• I don't really have many records of accomplishments from work (my fault for not thinking ahead enough to safeguard some of the things I worked on). I could probably get some form of record of in-house classes I attended/passed from a previous manager, but validation beyond a list of course codes in a .xls file is nigh impossible as what was a phenomenal training department got gutted during some heavy reorganization a couple of years back. I could email each of the Big Three individually explaining all this, but I'm not ready for my phone and email to go completely nuclear. I need a plan and some straight talk before I commit a substantial sum of money and time to a specific institution.
  
• I can explain a typical day in the life of my previous role with great clarity, speak on what projects I was involved in, describe all sorts of major scenarios where I was in a lead capacity and communicating updates/issues to VP/P level management.
  
• Hopefully the writing style presented here indicates that I've got at least two-thirds a brain. Not sure if that helps my case or not.
  
• Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm not quite 40, so I've seen/done some things already far as life in general goes.
  
• Re-hash/TL;DR of experience: four to five years as a field tech doing EET and IT type work, seven to ten years in management with increasing responsibilities over time. 
  
• Re-hash/TL;DR of college credit onhand: HAH!
  

(04-21-2020, 07:37 PM)djarumlights Wrote: Posting in the Big 3 forum as it seems this is probably the route I'll need to go. If it needs to be relocated, please do so!

Ok, so, storytime! Flubbed the whole actual college experience thing when that happened twenty years ago because reasons (health-related, mind you). What tatters of a GPA I have might amount to 0.6 and barely a sophomore (got a few mercy Ds so. . . yeah). C'est life. 

Went to work, started a family, and moved from slinging pizza to a career with an oilfield technology company, and have been doing that non-stop until the recent nosedive. 
Spent a couple years as a technician performing low to mid-grade IT and EET type field work then moved into a supervisory role over a team of the same sort I was along with other specialty disciplines (hydraulic/mechanical guys, heavy electricians and mechanics, PLC techs, etc). Spent seven to ten years growing in that role 'til they told me "so long and goodnight" a month ago. I knew it was coming. I'd previously told my manager to take me out back and shoot me first so the other guys could keep a job. 

I figure if I'm finally going to try for a degree, now is the time. Starting from scratch though. . . ouch! So I dug around and happened upon this particular forum. Found the whole Sophia thing and started poking at that. Before I dive off too deeply though, I wanted to ask those of you who've done this before/are doing now what my previous career might count for at TESU et al. Would you suggest I go ahead and try to at least get 101 and 102 level courses knocked out on Sophia while the opportunity is present or would that end up being redundant? 

Some additional points:

• I don't really have many records of accomplishments from work (my fault for not thinking ahead enough to safeguard some of the things I worked on). I could probably get some form of record of in-house classes I attended/passed from a previous manager, but validation beyond a list of course codes in a .xls file is nigh impossible as what was a phenomenal training department got gutted during some heavy reorganization a couple of years back. I could email each of the Big Three individually explaining all this, but I'm not ready for my phone and email to go completely nuclear. I need a plan and some straight talk before I commit a substantial sum of money and time to a specific institution.
  
• I can explain a typical day in the life of my previous role with great clarity, speak on what projects I was involved in, describe all sorts of major scenarios where I was in a lead capacity and communicating updates/issues to VP/P level management.
  
• Hopefully the writing style presented here indicates that I've got at least two-thirds a brain. Not sure if that helps my case or not.
  
• Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm not quite 40, so I've seen/done some things already far as life in general goes.
  
• Re-hash/TL;DR of experience: four to five years as a field tech doing EET and IT type work, seven to ten years in management with increasing responsibilities over time. 
  
• Re-hash/TL;DR of college credit onhand: HAH!
  

Alright, that's my story. I await your feedback!

Quick clarification: I understand it's not life experience credit per se, but the door is potentially open to have said experience evaluated for competency/credit. That's what I'm wanting to know about. How does that work? What's required? What should I gather up?

(04-21-2020, 10:15 PM)djarumlights Wrote: Nothing formal or widely recognized with exception of the occasional safety program. I managed to find some of the intra-company certifications I acquired over time (basically compentency exams for our various product lines and such), so there's that. Former manager is going to poke thru his records to see what else he can find.

The degree that first stood out to me during the previous industry downturn was the B.S. in Technology Leadership at Fort Hays State. However, it seems they're stepping away from ACE credits soon, so that went out the window unless I wait around for CLEP to exist again. But why would I do that when there's a no-cost option to get ahead staring me in the face, beckoning from the light of the monitor?

After going line by line through Sophia's guaranteed transfers a few days ago, it'll end up being business admin, org leadership, or something along that line (Excelsior has a BPS - tech management, for example. TESU - Organizational Leadership. Didn't see anything at COCS or WGU that jumped out and said "HELLO!" loudly). I went through each institution and picked a possible direction at each, basically throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, I reckon. I would not object to the broad-based "professional studies" options either.

(04-21-2020, 10:55 PM)PrettyFlyforaChiGuy Wrote: I'd also start with those free Sophia courses--maybe any of their 1-credit ones, to get a feel for the platform while still learning productively. ALEKS (a math course provider for our purposes) is currently offering two courses for free for two months, if you start before April 30. Lastly, you could also look at the free TEEX (Texas A&M) course series, but they aren't going anywhere.

You'll have to do several gen ed courses for a BS degree, but you can get started on your journey right now by knocking out some of those Sophia offerings.