Originally Posted by
Creatre
P.S. about education:
I got a 4 year degree in Geography w/ GIS certificate. I got into the GIS field and I knew basically nothing. I learned more in my first 2 weeks in a real job than my 4 years of education. Even the internship I had was more busy work than anything useful to learn. My parents paid most of my way through so at least I got the piece of paper and out on my own without a crap ton of starting debt.
I've been working in the GIS field for over 6 years now. I don't have a college degree. I tried to take a few geography/GIS classes and found very much the same as you, Creatre: I learn more relevant info in a week on the job (still) than I was in those classes.
However, I'm an outlier as far as being in this line of work, at my company, without a college degree or relevant past work experience. I got an opportunity and worked my ass off for 2 years (12+ hour days), learned as much as I could, and it paid off. Since then, I've cut my hours down to something a bit more reasonable (and learned to manage my time much better) but continue to actively learn as much as I can in a dynamic field.
Even knowing how much hard work was involved, I sometimes still feel like I cheated the system. It's hard to shake off the "YOU MUST BE COLLEGE EDUCATED IN ORDER TO SUCCEED" mentality that was beaten into my head from an early age.