How did America let this man become an icon of the working class?

[Tango Yankee]

That's true, even for those with graduate degrees. It's like sports; you can train, drill, practice and game plan all you want but there's nothing like playing in a real live game. That's where you gain useful experience.

That's kind of how I feel about the Masters in Information Technology I'm finishing up next month. The concentration is Project Management. I've come to regard it as something like when I went to truck driving school to get a commercial driver's license. At the end of it I had my CDL which said I could drive a tractor-trailor rig without restrictions, but in reality it meant that I could now go out and learn how to drive a truck. When I'm finished I'll have the theory of how to be a project manager but the reality will be that I will need additional real-world training and experience to become one.

Of course, another reality is that having a Master in IT in this area only makes me less employable, not more. The last thing most companies around here want to pay for is a professional IT specialist.

Cheers,
Tom