Good Technical Schools?

[GuardianAsher]

Hey all. I'm in my last year of High School, and I'll be heading off to the big college next year. Do any of you know of some decent technical schools, such as schools that deal with technology and don't teach things I don't need to know? I have my eye on two: ITT Tech, and Collins College. I'd also be grateful if you could list some particularly in the Georgia area.

[FlyingPenguin]

Let me tell you right now that as someone who's been a tech and on the hiring end of things, having a tech school on your resume won't impress anyone. An employer will take a grad from a college - even if he didn't major in IT - over one from a tech school any day.

Why? 2 reasons:

#1: You may not understand this now, or you may feel it's bullsh!t, but you NEED a well rounded college education. There is more to a successful tech career than just knowing the tech. You will need organizational skills, business skills, math skills (outside of tech math), management skills (even if you don't want to be management, or if you never are management, you will someday have to manage people anyway - it's inevitable), you need to be well read so you can go to a meeting or an office party and talk like you're an intelligent human being and not just a l33t geek.

Let me explain that I did not finish college. I took one year of college, and got very frustrated that I was "wasting time" paying to learn cr@p that I didn't feel I needed to know. What the hell did I need a Psychology class for? What the hell did I need with an introduction to business management? Why would I care about people skills when I was going to be working on machines?

So I dropped out because I was making damn good money working as a stage hand and sound engineer for an Audio Visual company part time, and it seemed like I was getting a lot better education on the job while making good money.

Well eventually I had to teach myself to manage people. Teach myself to write contracts and job proposals. Teach myself to interview job applicants. Teach myself to do office work. Teach myself business administration. Teach myself the VERY difficult task of firing someone (it sucks). I learned to read poetry and classic works and history so I could have something intelligent to talk about with business execs and prospective clients at meetings, luncheons or dinners without sounding like a moron or talking "shop". I run my own business now and I curse the day I laughed at that business administration course - every damn time I work on my company books or have to call my accountant for advice.

Yeah, I managed, but it was painful with a LOT of pitfalls and it would have been a LOT easier and a lot less stressful in the long run if I had gotten a well-rounded college education. I now regret not having had a proper college education and I toy with the idea of going back to school someday and finally finishing what I started.

Don't get me wrong - the real world experience is invaluable, but you NEED a college education - especially in today's workplace.

Moreover, by choosing a tech school instead of college gives a very bad impression on a resume to most employers. Trust me, employers are NOT impressed that you went to tech school instead of college. It's a mark against you right from the start of the interview.

If you and an identical twin both interviewed for the same position and the only difference between you was that one of you went to tech school and the other to college, I guarantee you the one who went to college would get the job. I would certainly pick the college grad. I would know that I'm not only getting a l33t geek, but I'm also getting someone who has at least been introduced to MOST of the basic survival skills of the modern workplace - someone who can not only fix a PC, but answer the phone, type a memo, talk to a customer, re-load the stapler without jamming it, and put the toilet paper on the dispenser facing the right direction.


#2: Tech schools generally suck. Sorry it's true. Yeah, there are some exceptions, but generally they suck. HOWEVER, even more important, people who hire IT applicants ALL believe tech schools suck. In particular ITT sucks (at least in South Florida). About 50% of the people I interviewed for IT positions at my company went to ITT Tech and let me pretty much quote the typical interview for you (true quotes here BTW):

ME: "So, I see you went to ITT and studied computer technology. Were you always interested in computers?"

APPLICANT: "Oh no. I fix golf cart motors for a living, but I figure I need to get a better job than that eventually, and computers seem to be a big deal right now."

ME: "Can you tell me what a LAN network is?"

APPLICANT: "Wait, I know this, but I always get WAN and LAN confused. One is bigger than the other, right?"

ME: "On this motherboard, can you point out the RAM?"

APPLICANT: "The ones I'm used to look like these things here, except the ones in class were mounted at a 45 degree angle, but they look right."

ME: Can you just generally explain the difference between software and hardware?

APPLICANT: One is soft, and the other is hard.... ware.

I'm not making this stuff up. I wish I was. Maybe these guys were smarter than that, and if they'd gone to college they would at least have been taught how to act at a job interview.

We never hired anyone from a tech school. All Tech school grads flunked the basic verbal "let me see if you anything at all" 4 question test above. I wouldn't waste anymore time on them after that.


No pressure. Good luck!

[123cool]

i dont live in america and the system is slightly different here, but to be honest if you go to college rather than a specialised school you will meet lots of different individuals that will challenge your idea and you will become more well rounded. a specialised school just means everybody talks and agrees on the same things.

at the moment i study "computing for business" at Northumberland university in the UK, which covers the business side of things like organising the workload and creating models and working with customers, and the computer side covers all sorts of programming and security basics over different operating systems, i have friends from different courses with different interests and its nice to not talk about computers all the time.

[Executioner]

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Don't get me wrong - the real world experience is invaluable, but you NEED a college education - especially in today's workplace.

Moreover, by choosing a tech school instead of college gives a very bad impression on a resume to most employers. Trust me, employers are NOT impressed that you went to tech school instead of college. It's a mark against you right from the start of the interview.

Right on the money. I currently have 16 people that report to me. I'm a Group Leader for our Calibration Department. For those that don't know, a Group Leader is someone between a supervisor and a manager.

First thing that I look for is experience in my profession, but I always look at education. In fact, the last person I just hired 3 weeks ago has a degree. I hired him over 2 others that had experience, but not a degree. It does make a difference, and this is something that I learned when I became a supervisor when selecting potential candidates.

Do I have a degree? No, I only have a 2-year degree, but I have 30 years experience in the field of Calibration. I had to work for 15 years as a technician gaining experience as I went along before the supervisor gig came to me.

Like Flying Penguin, I was stupid and dropped out of College, only to return in my mid 30's to finish my 2 year degree. By this time, I was married and had 2 young kids. Life was more difficult than if I had completed it in my early 20's.

Don't make the same mistakes that we did - go to college and get your degree.

My son who is 21, I tried to get him to go, but he quit after 2 years just like his pop. So at this stage since he's living at home with my wife and I, he had 3 options after high school:
1. Go to college and get a 4-year degree
2. Don't go to college and get a job flipping burgers and you have to move out of mom and dad's house. You're on your own.
3. Join the military.

He opted for #3. He's in the Navy getting training on electronics. It's a 9 month course, and he will be in for 6 years. Also forgot to mention, that 80% of my technicians have come from the military, as they train you very well in skills that are marketable outside of the military. That is a big plus when I look at an application, and notice that the guy I was hiring had military experience.

[Pikachu]

Originally posted by Executioner


My son who is 21, I tried to get him to go, but he quit after 2 years just like his pop. So at this stage since he's living at home with my wife and I, he had 3 options after high school:
1. Go to college and get a 4-year degree
2. Don't go to college and get a job flipping burgers and you have to move out of mom and dad's house. You're on your own.
3. Join the military.

He opted for #3. He's in the Navy getting training on electronics. It's a 9 month course, and he will be in for 6 years. Also forgot to mention, that 80% of my technicians have come from the military, as they train you very well in skills that are marketable outside of the military. That is a big plus when I look at an application, and notice that the guy I was hiring had military experience.

OMFG, sounds just like me...

// Caution Army Talk starts now, it is my opinon, not the offical stance of the US Army

Fun things about option #3.
a) Fill your resume with all kinds of stuff (good, bad or erronious)
b) Great leadership and motivational skills (i've seen what to do and what not to do)
c) MONEY MANAGEMENT SKILLS (Ever heard of being broke, try making less than a burger flipper)
d) TIME MANAGMENT SKILLS (Ever had less than 4 hours of free time?)
e) intrapersonal, and interpersonal development skills
f) Takes 8 years (minimum active/reserve/whatever) of service
g) Exotic and Tropical excursions/vacations (only pitside, they indegenous people want to kill you)
h) You CAN DO COLLEGE (and I'm enrolled right now)
i) Lots of freebies (free electric/food/housing/clothing/water/exercise clubs to a ceartin extent)

But don't just take my word for it. See I've fought and bled for this country, I love my job, but see a need to get out and become a great Help Desk operator (don't laugh too hard, fits me to a t). I love the Army, decent meals, great pay for what I get, but the hours are kind of long. You'll get all kinds of training, like how to shoot a weapon system, that's kinda not useful to you now, but hey there is always the United States Postal Service. The 8 year comment.... well that's the total years in contract, yes you can and probably will be called back to active status if you get out (unlike myself who re-enlisted for 4 years on a 4 year contract... smart eh?). For the college, well it isn't full time, but 8 week semesters are friggin great. you can rack up 21 semester hours just by taking one 3 credit course each term. How hard is that? Downside, welcome to the desert, everyone will go or has gone there by now. Yeah my class a's have a rack that would make some deer hunters blush, but I earned them. I reccomend the military. You'll grow up, find someone of your dreams, and the two of you should be happy as well because you won't go for some trophy wife that only wants you for money see? No downside. Well ok only one, you might die while on duty.... ummm guess what, you were born correct? That means you have a 100% chance of dying. In the army, you can do something great... die for your country, and trust me people will remember you if you do die in the army. I remember my fallen commrades from Iraq. I don't remember the kid who died by sliding onto railroad tracks.

// End of Army Comments

I did 2 years and then quit, held a decent job, but to tell you the truth.... I made a great choice being in the army

[Qui Gon-Jinn]

Josh.. man I will give you my views on Collins at the store. and my opinion on everything.. just ask for it... I have somewhat been throught this..

Brief rundown of me..

NO H.S. Diploma (Expelled for busting an assistant pricipal's nose w/ solid wood dorr
GED from state of AZ
AAS in Internet info. systems from a trade school that cost me 23k and is a piece of paper I could reproduce at kinkos..

As of this moment.. my job @ the store is my only job.. lost the tech support deal tonight but thats a story you know..

conside it all.. and think it through..

I can tell you thing Collins will never tell you.. I know a few ppl who have gone there.. and know the area rather well being a Phoenix Native.