Studying IT after social science - a good idea?

WoExl3
Thu, 18 Feb 2016 07:30:44 +0000

Hi everyone,

I’m 30 years old and am just looking for some advice. I know this is kind of long, but I would really appreciate any advice that I can get.

Long story short, I always loved IT ever since I was a kid. (I wrote a “hello world!” program in C when I was 10 years old) After high school, I took some community college IT classes (only a handful) and dropped out of college. (I was very immature and didn’t take college seriously.) I ended up earning some IT certifications such as CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and Microsoft MCDST/MCP (I have kept these current, and still “play” with IT as a hobby). I ended up helping friends/family with computer issues as a side thing, but the whole IT school/career idea died off.

I ended up going back to college and ended up graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. with a major in criminal justice and minor in general business. Immediately after I completed that degree, I began work on a second B.S. (yes, a second one… very long story…) and graduated magna cum laude again with a major in political science and double minors in sociology and human resources management. (Both of these degrees are from state universities)

I’ve had some interesting jobs that included working for the state police, being a county probation officer, and working in jails. Long story short, I hate criminal justice and want nothing more to do with it. I want a complete career change from my current CJ job.

Unfortunately, I have found that my education and experience does NOT elicit much interest in fields outside of where I’m in.

So, I want to rekindle my IT education where I left off at the old community college I originally attended. My plan is to complete an AAS degree in Information Technology Security (this is an actual STEM degree in the department of computer science, even though the name sounds like it could be otherwise) as well as a second AAS degree in computer networking.

With my current work and life situation, community college is the best option for me. (And I am definitely not willing to attend some online program.) I am extremely confident that I will be able to do well in these AAS programs, and, because so many courses overlap (and some of my previous IT classes that I’ve taken fit into them), I anticipate that I’ll have both degrees completed in 2 to 2 1/2 years as a half time student.

My question is - given my background, will these AAS degrees (combined with my IT certifications, and hopefully a few more certs by the end of this) make me an attractive candidate to employers and allow me to shift industries? Obviously, I know I am not going to be an elite computer scientist working at Google… but I am talking maybe combining the IT with my previous education/experience to get IT-light (if that makes sense) type jobs in government. For example, maybe working for a state/county police agency in some IT capacity, or maybe being an intelligence analyst with the FBI. (I imagine a mix of education in political science/sociology/IT would be of interest to the intelligence community?)

I know that, of course, a full B.S. in IT would be ideal, but I just don’t see it working out unless I were to quit my job (completely impossible). But, I don’t think I would be wasting my time with two IT focused AAS degrees. I mean, those should still be valuable to employers…? Also, am I choosing good fields of study?

Anyway, I would appreciate any advice that I can get! Thank you!

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