WOw expennnnnsive 

Ketchup - I would never dismiss CERTS, although experience trumps qualifications to a degree, I beleive CERTS are essential, if I do journey off to uni, upon completion, I will still armour myself with CERTS 

No I dont have a degree to my name, I went straight to uni from college and began studying Software Engineering, lets just say I wrecked all hope of passing.  I had to leave due to personal reasons.

On a more positve note I travelled to uni yesterday for an open day/more indepth talk on the syllabus/Networking which was informative.

I was a bit shocked to find out how elite I will need to become at programming to acheive a satisfactory grade.  JAVA/C/Pearl are on my essetial reading list.

Having not coded for 8 years now!  Ultimately I need to find out if my coding passion is still embedded.  Today I have started reading Big Java (3rd ed), I will give myself a month to grasp the concept and then conclude if programming is for me. 

I have looked into part-time courses, the flavours are not to my taste and in reality I know I will be a lot more keener in a learning environment, which is why I have burned that option.

As far as a decent employers go, I have worked for two pretty good employers which are happy to pay for Certs, but degrees that sounds pretty rare in the UK, espically one so tailored as Ethical Hacking & Network Security 

The course sounds very exciting, it does exactly as is says on the tin and every aspect is security related, learning how to code virus's sounds too fun!

So more good news I received a UF, which stands for Unconditional fixed offer  I am in a very happy mood again!

So the one month countdown commences, time to jack into the programming world!

Thanks for all your advise and stories, i'll keep you all posted on my decision 

Hi all,

I have been working in the IT Industry for just over 3 years now and after a fair amount of research through books, whitepapers, advice from friends/manager etc I have concluded I want a life long career in Security. 

Security is a huge realm and at the moment I am leaning towards the Penetration Testing route, after toying around with BackTrack, it really entertained me and fueled my interest dramatically.

So I am currently 26 years of age, studying towards a CCNA, have passed MCP's in 70-270 & 70-290 & CompTia A+ and have researched into alternative learning pathways.

I have applied to study for a Degree in Ethical Hacking & Network Security, which begins this year and upon completion I will be 29 and would have potentially flushed 3 years of experience down the sewers.

Age is my biggest concern on making a return.  I have read several other posts and concluded none of the posts I have read are similar to mine.

So I present it to you.

In your opinion would I be shooting myself in the foot by studying a full-time degree and flushing all my experience into the sewers OR would you recommend I take my other route and pass my CCNA, land a Network Admin role, top up on Network +, Security +, CCNA Security, Linux+, CEH, kinda route?

Now ultimately I need to conclude this myself, I know that, but if anyone in the field can give me some much respected and appreciated advice that would be brilliant.

I look forward to your response/s