The Degree or the Certification: Answering the Question
Okay, finally, I’m going to answer the question. For some value of the word “answer,” anyway. I’ve spent three weeks thinking through various question you should be asking, along the way making three specific points:
- Stop asking “should I get a degree or a certification,” and start asking “what do I want to learn next.” Neither degrees nor certifications are a “final point,” in education (terminal, in the vocabulary of the educational world).
- Learn to see beyond the question of specific technical skills — to think about the underlying skills, like abstraction.
- Stop acting and thinking like a widget. You are more than a money making machine.
Okay, so how do I actually decide?
First, ask: where do I want to go? Who do I want to be as a person, overall? This question needs to be a “bigger life” question, not a narrow, “how much money do I want to be making,” question. One of those other turning points in my life as an engineer was when Don S said to me one day, “When I’m gone, people aren’t going to remember me for writing a book. They are going to remember me as a father, friend, and Continue reading
