I just don't see how learning in a classroom compares to dealing with and learning from real life scenarios, issues, implementations, etc... I've learned so much from working in office environments, constructions sites, branch offices, job site trailers... They all need internet/phone/fax connections, and they all need to be connected to home office via secure VPN, they all need their own local network, and it all needs to be done YESTERDAY. I learned how to adapt to strange environments, put fires out from the inside OUT after being thrown in the middle of it, I learned how the business world operates and how to navigate and communicate within it, I learned how to deal with REAL deadlines, REAL pressures, I've learned how the WORLD connects to the rest of the WORLD... I learned way more about network infrastructure from designing and building it custom tailored to the companies requirements. Those requirements always change on the fly and cost caps always force me to come up with different solutions, the list goes on and on and on. I got to see Vegas, Florida, Suburbs you never heard of, back woods and hidden closets of shopping malls, new stores or condominiums in construction, I've met and dealt with people from all different walks of life, made friendships that I'll always cherish and enemies that I'll always loathe. Worked with blue collar contractors and white collar crooks. I've climbed ladders wearing jeans and a hard hat one day, sat in a cubicle wearing a suit the next. I've worked 32 hours straight with no sleep! I've slept with older women, I've slept with younger women (Not illegal, lol)... All from doing this job. Can't say I experienced or learned 1/100th as much from college. Did you ever have to tell a multi-millionaire CEO that something simply is not possible with him just not getting it while you were in college?

My advanced learning didn't start until I was out on the job. There are many things books in a controlled environment will never teach you.

Work experience is every bit as, if not way more important than college. That is my opinion from my experience.


Hell this doesn't even include what I learned about life in general from working in restaurants and auto shops...