Big revelation: Computer Science has very little to do with 'coding' Web pages using FrontPage.
How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
91–100 of 189 posts
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
A college degree, in my opinion, has little to do with the degree or the technical material you learn. the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff i…
the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff in the textbox are important but I think you get your real value from the experiences and the relationsh…
When I was in college, CS was not in demand as much as it is now. It was shortly after the 2001 bust and the whole industry had become 'toxic'. I guess given the circumstances of the time, it attracted people who were more interested in the subject matter than getting a job.
I had a great experience and the people I met really helped me with my success after college.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a big difference between having an instructor and learning things from a book or video lectures. An instructor can correct your mistakes and give you feedback. A book or a video can't do that. Some people presumably don't have a right kind of discipline to study on their own. This is why remote study programs can be a lot more difficult to complete vs. on-site programs. EDIT: There's a known effect, discussed…
Problem is that in many of the top CS universities today the lecturer is just a top researcher who's forced to read off of slides for a couple of hours a week and doesn't have the time, desire, the skills or the incentives to be a great pedagogue to the hundred or more students sitting at his/her lecture. In many universities it does feel like you're basically paying for a very expensive real-life recording of someth…
I studied computer/electrical engineering at my institution. A year or two after I graduated, the CS department lost their accreditation. I wasn't surprised when I heard the news. Of the CS classes I was required to take, one was ostensibly on operating systems. It was taught in C, the grad student lecturer only knew Java. Another instance, we were studying MIPS architecture. The professor was moonlighting in a start up that was going under, and couldn't be bother to show up to lecture, and the TAs he sent were clueless. The EE/CPE students that had already studied this stepped up & taught the class because the TA was inept and the prof never showed. I was super pissed when I got a D on my project on a minor technicality, despite having basically taught the class in the absence of the prof and a competent TA.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spent 5 years teaching English as a foreign language in a Japanese high school. In Japan, the school system is keen to hire foreigners who are fluent in English because they recognise that their students lack fluency. They think the problem lies in the instructor. However, the teachers at the school I taught in were almost all very accomplished English speakers. Yes, they had an accent. Yes, they made mistakes. But…
Can you share some of those lessons? Such as, "How can I improve my pronunciation without paying someone to train me?"
> How can I improve my pronunciation without paying someone to train me?
Find a youtube channel or something else with many, many hours of someone talking in an accent you find pleasant. I use librivox audiobooks for German (free, in many languages). Try and imitate them in sentence sized chunks. This is slow and boring. Listen. Pause. Try and imitate them .
This will work but it's pretty boring. More effective, faster and much more boring is the short text approach. Take a short text and just say it over and over again trying to improve your accent. Listen to the original. Say it yourself. You can read it until you have it memorised, no problem. Record yourself. Compare the original and your latest try. If you keep trying you'll improve very fast.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The actual education part of a university is really a small part of what students leave with. What you're really getting is a network of professors (with ties to employers) and other students that become your friends. Once everyone leaves the university you now have a large network of people that can vouch for your technical knowledge and personality. What you don't get with an online education is the proximity to ot…
The value of networking in undergrad is grossly overstated. Sure, you make friends, but you don't need college for that. And the overwhelming majority of friends I made in college haven't kept in touch with their professors. In fact, outside of one guy who graduated at the top of his class, I doubt said professors would even remember them.
Respectfully, I will disagree (and I was never a frat member). Most of my post college jobs (in terms of years served) have resulted from recommendations from class mates . I started grad work, but never finished, but it has never mattered for me.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Open University in the UK has a dropout rate of 87% [1] I'd imagine that's even higher for online courses. I can only speak for myself but I would not have been self-disciplined enough to complete the courses that I did during my undergraduate CS degree. The added bonus was the degree allowed me to emigrate fairly easily. [1] - https://www.timeshighereducation.com/letters/the-open-univer...
As an OU graduate (late 90s), my first thought was that a lot of people just try the OU, others just like to take some classes without sticking to a program and with no intention of getting a degree... > the cost for an equivalent course for a resident of England is £2,786 The OU used to be about giving a chance to education to everybody. This is sad...
To be fair OU courses are eligible for student loans in the same way going to university is, but the price tag certainly put me off when I was looking into doing some courses recently.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was in my mid 20's when I quit my job to learn programming. Do you mean if I tried to enter the industry in my 40's it would have been much harder? Or now that I'm in the industry, the smooth sailing will eventually get rougher as I approach my 40s? If the latter, I don't really believe it...
Yea, I meant the latter. Software is the ultimate "early plateau" career.
Isn't it standard to just go to Google when you're older and cruise it out there?
Also, I think plateauing is fine.... Why do I need to move upwards when they're paying me plenty already?
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#98The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…
A college degree, in my opinion, has little to do with the degree or the technical material you learn. the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff i…
A college degree signals to an employer that "this person can finish something". That's why the worst thing you can ever do is put on your resume "Some college". That signals "this person cannot finish something". It doesn't matter what the reason is, just don't put it on. I have to interview a lot of people and I look for qualities that signal the person has the type of personality that can work on a problem, even an extremely boring one, until it is _done_. It doesn't necessarily have to be a degree, but that is an easy signal. A PhD is even better. That person worked on something for very long and had the discipline to write it up. That speaks volumes for someone's work ethic.
I'm not saying this is the best or only way, you will get outliers. If you are a betting man, this is a very good strategy and you will be right more than wrong.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#99My main takeaway: the author was tremendously motivated and with perseverance and skill he succeeded. That perseverance part is something I have to remind myself of when I face setbacks.
Props to the author and his journey.
Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree
#100I bet there's quite a bit of us here, who could tell a story on "How I got my career in the tech industry without any degree at all".
Same for me. And although I could tell a longer story, the TLDR is "love what you do and the rest will come naturally".