuff on routers and switches. I have a little system operations/call center, tech support expierence. I do feel though a lot of my jobs have been fairly easy and haven't exposed me to a lot. Jobs i'm in interested in are application support/product support, social media, marketing, production support. Things like that....What are you doing with your MIS degree at the moment? were you able to find a job pretty soon after you got it?

daviddws

I recently finished my two Master degrees (MBA, MIS) . Like celticsfan89 said its a future investment. If it paid off in the next year or so.. I wouldn't complain, but my expectations are 5-10-15-20 years down the road.

celticsfan89

What job were you able to obtain with the MIS degree?

Akaricloud

You'll find a wide variety of positions that MIS graduates hold but realize the degree itself doesn't set you up for any of them really. You need to understand a MIS degree will not get you a job, your experience and technical knowledge will.

Myself I'm a Big Data Systems Engineer(making close to six-figures) only a little more than a year out of college but the degree really didn't play into this at all. The knowledge learned during the degree definitely helped but the qualification of having the degree did not.

celticsfan89

Do you have experience in this field or just having the degree do the job? you said your only a year out of college. So you feel that a MIS degree teaches you valuable knowledge then? do you learn a lot of technical knowledge also through the degree?

Akaricloud

I had ~2 years of part time software development experience during high school, and now ~5 years of other experience doing various roles(Desktop Support, Jr. Systems Administrator, Systems Administrator and some small contract work on the side).

The knowledge learned from the degree was definitely useful but you'll have to get most of your technical knowledge elsewhere. None of the jobs I've had, including my current one, cared whether or not I had a degree at all. Knowledge and experience land you jobs, degrees help expand your knowledge.

If you want to set yourself up for success go for any IT degree, study/pass some certifications and start working a entry level IT job at the same time.

celticsfan89

Yeah. i don't want to work exaclty strict IT work forever though. I like the business and marketing side also

Akaricloud

I'm a bit confused why you're trying to get into IT if you ultimately want to be on the business and marketing side of things. Wouldn't it make more sense to pursue careers in those from the start?

celticsfan89

So i might get like a CIS and a minor in BA or marketing/communications to open more doors

Asif Dasl

Why don't you transfer your AAS in to WGU and get a BS and then follow on to an MBA? That way you get the certs for IT and get an MBA in to the bargain which will cover marketing & business as well? Just a thought.