Has anyone ever come across someone with one of these? Seriously considering obtaining one after I finish my bachelors as part of a masters/phd program…
(cue the doc jokes … lol)
1 Like
I have not worked with anyone with a PhD in IT. Maybe I wasn’t aware someone had a degree.
1 Like
all the more reason for me to go for it then. I love making my own path, and not doing what everyone else is doing.
1 Like
I worked with an Oracle DBA, who was a PhD - we called him Dr Phil - he even smoked a pipe, and looked like a chubby Gandalf The Grey! I reckon he had 15-20 years on me, but I believe he’s still working, in his 70’s (Oracle DBA)… He was a pommie too, and had an Oxford Scholar type accent…
I have an uncle (by marriage to an aunt) who got a PhD and when he stayed with us, he’d have mail delivered to Dr XXX XXXX - I thought at the time “what a wanker”…
Anyway - cut to 30+ years later - and I’m in an “organisation” (mostly to do with riding Harleys) and my nickname was “The Professor” - and I even got some of my postal mail sent to Prof. Daniel Tripp (e.g. my mobile phone bills, some bank statements etc).
2 Likes
Wow, and these guys had actual doctorates in Information Technology?
Oh crap - sorry - didn’t read that through properly… My uncle’s was in creative writing or english literature or something - I thought at the time (when I was about 18) what a load of malarkey it was that someone with a PhD in EngLit could be addresses as Doctor - I’ve since changed that view - but that’s beside the point…
Dr Phil (the Oracle DBA), however - I suspect his PhD was probably in mathematics or something… Pretty sure Dr Phil was at uni way back where there wasn’t actual IT - it was mostly mathematics or engineering…
So - neither were PhDs in InfoTech…
thats still pretty cool though … lol
I did do a PhD (50 years ago) but not in IT. It was a mix of genetics and statistics. One thing it did do was introduce me to using computers… I got to use UTECOM and an IBM1620 and to do that I had to learn to program.
Sometimes it is the side issues that you benefit from most. It started me on a lifetime of learning programming. You never stop learning, you have to keep swimming with the tide.
1 Like
Sounds promising.
A mix of genetics and statistics kind of sounds like a version of data science?
Does that mean we can call you Doctor Nev?
1 Like
Yes quantitative genetics is very much a data intensive exercise. It severely tested early computers.
I gave up the title when I retired. It is no longer appropriate. I want to finish the way I started… a normal human free of academic bs.
2 Likes
It’s great to have the qualifications but most are happy with degrees backed up with real life experience.
But it depends on 2 factors
Where you go to get the qualifications and where you are wanting to go after.
When I worked in higher education it was felt that you must have this level to raise above a standard platform and progress, you don’t get a chair in a university unless you are a doctor
In France they don’t use the title but talk about Bac plus a number of years.
My step son did a degree Bac plus 3 and is an engineer in computing aerospace. He could have continued another year to get the equivalent but the job prospects outside of teaching were limited and not as well paid. Over qualified and no experience.
What put me off was writing the long paper at the end on something interesting.
I went HNC, HND, degree, in then did several other degree levels to widen my scope and job market so computing, then teaching, then business 3 different things but all at the same level just got a quicker ticket in other subjects so did not take as long no need to re do.
Questions
Where are you thinking of going
What is on your mind for after
Each country has different expectations and offers different things.
On line learning ?
Been there done it but question it’s real market value. No offence but did one through a MUC with a India university and at the end not worth printing the certificate…bad choice on my part but the info was more around what I wanted to do against UCLA or Berkley which carries more status.
Now retired so certification and levels have less appealing status.
Well right now I’m going to Empire State College in NY, which is all online, but it’s an accredited college that has good ratings. After I graduate I was thinking of finding a place that would let me do my masters concurrently with my PhD classes, so it wouldn’t take 10 years to get it all done. I do enjoy research, so I’m kind of wanting to get into something academia related after I get the doctorate. Not teaching though, more research related stuff. Just put me in a lab with a bunch of computers and a problem to solve, and I’ll be happy. lol
Good reason , but not the way it hsppened with me, even though I ended up in research.
As a young person I simply did what I found interesting. At high school it took me into languages and maths. At Uni it took me into biology and agriculture. As a postgrad I learned about research and about computers. It found me a job, but that was incidental in the 1960’s when jobs were everywhere.
So I see education more as something that happens to you rather than planned. And it does not stop after the last degree. It still leads me somewhere today. Learning is part of being human … a new baby does not inherit an education, it starts from scratch. Every generation has to do it all over again, its called cultural inheritance… if we did not have overlapping generations it would be impossible. We learn from others… books, computers are just aids.
1 Like
I guess this is why 90 percent of people I meet in the IT world say “I never went to college” yet they have my dream job, and I’m here working my butt off. lol
Originally I did the same thing, and it led me to Engineering, but since I have pretty bad dyscalculia, all the math involved was simply too much for me. And then later on I found out about servers and systems administration, and figured out that I liked that even better than anything I could have ever gotten into as an engineer… And now it’s my passion.
Follow your passion. There is some element of good fortune involved, but if you like what you are doing it will BE the dream job. Money matters tend to interfere.
1 Like
Good luck with your studies, it’s a long slow hard path you have chosen
No comments on the place of studies as I am not in the American market to know
Enjoy