Best most useful open university degree in computing?
Discussion
My current job is quite flexible and being the age of 29 I'm now thinking of further education.
Which of the courses available on the link below do you think are most useful to have at the moment?...
https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degree...
Which of the courses available on the link below do you think are most useful to have at the moment?...
https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degree...
Based on your posting history, and I may be way off base here so forgive me, I would guess you do not really know what you want to do in IT. I am assuming you are looking to get into an industry with potential. That's not a bad thing! I do think you need to find out what interests you first though before committing full force. I say this based on the numerous current threads on people in IT saying they are bored.
My recommendation on this type of thread is always the same. Take a look at getting certified on a cloud platform such as AWS or Azzure. In fact, GCP is getting a huge amount of investment and there will be a skills shortage soon if their business grows to google's aspirations. You can sign up for the A cloud Guru courses on Udemy for $10 when they are on sale. Others are available and I would recommend not relying on one course to pass the cert test. Within the course, you will be provided a foundation level of understanding of what IT is about and lots of the terminology is transferable.
Doing this is an easy, cheap, and valuable way of getting your feet wet. You can go from no knowledge to having a practitioner cert in a month even with a full time job. I will admit the practitioner cert is not going to get you a job but you can build from there with other certs that will and if you are still looking at the degree you will be able to find a course that you are interested in.
My recommendation on this type of thread is always the same. Take a look at getting certified on a cloud platform such as AWS or Azzure. In fact, GCP is getting a huge amount of investment and there will be a skills shortage soon if their business grows to google's aspirations. You can sign up for the A cloud Guru courses on Udemy for $10 when they are on sale. Others are available and I would recommend not relying on one course to pass the cert test. Within the course, you will be provided a foundation level of understanding of what IT is about and lots of the terminology is transferable.
Doing this is an easy, cheap, and valuable way of getting your feet wet. You can go from no knowledge to having a practitioner cert in a month even with a full time job. I will admit the practitioner cert is not going to get you a job but you can build from there with other certs that will and if you are still looking at the degree you will be able to find a course that you are interested in.
Of those, maybe BSc (Honours) Computing and IT (Software).
But it depends what you want out of a career. If you want to write code and get that lower level understanding, I'd suggest that looks a reasonable start. If you just want to click things with a mouse don't bother, get yourself a job working in the area you want to now.
And then once you're in a job, change employer every couple of years if you're not seeing progression.
But it depends what you want out of a career. If you want to write code and get that lower level understanding, I'd suggest that looks a reasonable start. If you just want to click things with a mouse don't bother, get yourself a job working in the area you want to now.
And then once you're in a job, change employer every couple of years if you're not seeing progression.
Where are you currently in your career, what skills do you have and what do you enjoy doing?
From that base, it's then possible to suggest a decent way forwards for something that you will enjoy doing and will pay reasonably.
Whilst the whole cyber security thing is paying well for those that are excellent at it, and there's decent paying roles beneath them, if you spend five or six years getting a degree in today's hot topic you might end up disappointed to discover that things have moved on.
From that base, it's then possible to suggest a decent way forwards for something that you will enjoy doing and will pay reasonably.
Whilst the whole cyber security thing is paying well for those that are excellent at it, and there's decent paying roles beneath them, if you spend five or six years getting a degree in today's hot topic you might end up disappointed to discover that things have moved on.
A cyber security degree could potentially be limiting, especially if you're not certain it's what you want to do, it's a narrower focus. A more general computer science style degree wouldn't stop you from doing cyber security. Perhaps try some bug bounties if that's a direction you want to go in, a degree isn't necessary.
Try and figure out roughly where you want to land before you decide which way to jump.
Try and figure out roughly where you want to land before you decide which way to jump.
Cyber security tends to come up when people don’t really know the industry and have heard cyber is the place to be. The issue being, that to be good at cyber you should have a broad knowledge of many things which is why it’s in demand.
From the OPs other posts, I believe he isn’t in tech at present and is just exploring options. I’d still recommend doing cloud basics. Even if you watch a few of the certificate prep videos on YouTube you will start to get an understanding of the industry and will be better positioned to make a choice.
From the OPs other posts, I believe he isn’t in tech at present and is just exploring options. I’d still recommend doing cloud basics. Even if you watch a few of the certificate prep videos on YouTube you will start to get an understanding of the industry and will be better positioned to make a choice.
If you're unsure what area you want, I suggest a broader more general degree rather than a specialism. In the job market, whatever is popular or in demand may not be the same a few years time. Whatever you decide toy do you will need to continue learning new stuff as you progress in your career but you can say that for many other career types.
D1on said:
My current job is quite flexible and being the age of 29 I'm now thinking of further education.
Which of the courses available on the link below do you think are most useful to have at the moment?...
https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degree...
I read this, wondering if I had made another PH account...Which of the courses available on the link below do you think are most useful to have at the moment?...
https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degree...
I started an OU degree just after turning 29, and went for as other posters put it, something I was interested in.
I'm doing a BSc in Computing and IT with Business (as a second subject), I will get BSc instead of a BA (not really sure why I have to have a BSc). I also have workplace relevant study towards the Business Management side of the degree.
This was the most viable option when I was choosing, I was furloughed not expecting to be made redundant.
If you're not sure what you want to do and want to do it for a way to improve your chances of being employed in a few years, it could be useful.
I work full time alongside studying full time, which has been a nightmare (for 40% of the year). Next year I'll only be doing 60 credits instead of 120, but I'm glad I got the first year out of the way quickly.
That probably isn't much help, but if you want any more info let me know.
Can I hijack for a quick question please? (I'm assuming this is slightly less messy than starting new thread given niche topic, let me know if this is wrong)
There are some interesting looking services I would like to use on my basic site. Eg Filestack picker. I would like to learn how to call APIs and return results in a database. Is it realistic for me to learn enough to do this in a day or two. What should I be looking at.
I know some basic html, SQL and very (very) basic PHP just from little hacks to CMS.
There are some interesting looking services I would like to use on my basic site. Eg Filestack picker. I would like to learn how to call APIs and return results in a database. Is it realistic for me to learn enough to do this in a day or two. What should I be looking at.
I know some basic html, SQL and very (very) basic PHP just from little hacks to CMS.
Pistonheader101 said:
D1on said:
Is an open university degree well recognised?
no just do some udemy free courses and get some experience in a junior role. Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff