[ephess]

One of the things I'm most worried about is that a country I'd like to work in has really different culture in regard to university than we do here. To be honest, from my perspective I've always thought US to be a country where degrees mattered quite a bit.

Attending university in New Zealand doesn't seem to have nearly as much weight placed on it as it does in America, although that may just be a perception thing.

Thanks for your input =)

[gm]

To be fair, in the USA, it depends on the industry that you are going into. If you are planning on joining the startup world, the attitude ranges from indifference to the degree to downright hostiliy (do your best to hide that you have an MBA, for example!). Startups tend to evaluate you on effective skills that you know how to apply, degree or no degree.

In pretty much all other fields, including non-startup tech jobs, degrees do matter a ton more.