| I am currently 31, living in upstate NY. I started college fulltime at 18. I started in physics, switched to IT. This was 1997. I was working in the field for the likes of IBM and Xerox by the time I was 19. School quickly became deprioritized. This was 1999. 9/11 hits. This is the same year, or year before, I would have graduated on-schedule. A month later, I get laid off of an extended contract I'd been working for a year. For the better part of the next eight months, I can't get an interview aside from one job in Montana. MONTANA! I scrape by on freelance work. I land a job paying 50% of my last salary. After six months I switch over to a job paying 70% of my last salary -- still very disappointing, but livable, barely. End of 2005, I quit that job and go back to Xerox for a second contract. Almost returned to my pre-9/11 salary. I happen to wrap up my associate's (AAS) degree in IT at this time. Six months later, I relocated to be closer to family. That job, in 2006, finally put me substantially over my pre-9/11 salary, at about 80th-85th percentile for my role nationally, and about 95th percentile for my role locally. My independent consulting work starts growing significantly around this time. In late 2008, I finally crossed the six figure mark in fulltime salary. I also made a healthy five figures in indie consulting in 2008 and 2009. It would have helped me, I think, to have a degree PLUS my experience after 9/11. I don't think a degree alone would have done much for me -- all my four-and-out classmates were out of work and/or getting paid less than I was myself. Does my AAS help me now? Doubtful. Would a bachelor's help? Not salary-wise ... but it would be a nice step on the way to that Master of Science or MBA that I've always wanted ... |