molesworth wrote:

... any employer who insists on a degree (as seems to be the case, reading more of the thread) and will pay an inexperienced graduate more than a seasoned engineer / developer isn't the sort of company I'd consider working for...

I have decided to go ahead and get a degree in CS with a emphasis on Programming. Actually, I'm going to get just enough to be a Computer Science, but I'm going to concentrate on Theory so I'm not bored to death making "Hello World" programs and having to explain the difference between an object and Class. With that said.... You are 100% right. A 4 year degree with 3 years experience? In a best case that's only 7 years experience. I got double that, and mine is real world, on the job experience. But, apparently we are in the minority.

This actually makes a lot of sense. in the short amount of time this post has been out I have resolved myself to enroll for one of the online degrees. I've sent in my info and have requested my transcript from when I was in school back in the early 90's. I hope that at they can count some of my credits. It is a great idea to take theory classes. I was thinking that I would need to take "Intro to Programming" and start from the bottom, but it is perfectly logical that I could take some theory classes to get a BS and then back it up with my real world experience. Thanks for the insight.

I'm looking into the feasibility of taking classes and using my old credits, of course they are over 20 years old now. And like you said, I'm really only looking to put in about 10 or 15 years before I hang up the hat and enjoy the rest of my life while I'm still spry enough to do it.

This is what I worry about. I think that they don't care that my experience and knowledge would let me teach the classes they want me to take. And, unless things have changed since I was last in school, The things they teach in school are last year tech at best.

I have applied for some that offer "or equivalent experience", but seriously the position that I really wanted wouldn't even consider my resume because my degree was not in Computer Science. Now that I think about it, I should have pointed out in the first post. I have a degree, but it was geared toward Law. I found that I really didn't care about Law as much as my mother wanted me to so I just started working in IT and have never looked back.

So here is the deal. I have 22 years of experience in IT, with the last 15 in software development. I'm up to date on many of the latest technologies and constantly learning new things (thank you Code Project for your help with that). I have recently started looking for a new job after having worked at a place for 7 years doing C# .Net programming with a hint of PHP/HTML. Of the places I've looked, I have found that they "must" have a B.A. in Computer Science with 3 years of experience. Does my 22 years with 15 years in software design and development not count for anything? Should I go back to school to have them "teach" me things I already know just to have the paper that says I could pass some classes?