CS online vs apprenticeship, why I dropped out of college again

are you considering an online school
like WGU look you are stick around
because I'm gonna tell you why I dropped
out oh that's WGU this January 2020
after attending for one year
go big why'd I do it well long story
short I was offered an apprenticeship
with IBM and after doing both at the
same time for six months I decided to
devote myself to the apprenticeship and
IBM and in this video I'm gonna show you
the thought process that went behind me
making that decision but three key
points that helped me make that decision
the first one definitely being liking
this video and subscribing to my channel
which I would greatly appreciate so
first I want to list those three points
for you guys so you're not to watch the
entire video if you don't really want to
but I highly recommend it because I do
explain there's these three points in
detail later on
so to start these three points I'm gonna
have marketplace value then we're gonna
go over quality of learning and then the
job opportunities that come with each
choice
so we're gonna start off with the
marketplace value and in terms of
marketplace value online college is
nationally accredited so that means a
lot of people are gonna really trust
that that degree whenever they look at
whereas with the apprenticeship we have
the backing of a tech giant like in my
situation IBM and that also lends their
credibility to the apprentices as well
so I think they're kind of tight in that
area
both of these also have cons on the
marketplace for example with online
college it's not really recognizable
school so I might not get as much
credibility as someone who would to
would say like Ivy League school or a
top 50 top 100 school even and for the
apprenticeship it's a relatively new
program so I don't really know how
people are gonna perceive it whenever
they look at it so that's why it was
tough to decide based off only this one
point so that's why I have two more
that's for quality of learning the
online school has a bunch of resources
that you can have at your disposal for
each course and they also have a teacher
and a mentor and your other classmates
that can help out whereas with the
apprenticeship you have all the other
employees of IBM that are always happy
to help you and also I think
apprenticeship that I attended there we
had great online resources as well and
even when some were dated they provided
us with newer materials to work with
like that were on udemy for example the
with the learning materials and
resources on with online college there
were some cons for example the meetings
with my teachers and cohort were
actually at very inconvenient times for
someone like me who was an employee I
was working while I was going to school
and because of that I couldn't attend
the 9:00 a.m. meetings that they had to
answer student questions and everything
and while I could have messaged my
teacher or whatever I just whatever a
reason I had anxiety it's too lazy I was
too lazy
you just didn't happen and also the
learning materials were pretty dated at
times and they're not really gonna
change their materials like right away
they have to go through a bunch of like
accreditation bureaus I guess to make
sure that their computer science program
is still legitimate and one gripe I had
was that Zion Books sucks
I don't excite books it was a horrible
experience it was very boring
and I I'm glad I don't have to deal with
anymore the only real con I could think
of at the apprenticeship in regards to
the learning materials and resources was
that we had to lose curriculum and
within this curriculum so someone who
knows how to program will would do very
well because they can put the pieces
together and do the projects but for
someone who's a beginner they wouldn't
really know how to navigate their way
through all these technologies to come
up with a product alright the project
the project that they need to when it
comes to job opportunities
the online college has a really big
advantage of giving you that check box
with HR so if you and if you have your
degree you basically are more credible
than someone who's off the street right
away you try will look at you and say oh
this person has a degree this other
person does not the other person
probably has to prove themselves a lot
more than the person with the degree
already because they've basically proven
themselves in a sense already and job
opportunities with the apprenticeship
the most clear Pro that I can see is
that there's a clear path to employment
if you do well in the apprenticeship so
they don't guarantee you a job apathy
after the apprenticeship but it's very
likely if you do well in the
apprenticeship and that clear path to
employment was really a big motivator
especially for me when it's very
difficult for me to keep motivated for
different goals if I don't really see
where I'm going if I can't see the goal
in regards to job opportunities one of
the big cons of an online school is that
a lot of people look down on online
schools I don't personally but some
people will look at a no-name school
no-name online university and
immediately discredit then just because
they have some kind of inherent bias
about online schools and those kind of
questions really making doubt yourself
the entire time you're attending the
school which makes it hard to pay that
tuition every semester and the only real
con I can think about with the
apprenticeship in terms of job
opportunities is that you have a
relatively low starting pay and I say
relatively because I got a pay bump from
going in Tahiti because I used to work
at a restaurant but some for some people
that might not
a lot of money and I mean you're not
gonna be going in getting 100k plus like
you would for example in a junior dev
position somewhere if he already had a
degree but again this is for people like
me who don't have many other options and
want desperately to have a career change
and of course you can normalize your pay
out later on by delivering great results
so after considering all of this about
halfway through my apprenticeship and
which was a year into my WGU journey I
decided to drop out of WGU and just
devote myself completely to IBM and the
apprenticeship I know not everyone's
gonna get the opportunity to be in an
apprenticeship and I was incredibly
lucky and I'm very grateful for that but
if you ever get the opportunity if you
see a posting for an apprenticeship and
you're looking to switch into the ITA I
highly highly recommend it soon it might
become like the next junior dev where I
become saturated so you want to get your
feet in this now all you have to do this
google say Microsoft apprenticeship
Apple apprenticeship any apprenticeship
you know what I mean just type in a big
tech company and the word apprenticeship
into Google and you'll find you might
you might find something I want to clear
that I'm not dissing college at all I
think college is great for people who
need some kind of credibility and they
don't have other options is this is this
more than one way to get that
credibility it's real guys its colonial
peace