Colorado Tech Online Students and Alumni
Meet Scott Schuler
BSIT with a concentration in Software Systems Engineering
After serving in the Marine Corps for nine years, Scott Schuler found that he had several obstacles to overcome in order to achieve success in his career and satisfaction in his personal life. "Despite acquiring nine years of administrative, technical and other experience in the Marines, I found that obtaining a well-paying job that I enjoy is hard to find without a college degree. I managed to find a position working at an information technology help desk, but my résumé was not landing me interviews when I applied for management positions in the IT profession. That is when I decided to continue my education."
It took some trial and error before Scott found a learning environment that was right for him. "I started at a community college and earned an Associate's degree in Business Administration. I wanted to continue on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology because I enjoy developing web based applications and working with databases. The brick and mortar campus environment, however, was frustrating. I was in my 30's and in classes with 18 - 20 year old students, many of whom I considered distracting. Working full-time and attending classes also did not leave enough time for me to spend with my wife and newborn son. So, I began to look into online universities."
Scott chose Colorado Tech Online for several reasons. "I contacted Colorado Tech Online because it offers the degree program and flexibility I was looking for. When I was informed that I could complete a BSIT degree program in as little as 15 months with my prior college credits and that software and textbooks would be included in my tuition, I immediately applied."
Colorado Tech Online met or exceeded all of Scott's expectations. "The classes were very informative and I enjoyed working on projects with a very diverse student roster and instructors that brought a lot of professional experience into the learning environment. I have always learned best from reading and research, but I truly enjoyed the audio and visual aids that instructors use in the live sessions. The instructors are very accessible and responsive to student questions. As an IT professional, I am also very impressed with the Virtual Campus. It is extremely user-friendly, the library offers access to a wealth of information and everything I needed for a complete university experience was readily available. Nearly everything that a traditional university campus offers is literally at your fingertips through the Virtual Campus at Colorado Tech Online."
Even before graduating from Colorado Tech Online, Scott began to experience the benefits of higher education. "I found the course materials to be very relevant to my work. I used the same research materials that I used to complete my course work in solving IT issues at work. I improved my structured query language skills. I learned how to create timelines and graphs that are useful in my profession and I learned project management skills that have proven very useful in software implementation. Everything I have learned in my courses has been applicable to my career and before long I realized I was ready to make the leap into management."
After Scott was able to include "BSIT – Colorado Technical University" on his résumé, a lot of things changed for him. "I went from getting no responses to several interviews that led to three job offers simultaneously. I cannot begin to tell you how much of a sense of personal accomplishment I felt at the time. I chose a position as a systems analyst for the financial aid department at Oakland University. I am currently working in a management capacity and truly love what I do."
Now, as Scott commutes to a job he loves in his new Dodge Charger that an increase in salary helped him afford, it is safe to say that a sense of satisfaction no longer eludes him. "I am very happy with what I do and I am now able to set higher career goals for myself. I would like to work my way up to a position as a CIO or Director of an IT department in a large company. Those goals would have been unrealistic before earning a Bachelor's degree, but they are now within the scope of my career. I directly attribute my career success and sense of personal achievement to earning a Bachelor's degree through Colorado Tech Online."
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