Skipping college paid off for some techies, not all
CHICAGO – Caleb Sima still marvels at how angry the people around him got when he fled high school for a computer job during the high-tech boom, thumbing his nose at the traditional career path.
Skipping college, they warned, would be a foolish route to nowhere. “One day, I’m going to see you taking out my trash,” his principal told him.
Ha.
Boasting a six-figure salary as chief technology officer of an online security company, Sima is one of a select group of young techies who hit it big without an academic pedigree after technology and Internet-related businesses exploded in the late 1990s.
Just how many succeeded and how many failed in their quest is impossible to know. But a trail of anecdotal evidence on, where else, the Internet testifies to a few notable winners like the 24-year-old Sima, whose goal is to retire by 30. Only then might he attend college — mainly to “have fun and relax a little bit.”
“It infuriates me when I hear people say you have to have a college degree in order to make a certain salary,” he said from Atlanta-based SPI Dynamics, which he co-founded. “That is not true.”
Matching his diploma-less feat clearly has become more difficult since the tech bubble burst in 2001, however, and fewer seem inclined to try.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the number of those skipping college for the tech world has been declining steadily for three or more years. There were 40,000 16- to 19-year-olds working in computer-related occupations in 2000; 18,000 in 2003.
“While a small number did strike it rich by rushing into the work force, I would estimate that about the same percentage struck it rich by buying lottery tickets,” said Steven Rothberg, president and founder of Minneapolis-based CollegeRecruiter.com, a job site for students and recent graduates.
Bill Gates and Michael Dell became billionaires without having finished college. But they are now looked upon as flukes.
“It’s so difficult to find an IT job now” without a degree, Rothberg said. “Five years ago, if you weren’t incarcerated and had a pulse, you had a pretty good chance.”
The Information Technology Association of America, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group representing technology companies, estimates there are 10.5 million IT workers. But competition for the jobs is intense and qualifications have risen from the dot-coms’ pioneer era just a few years ago, spokesman Bob Cohen said.
“Now employers really want to see people with a four-year degree, or at least a two-year degree and significant certification,” he said. “Their expectations have gone up.”
John-Thomas Gaietto, 22, is another young tech whiz who made it so big out of high school he was on track at one point to retire at 35, thanks to stock options. The native of Tiffin, Ohio, went to work for a computer company, setting up networks for corporations, and now is enterprise security analyst for a global manufacturing company outside Detroit.
When the market crashed, it also punctured his best chance for a super-early retirement. But his future appears secure, college or no college — he bought a four-bedroom house at 21 and diligently learns new skills in his off-hours so he can move up in the IT world.