Are IT Degrees Still Relevant?

As I spent my five years in the university studying Computer Science, I appreciated the climate provided for students to collaborate with each other, and the opportunities to partner with local corporations on IT projects. We also, however, spent about half of our time studying courses that were not remotely related to IT, so I frequently wondered whether this was the most effective use of my time and effort to pursue a career in IT.

I'm sure I was not the only one with the same thought, especially for degrees in Information Technology, where the skills are taught online at a much lower cost and a much faster pace. Today, most university students have to pay an excessive amount for their degrees, only to end up living the majority of their youth years burdened by their student loans.

So, are IT degrees still relevant?

Today, we see that major players in the field of technology, like Apple, Google, or Microsoft "and most of FAANG", are becoming more lenient with their qualification requirements, even for senior IT roles, such as senior developers or senior penetration testers. Furthermore, many companies value a Resume with projects and professional certificates more than they value a Resume with just an IT degree, regardless of the reputation of the degree or the institute. This is a strong indication that IT degrees may not be the "only" path for securing a job or making an impact in the IT sector.

To answer the above question, we first need to understand the objectives behind seeking an IT degree. In general, students fall under three categories:

1.  Securing a technical job in IT

2. Building their own IT startup business
   

3. Working on IT R&D (Research and Development)

The majority of IT degrees we see today attempt to prepare students for all of the above three categories, which is why students need to spend upwards of 5 years studying technical and non-technical courses to earn their degrees. This is also why we see degrees with up to 50% of their courses covering various fields, like physics, economics, general studies, and many others, in order to enable their students to seek any path they would like to. While this makes such IT degrees more appealing to a wider variety of students, a "one size fits all" degree may no longer be the best way to learn technical skills in these years.

In addition to this, most IT degrees cover IT topics from a Computer Science perspective rather than a technical perspective, making their graduates more prepared for R&D than they are for a technical job. However, statistically speaking, the vast majority of students fall under the first category, as they seek an IT degree to prepare them for the market. While such degrees may cover some of the technical topics needed for the market, students who are not interested in R&D may find themselves spending most of their degrees on topics they are likely to never need in their careers. Furthermore, statistics also show that about half of current IT degrees have outdated curricula, as they rarely revise and update their courses. As a result, they fall behind the market and the technologies needed.

All of this shows that "classic" IT degrees may not be the best way for students to prepare themselves for the market.

Recommended read: Is a cybersecurity certification worth it? (Here's how to find out)

A new era for IT degrees

So, are IT degrees worthless? Definitely not. First of all, IT degrees in their current shape perfectly match those seeking to work in R&D and computer science and prepare them for building the core technologies that most large companies rely on today. As such, people seeking research and academic careers need IT degrees in their current shape "albeit with an updated curriculum".

As for the majority of students who seek a job in the IT sector -or even build their startup- the IT degrees in their current shape may not be an excellent way to spend their time and resources to prepare themselves for the market. With almost every technology being taught online -most of which can be found for free or at a low cost- universities will need to update their degrees to keep up with the demand, and most importantly, to avoid falling into irrelevance.

What Universities Can Do to Remain Relevant

Universities should consider introducing new IT degrees that are highly specialized and take no longer than three years to finish. Otherwise, the market may move past whatever technologies the students learn by the time they graduate. This will also ensure that students will not waste their time and resources on topics they are unlikely to need in their career, and instead focus their efforts on technologies and skills that will make them better prepared for their future jobs.

Furthermore, universities are not expected to internally cover a wide variety of specialties, as most universities cannot afford to have a department and staff designated for each specialty. They may also not be able to cover advanced and highly specialized topics as well as institutions who specialize in one of these topics. Unlike universities, such institutions spend all their resources on a single field to produce courses with the highest possible quality. This is why universities can design their degrees on a tiered basis. This way, the first year for all IT specialities will primarily consist of the same pool of courses. These would be the courses the university is mainly responsible for covering.

In the students' second year, universities can collaborate with different worldwide vendors and institutions to cover some of the courses needed in each specialty while still covering some of the common courses internally. This way, universities can offer highly specialized degrees to produce highly skilled graduates. They can achieve this by partnering with different worldwide vendors without recruiting instructors for each specialty. The work is started here, many colleges do offer CompTIA or Cisco Certifications as the "Final Exam" for some classes. However, these are predominantly entry-level certifications and don't set students up for continued learning outside of the classroom. It would be great if at this year there were classes designed around enabling students to solve challenges on their own in order to begin work on a specialized more advanced certification.

Expectations for Graduates

Finally, in their third and final year, students are expected to be well into their specialties and can start focusing on producing high-end projects in their fields. Universities will also enable their students to seek the most reputable professional certifications in their specialty, as they would be studying their courses as part of their curriculum. As students graduate, they will have highly specialized knowledge and skills in their fields, in addition to their IT degrees. They would also have a good amount of experience, backed by high-end projects and top professional certificates in their field, making them some of the most sought-after people in the field.

The degrees may also need to cover courses that help students build their soft skills, like project management, entrepreneurship, social skills, writing skills, public speaking, and other similar soft skills. Universities may also need to cover non-technical IT courses, like problem-solving or algorithms. However, such courses should not exceed 15% of the curriculum, and should also be provided by the most reputable institutions that teach such skills and courses.

Tips for university students

If you are a university student, you should not be discouraged by this post. Instead, you should work to avoid the discussed pitfalls of classic IT degrees, and better prepare yourself for the job market to make yourself a strong candidate for any IT job. Here are some tips that we think would greatly help you in that regard.

Pick your specialization

First of all, you should know that in order to succeed, you must specialize, regardless of your field. The more specialized you get, the better chance you have of becoming good at your specialty and the better chance of success you'll have. We must also note that your specialty may greatly affect your chances of securing a job, depending on the demand for that particular specialty.

Seek knowledge, not degrees

Knowledge will make you stand out, not degrees. This perhaps is one of the most important lessons any university student can learn. All of the time, money, and effort you are putting into your degree should be mainly aimed at learning new skills and increasing your knowledge in your specialty. This is why you should also demand high-quality education, as this is the primary outcome you are paying for.

Work on projects and demos

As has been mentioned several times, whenever you learn a new skill or technology, try to produce projects and demos that demonstrate your abilities in this skill, as these demos are much more attractive to employers than simply mentioning the skill in your resume. Furthermore, whenever you finish a project, try to challenge yourself with a more advanced project and keep pushing yourself to develop more in the field.

Get certified

In addition to projects and demos, you should always keep improving your knowledge and portfolio by learning new, more advanced skills, which you can find easily accessible through a wide variety of online vendors. However, saying that you know a skill is not always enough, as some skills cannot be demonstrated purely through projects and demos. This is why you should seek the most reputable professional certificates in your field, as they are widely considered as trusted proof of the applicant's skills in the field.

Still, seeking knowledge should remain as your primary objective. So, it would be best if you mainly pursued certifications that offer great courses, and then consider the certificate as the reward for obtaining this knowledge. To achieve this, you must carefully assess each course you seek and only pursue ones that adequately cover the skills you want to learn with a high level of quality and accuracy and ones that offer certificates with high demand and acceptance in the field. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending your time and money on an expensive piece of paper, or a very expensive PDF file!

Show your work

Finally, even if you build outstanding projects and obtain the best professional certificates, they would be of little use if no one knew about them. This is why it is imperative to share your work with others and talk about your experiences. You can achieve this locally within your university by exchanging your experiences with fellow students, or you can broaden your scope and share your experiences online through a blog, a YouTube channel, or any other social media.

This will both establish your presence in the field and drive discussions that can benefit others and yourself. In the end, such discussions will help others learn from your experience and, most importantly, help you understand where you are and what to pursue next.