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This is sound advice, but I wonder if it's true of the IT industry.

When microcomputers first arrived on the scene and actually began to be used for real-world business applications, programmers familiar with these devices were very few and far between. What's more, most of them were self-taught BASIC programmers without a university degree or even a polytech diploma.

As a result, much of the early microcomputer software was buggy and hard to use -- but things have changed -- haven't they?

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When I worked for a big corporation as a software project manager, I found that the productivity of my programmers was not necessarily related to the scale of their academic qualifications.

Some of my best programmers had no formal qualifications -- but then again, many of the worst were also devoid of tertiary training.

But in those days (the late 1980s) nobody much cared about whether a programmer had a degree or other computer-related qualification -- it was simply a case of how good they were at doing their jobs.

These days however, third-party qualifications such as the those issued by the likes of Microsoft seem to carry significant weight and I strongly suspect that it's a lot easier for a graduate (with experience) to get a good-paying job in IT than it is for a non-graduate.

So exactly what are the most coveted qualifications in IT these days?

Will the attainment of a Microsoft MSCE open more doors than a BSc?

And, for the benefit of Aardvark readers who are contemplating reskilling or even just breaking into the IT field, what are the skills most in-demand skills and the qualifications needed to obtain them?

Which are the best-paying and most rewarding jobs? Programmer, analyst, project manager, IT manager?

Is it time, as Doug White suggests, that the IT industry started to set up its own qualification and certification structures? Would doing such a thing reduce the incidence of "cowboy" programmers, web-designers, etc?

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