Ask HN: Should I go back to university?
Education: software development certification from technical school. GPA 80%. It was a really intensive program, doing 78 credits in 8 months, class from 9-5 M-F, with 1 month practicum at the end.
Work Exp: total 3.5 years
(0) month-long contract project at a really big Business Intelligence project. They liked the project.
(1) 2 years at a small company about 50 employees, small IT dept of 4, did everything from ASP.NET web apps to VB.NET/VB6 backend apps to SQL db admin to site cross browser compatibility stuff. Left after months of ridiculous unpaid overtime. Gave them 2 months notice to find, and train the guy.
(2) 1.5 years at a smaller company, about 30, as the sole programmer, writing C# in-house use apps and stuff to go with our SQL database (that I installed and configured). Developed business ideas for them, made custom software to those goals. Laid off along with 7 other people based on seniority. Nothing shameful there.
Obvious weakness: my technical school taught us how to work, how to think like a programmer and how to debug problems. But it's still technical school. I will not be able to answer technical questions if I have not used that particular bit of knowledge before. I know nothing about lower level architectural stuff.
Redeeming Qualities: I work hard. I can look up stuff I don't know how to do quickly. I come up with good business ideas, I can think from my manager's POV and our clients' to reach a fair comprimise. End users really like me because I not only fix problems they find, I will actively find out what I can do for them. I'm fiercely loyal to whatever company I work for, even when they're cheap and abusive.
Bottom line: I know I can be really good at my job once I'm on the job. I just think my lack of proper education and low level knowledge about computer science will prevent me from being seen as such at interviews or resume screening. Going back to school can fix that.
However: my spouse is still in school. I went to university straight out of high school with 87% GPA, but dropped out after the first year because of academic immaturity (ie: I thought university was a load of crap--no one gives a shit about you and you're just a chequeing account number. The textbooks are meant for the profs to profit rather than for you to learn, and the profs clearly have other things to do way more important than teaching you. I was going to all the classes but never handed in any assignments. Teenage angst. I was taking arts and foreign languages. This was before I even touched any programming.). I don't know if I have the discipline to do it still. I may go back to get all angry about the bullshit institution again and shut down again like I did. But I managed to get through the technical school well, because I love programming, I love it to death.
....advice?