Fellow reader Robert Allgeyer’s posted complaint regarding the lack of a specified degree for the NRO webmaster position galled me enough that I thought I would write a response. I don’t know if Mr. Allgeyer has worked at all in IT, but I have spent 13 years in the field, leaving it professionally to pursue a Ph.D. in history, in which field I’ve also done IT work. I have spent time in distance learning, web startups, technical support, client account management, system administration, and multimedia content creation.

I came to IT with a BA in history, and I have worked with many talented individuals over the years, especially on the younger end, who held no degree in information science or computer engineering. This was especially true of my coworkers in web content creation and administration. That’s not to say a degree might not be of use, but if I were hiring for a position such as webmaster, as NRO is, I would not care at all about a degree versus the real-world experience that a candidate brought to the table. There are tremendously talented people working with the Internet who don’t have a specifically-related degree, and my guess is that NRO has had enough experience to know this, thus not including holding such a degree in their job posting.

Let’s not bring in already fairly silly arguments related to conservatives and their supposed lack of education to an area where that applies even less. Of course, if Mr. Allgeyer’s comment was made as a joke, and my academia-addled brain did not pick up on it, then I shall promptly punish my failing sense of humor.

Regards, and keep up the uneducated good work,

Andrew Graulich

Editors’ note: We took Mr. Allgeyer’s comment as a joke, but we’re e-mailing him to clarify what he meant. Decide for yourself in the meantime.