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We often discuss the merit (or necessity) of having a formal degree in technology. This story is another installment in that debate:
The Department of the Interior's computer systems played a major role in the breach of systems belonging to the Office of Personnel Management, and DOI officials were called before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the over 3,000 vulnerabilities in agency systems discovered in a penetration test run by Interior's Inspector General office. But there was one unexpected revelation during the hearing: a key Interior technology official who had access to sensitive systems for over five years had lied about his education, submitting falsified college transcripts produced by an online service.
The official, Faisal Ahmed, was assistant director of the Interior's Office of Law Enforcement and Security from 2007 to 2013, heading its Technology division. He claimed to have a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and a master's degree in technology management from the University of Central Florida—but he never attended either of those schools. He resigned from his position at Interior when the fraudulent claim was exposed by a representative of the University of Central Florida's alumni association, who discovered he had never attended the school after Ahmed accepted and then suddenly deleted a connection with her on LinkedIn.
TFA emphasizes the falsification he did of his credentials, but there seems to be heavy insinuation that lack of degree = lack of ability.
Official Submission
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Saturday July 18 2015, @07:22PM
It's unusual if you know all the material you studied in school. Most students I have known lose that information quickly once the test that requires it is passed. In fact, from what I have seen there seems to be a high correlation between quickly losing information and higher grades. What school trains most people to do is to compartamentalize information by class and then drop the whole compartment when the class is over in order to quickly change to the next topic. It does not usually encourage people to learn things and keep them for life. If you were able to do so and still keep up then you are special (in a good way). Good for you.
As for the books you have purchased... once you are out of school it is up to you what you chose to learn and what you chose to use for reference. Personally, I had a lot of reference books too although I hardly used them since Google tends to be more convenient. I found myself spending too much time looking things up so I have started a routine of daily online flashcards. Because my flashcard program never throws a card away, it only shows the ones I have learned less frequently I will not be forgetting like I would at the end of a class. For me this is much better. You may be different.
My point was that you don't have to have taken a class to have learned something. There really can be people out there who are very qualified for a job but have no formal degree to prove it. They may be self taught, they may have worked under someone. There story may be something I have not thought of. There is no reason to assume that the one way you learned is the only way someone can. It is also not right that someone who learns one way gets paid better than someone who learned another if both people are equally capable.
Note.. I'm not saying that there are huge masses of uneducated and unapreciated geniouses out there. I'm only arguing that there must be some and that people should get a chance to prove themselves and not be discounted simply because they didn't do what you expect to be the only way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @08:48PM
If you were able to do so and still keep up then you are special (in a good way). Good for you.
That depends. Did he just memorize the information, or does he truly have a deep understanding of it? I've seen people who could easily memorize just about everything, but they were mediocre because they did not truly understand most of it. And a lot of schools encourage mindless memorization to varying extents. Not all.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Friday July 24 2015, @03:05PM
It takes balance really. I used to think that 'mindless' memorization was useless and that people who did it were destined to have a poor understanding of the material that they memorized. I was far more interested in learning concepts and how things work than memorizing any specifics. I avoided memorizing like the plague. I really hated school for this reason, I wanted to learn how to do things, not how to regurgitate a bunch of facts.
But.. then I plateaued. I found my work slow and tedious in large part because I was constantly breaking to go look things up. I just couldn't get any better at what I do because when trying to learn new concepts I would have to think hard just to recognize the terms being used to describe them. My mind was too occupied doing this to take in the new information.
Now my strategy is to read once. Then go over again pulling every possible memorizable fact into a virtual 'flashcard'. I study my flashcards daily. Finally I read again after memorizing most of the flashcards before actually using the information. Does memorizing all this information mean I am automatically able to use it effectively on the job? Hell no! But it sure does help!
This is a long, slow process. It will take me years to learn everything I want to know. By then no doubt my goals will have changed. I'll be doing this until I die. I could NEVER study this way for school. School moves to fast, you have to be ready for the next test and then you throw it all away to make room for the material of the next test after that. I used to really WANT to go back to school and get a higher degree. Now that is the last thing that I want.. I am learning better the way I am! I don't want to go back to the hectic learn and purge cycle. I still would like that paper to show what I have done though. Maybe someday...