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Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

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Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#71

Post by spamizbad »

marincounty wrote: post #57
bdg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the companies I've ever been interested in never had a problem with my education. One actually asked me to verify I'm a drop-out for their background check =/

I couldn't imagine a tech start-up caring about college--unless it's a big stupid company? Plus--the guys I know without a degree, seem to try a little bit harder? I've always thought if I had the right idea, and funding--would I even bother to hire a college graduate, unless they had a lot of projects/accomplishments under their belt? I would prefer people who worked hard, and didn't have that Little bit of self-ent…

It's rare, but some startups prefer their early hires to have degrees tier-1 schools. I assume this is to impress investors and (enterprise/gov) customers. Today's market makes this nearly impossible but I recall it being a thing in the 00's

However, they are looking for a very specific type of college graduate. Merely having a degree with a good GPA is insufficient for them. It must be a tier 1, name-brand institution.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#72

Post by ghufran_syed »

Alupis wrote: post #46
degenerate wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The important thing is to keep learning on your own during the 4 years of college. You're essentially playing the game, going through the motions for the degree. What they teach you in college you probably won't apply to your actual job, so keep learning on your own and teaching yourself new programming languages, tools, and techniques for what you enjoy doing. The degree just opens doors.

The degree doesn't just open doors, it forces you to learn and be exposed to some things you wouldn't have otherwise. Sure, we can say taking a Film Study class is a waste of time, but I can tell you from experience that years later, you will look at things in film a little different than before. Would I have sat down on my own and studied film techniques, types of lighting, angles, etc...? Probably not. Does it appl…

As they say in finance, "price is what you pay, value is what you get". In these discussions about college, it's worth us differentiating those two parts. Many of those arguing in favor of college are describing the value of college ('what you get'), without discussing the price. Many of those arguing against college are focussing mainly on the price (tuition, lost earnings etc) without discussing the value. Clearly, the balance between the two is what matters, and that is different for different careers, and different funding mechanisms for college.

As a thought experiment, imagine the same college degree was available: 1) tuition free, with an additional $20,000 / year given to you for living expenses 2) tuition free, with no living expenses 3) at a tuition cost of $100,000 4) at a tuition cost of $1,000,000 5) at a tuition cost of $10,000,000 and so on

'What you get' in the degree would be the same in each case, but there come a point where 'what you pay' would be too high in relation to 'what you get'.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#73

Post by rayiner »

zig wrote: post #3

For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college. I don't have a degree and have been extremely lucky; I managed to get into middle-management and have been successful. The problem is that I'm not as "portable" as I would be with a degree - in other words, a layoff or termination could put my lifestyle in jeopardy. As such, I am going back to school at 29. Get it over with :)

> For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college.

Also, at that age you really don't know what you may want to do with your life. At 19 I seriously considered dropping out of college to go full-time at the startup I was working at. At 25 I decided I wanted to get into a different career entirely, one where a college degree was required (as is the case in pretty much every white collar profession besides programming).

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#74

Post by madeofpalk »

jlarocco wrote: post #42
zig wrote: post #3

For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college. I don't have a degree and have been extremely lucky; I managed to get into middle-management and have been successful. The problem is that I'm not as "portable" as I would be with a degree - in other words, a layoff or termination could put my lifestyle in jeopardy. As such, I am going back to school at 29. Get it over with :)

Agreed. When people say degrees are overrated and there are too many people with "useless" degrees, they're not talking about science and engineering degrees. Skipping a degree in CS is just making things harder for yourself. Best case scenario you'll just spend that 4 years working up your salary to what you would have had in the first place with a degree.

I think it's also worth noting that I think there is a huge cultural difference when it comes to the value of a degree.

In IT in Australia, I've never had a problem with lack of degree, and I'm doing pretty well for myself - getting paid a decent amount of money in a place I love working in. I'm involved in a hiring process for new developers and I cannot remember the last time we've looked at or considered their educational background.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#75

Post by logical42 »

redblacktree wrote: post #55
eropple wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indentured to the government with a student loan I graduated with under $30K in debt from a state school (with a number of merit scholarships and some but not extensive parental help) and paid it off my second year out of college. One need not take on heavy debt (don't you love the rhetorical phrasing, though? Indentured! ) to go to college, and I tend to think that self-styled autodidacts discount the social round…

> self-styled autodidacts discount the social rounding and educational breadth available at any good university. Yes, you learn to use words like "autodidact" instead of "self-taught."

'Self-taught' isn't exactly a drop in replacement for 'autodidact'. You'd have to say 'self-taught person' or something, which is more awkward as a phrase.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#76

Post by morgante »

oberstein wrote: post #65
eropple wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> indentured to the government with a student loan I graduated with under $30K in debt from a state school (with a number of merit scholarships and some but not extensive parental help) and paid it off my second year out of college. One need not take on heavy debt (don't you love the rhetorical phrasing, though? Indentured! ) to go to college, and I tend to think that self-styled autodidacts discount the social round…

How much under $30k were you? $30k is still a lot of money, even if it's not the even larger $100k-$150k number more and more people are reporting. What were your average monthly expenses including the summer months, and did you work at all? If you're going to be indentured, then at least indenture yourself for an engineering degree. $30k isn't hard to pay off within a year or two of full time employment, and even $1…

$30k is right around the average college debt these days.

$100k-150k is an extreme outlier from people who made the extraordinarily poor decision to attend expensive schools which weren't prestigious enough to provide adequate financial aid.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#77

Post by unimpressive »

zig wrote: post #3

For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college. I don't have a degree and have been extremely lucky; I managed to get into middle-management and have been successful. The problem is that I'm not as "portable" as I would be with a degree - in other words, a layoff or termination could put my lifestyle in jeopardy. As such, I am going back to school at 29. Get it over with :)

Four years is quite a bit of time getting things over with. Everybody likes to talk about the memories of going to college and how much I should expect to enjoy it. I don't expect that, I expect to be absolutely miserable for four years. A more fanatical past version of me would almost rather die.

And on a certain level I think there's definitely a spite involved here. I know that going will permanently invalidate me from attributing my success to anything else, and it will help empower these institutions to keep intruding into lives and charging people outrageous fees through what is essentially a collectively enforced racket. Going will be existentially painful, so I'm avoiding it for as long as possible.

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#78

Post by nsxwolf »

dtparr wrote: post #53
antidamage wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 37. At my age a degree is completely irrelevant if you have the skill set. In fact, ten years ago I was approached by a university to start my Master's degree, with the missing Bachelor's degree being credited through time spent working in my industry at the time. The reality of education in America is that it's an expensive tickbox. It verges on being a racket. While you don't want to be the lone rebel being cru…

> At my age a degree is completely irrelevant if you have the skill set. This is a dangerous thing to say without any qualifiers. It depends on the industry, economic conditions in your area, type/size of company you want to work for, etc. I've known a couple individuals who had the skills and 20+ years of experience who lost jobs at floundering companies and weren't able to find anything relevant due to a lack of a…

But that's madness! You'd be great for this job but we can't hire you because you don't have a piece of paper? How long can these self inflicted meaningless restrictions continue?

Re: Show HN: Careers for people not going to college, built with Meteor

#79

Post by msutherl »

unimpressive wrote: post #77
zig wrote: post #3

For people nearing the end of high-school, please go to college. I don't have a degree and have been extremely lucky; I managed to get into middle-management and have been successful. The problem is that I'm not as "portable" as I would be with a degree - in other words, a layoff or termination could put my lifestyle in jeopardy. As such, I am going back to school at 29. Get it over with :)

Four years is quite a bit of time getting things over with. Everybody likes to talk about the memories of going to college and how much I should expect to enjoy it. I don't expect that, I expect to be absolutely miserable for four years. A more fanatical past version of me would almost rather die. And on a certain level I think there's definitely a spite involved here. I know that going will permanently invalidate me…

This is extraordinarily cynical. There are many different colleges in different places, different majors, and different lifestyles you can construct that ultimately get you through the machine and out the other end after 4 years. If you can't find a configuration that works for you, you will probably be miserable anywhere doing anything.

FWIW, I went to university in a large city outside of the US and basically never went to class, worked in a research lab the whole time, and spent a lot of time partying. Still, it was a stressful time and I have a lot of regrets, but I can't blame the environment ... I chose to live the way that I did. Ultimately my life isn't so different now than it was then except I make more money and I figured out the stress thing.

Other people go to tightly knit schools in small towns that provide a comprehensive 'experience,' or play sports and hang out in frat houses. Perhaps this is what you think college is like for everyone. Trust me: it isn't. Choose what you think will work best for you (hint: location is the most important factor) and make it work.

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