Ask HN: Experience vs. Education?

Focus on your education. You'll always have time to gain more experience, but, for most of us, the opportunity to get an education will expire. You find a job, get married, have kids, buy a house, etc, then all the sudden, there's very little time left for school.

the professional tech landscape is competitive: even with a degree and experience, a job offer will not just fall in your lap. and at the moment, it sounds like you don't have either.

stay in school unless you have (a) a very good rationale for quitting, and (b) a detailed (in writing!) plan for how to get good enough at your craft to the point that you'll land some interviews and score a job offer. be honest with yourself about the discipline this will require, particularly if you're already 'struggling' in the structured learning environment you're in now.

beyond that, remember that the value of a college degree for you as a human being goes far beyond just your career.

edit: you might also do some research on what a typical technical interview involves these days. e.g., it's not unheard of to spend six months prepping for a google interview.

Both, but that's not really the point.

As others have pointed out, education and experience help you develop different skills. And yes, education is not for everyone.

However, your claim that you ar struggling with education because you wanto to focus on gaining experience is an amber light in itself. What would you think of a bodybuilder that claims that he is struggling to develop his biceps because his hamstrings are getting in the way? Sounds a bit off, doesn't it? It tells you, among other things, that his trainning is a mess, and that probably he has not yet developed the ability to set and pursue goals in a systematic way.

So, get your act together. You sound like a fairly young fellow, just starting on this path. So, it does not matter if your future peers/employers value education more, or experience more... since you clearly lack both. Just concentrate on self improvement, and things will eventually play out in your advantage.

Also, about education specifically. It is OK to not pursue that path, but be sure to make that decision for the right reasons. Every thing worth doing in this world requires effort; being struggling with each of them is the normal state fo affairs. Either complete your degree... or don't, but don't just leave because it is hard. Getting experience will be harder, in its own ways.

There has always been a discussion around this.

Strictly speaking: no, a lack of a formal education will not disqualify you for _most_ tech jobs (although it will disqualify you from some, for example: consultancies staffing big government projects, where they have committed to consultants with minimum qualifications, anything in academia, etc). That said, it wont be regarded as an advantage either.

The real question is: if you haven't been studying- what _have_ you been doing? It may be that you have been working on a startup, or have fallen into something which has really made you grow technically. In this case you are probably doing OK, although you will have to study if you want to pass an interview at Google (which rather defeats the purpose of not studying).

On a side note: be wary of employers that make a great virtue out of hiring people with no education- this is often a sign that they want to press down pay and conditions or that fully qualified people not to want to work there.

I think this highly dependent upon the field and what area in the field you want to work at. While I think there is a lot of value in a formal computer science education a lot of people are employed in the area without one, or with bachelors degree. On the other hand if you are really interested in being an electrical engineer working on device physics problems probably better to plan on getting a doctorate. Unless your your grandfather is the founder of TSMC or something like that. Put another way, if everyone you have ever heard of that is doing the type of work you want to do has a Masters, and your debating getting a Bachelors degree, you have ask yourself why do think you would be successful. A personal anecdote, about 30 years ago I struggled academically with my degree because I was working long hours at my high tech internship. I learned a tremendous amount at that job, but in the end I quit so I could focus on finishing. It was a bad job market when I graduated and it took me about 4 months so so after graduation to get a job. It would have been much worse without the degree. You don't say what experience or education you pursuing, but if you have a internship while you are working on your degree that's in your area I would say that's the best you can do. But it's not worth not finishing your program.