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Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

#31

Post by louthy »

eugeneross wrote: post #30
louthy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a point to this other than telling us how amazing you are because you know some facts? As a self taught programmer there's probably just as many things that I can do that you can't. And how would you rectify your lack of knowledge in those areas? That's right, go and find out for yourself. The amount of hours you list are meaningless also (there are only 168 hours in a week by the way); self taught programme…

You make some interesting points and I appreciate that you weigh out different aspects. The things that you mention are very inspiring to me. Everything that you've accomplished makes me want to work harder than ever. Is there a way I could reach out to you privately to ask you some questions if you don't mind?

Yes, i'd be happy to help as I can. Although take my advice with as big a pinch of salt as any opinion on here. No-one really knows the right way to do this properly. We're all shaped by our experience in this, still young, industry.

Feel free to drop me an email: plouth at gmail.com

Re: Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

#32

Post by louthy »

czbond wrote: post #8

I self taught myself before college and then used a CS degree to force me to study things I never would have. It tended to round me out better in areas where a self taught might avoid. For example, optimization, refactoring, underlying OS implementation, architectures, etc. No way on earth would I have diligently taught myself those for months on end.

I think this just shows how 'fluffy' the advice here is. As a self taught programmer starting with a computer that had a clock speed of 2MHz and 32k of RAM, I learned very early how to optimise, how to refactor and how OSs worked under the hood (as well as the underlying hardware). When I look at Big O notation, I always see the efficiency description of any algorithm as 'well, durr', because I just have a strong sense of whether something is going to run in fixed, linear, or exponential time.

So I feel the exact opposite of you: I would only have learned "optimization, refactoring, underlying OS implementation, architectures, etc." if I had the 'infinite' personal self-tuition time. I couldn't imagine learning any of that stuff in a class-room.

I'm not saying you're wrong, you're not. But clearly there's cognitive biases on both sides, which might not be very helpful to the OP.

Re: Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

#33

Post by nikdaheratik »

It depends on what you want to do. The "technology world" is a big place. If you're going into biotech, for example, you can do just as well with a BS in Biology or Genetics and taking a few programming courses to give you an edge when it comes to areas that are using computers heavily (like Bioinformatics). The same goes for Physical Sciences, or Mathematics/Econ or even Geography.

Most CS Degrees cover:

1. Basic and Advanced Programming 2. Design of Computer Systems (both hardware and software) 3. Design of Operating Systems 4. Theory of Computing (so Algorithms and Data Structures) 5. Other special topics like Networking, AI, Expert Systems, Bioinformatics, etc.

These topics are important for some jobs, and people who excel in some of the advanced areas (and often go on for an MS) can make mega bucks. However, a programmer designing a corporate website or other CRUD system probably won't need/use half of the stuff they learned in their degree, and would likely earn less than someone who excelled in another engineering/science degree that also picked up some programming knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

#34

Post by philjr »

Just another data point, but you've already gotten your answer i think.

Some of the best guys I've seen have majors in fields similar to x's - physics, ee, maths. I've hired and worked with people from majors in law, sociology and psychology, to name but a few. Some of the best (and most interesting) guys I've worked with.

The difficulty will be the "first job", but if you're skilled then you'll be fine. Teaching oneself is no meagre feat however!

Re: Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a CS major be successful in the tech sector?

#36

Post by Bahamut »

I studied math & physics - never took a CS class. I have made my way to a lead frontend engineer position in under 2 1/2 years, and I am courted by many companies. For me, the ability to solve problems quickly without oversight has proven to be valuable. It took a lot of hard work to get to that point, but I am absolutely of the opinion that a CS degree is not necessary. In fact, I once roomed with one who apparently couldn't find a job coding for a living & was not particularly intelligent.
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