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Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

businessinsider.com

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Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#91

Post by fma »

sanxiyn wrote: post #69
sys_64738 wrote: post #60

With a college degree, specifically a Computer Science degree, you generally expect a certain level of competence in CS fundamentals. E.g. the recipient will know about Big O notation, will be able to do problem analysis and design, and understand programming principles like heap memory, object methodology and concepts like memory pointers.

That doesn't take four years. Most of it can be learned in a year. (Source: I did.) CS degrees teach you things like computer architecture, operating system, relational database, networking, etc. which are nice to have but optional.

The first 2 years of college is usually your core competency, including high level mathematics, statistics, and other things like ethics, technical writing...and other general education like history, foreign language to make you a more rounded education.

If you do well in high school you can obtain a lot of college level general education credit and knock off a year.

The last 2 years are probably more like what you did in 1 year.

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#92

Post by [deleted] »

sthadevoos wrote: post #54
xfitm3 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about accomplishment and impact instead of credentials?

The point is who says you are accomplished and your work has an impact? For coding,yes. Your github account showcases your accomplishments and it is open to everyone for verification. But for the rest, i mean the non programmer jobs in sales, marketing, retail,finance ,customer care you cannot have your accomplishments showcased in a verifiable manner. For any company or recruiter, a guy from a decent college with go…

[deleted]

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#93

Post by ddstvsucksass »

Generational wealth helps too ;)

I should know my family's company was just purchased by DOW Chemical

lol so let me get this straight, how is a young person supposed to get work experience if they can't get a job without a degree?

you're no worse than my grandfather saying that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps when he inherited his chemical company from his grandfather lol

J3W3 did wtc

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#94

Post by XIVMagnus »

monocasa wrote: post #88
nabla9 wrote: post #85

What the college attempts to teach is still mostly just writing and reading comprehension and math. It's just higher level than before. You should have the ability to write 20-30 pages well structured text to show that you can think, organize your thinking and communicate your thinking to others in your field. Many people graduate without this ability, but at least they have had some practice and can write 5 pages be…

> You should have the ability to write 20-30 pages well structured text to show that you can think, organize your thinking and communicate your thinking to others in your field. Many people graduate without this ability, but at least they have had some practice and can write 5 pages better than when they started the college. Almost all engineering programs I've seen, practically don't have any English requirements. I…

at my university, You're required to take 2 semesters of english and for senior design 1 you're basically writing a 100 page book on your proposal.

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#95

Post by bluedevil2k »

jordache wrote: post #64
bluedevil2k wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a silly statement - I’d say a lot more jobs currently tied to NOT needing a college degree will be automated out of existence. Jobs that require creativity and critical thinking will be the ones that survive (I believe that’s the quote from the recent Last Week Tonight). Those tend to be college educated jobs.

>I’d say a lot more jobs currently tied to NOT needing a college degree will be automated out of existence True, but I was making commentary on a large number of college education required positions. They are mutually exclusive assertions. All the reasons to get Andrew Yang on the debate stage! Andrew Yang 2020! YangGang!

I had never heard of this guy before your comment. After reading about him, he's certainly an interesting person who has well-thought out policy ideas. He doesn't match all my political ideas, but he's certainly not a Democrat party-line guy.

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#97

Post by bluedino »

sanxiyn wrote: post #69
sys_64738 wrote: post #60

With a college degree, specifically a Computer Science degree, you generally expect a certain level of competence in CS fundamentals. E.g. the recipient will know about Big O notation, will be able to do problem analysis and design, and understand programming principles like heap memory, object methodology and concepts like memory pointers.

That doesn't take four years. Most of it can be learned in a year. (Source: I did.) CS degrees teach you things like computer architecture, operating system, relational database, networking, etc. which are nice to have but optional.

Depends on where you go to school. I've interviewed seniors and recent grads who have worked on a whopping 1-2 projects and most of them were super simple web stuff. Like one page projects that had one query.

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#98

Post by rjf72 »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #56

Alternate title "Duke MBA Tim Cook explains why you don't a college degree to be successful".

Would it be a substantively different talk if Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Larry Elison, Mark Zuckerberg, etc, etc had said something similar?

Re: Tim Cook explains why you don’t need a college degree to be successful

#100

Post by JJMcJ »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #72
glitchc wrote: post #67

If Cook really cares so much, why doesn’t he invest in internal training and mentorship programs? Where are all the entry-level new grad positions where a junior is paired with a senior? Where is the performance evaluation category for mentoring as a developer? These have all but disappeared in the modern job market. It used to be the company’s prerogative to train hires for their job. Now that is being outsourced to…

It’s not the same thing but maybe a compromise due to the scale involved: you can work your way up from the Apple Store into corporate without a college degree. “Geniuses” funnel into QA mostly while “Creatives” funnel into marketing and design. We did hire many, many interns too when I was there but they were from college programs.

> funnel into QA

That is, the lowest paying and least respected "tech" jobs in the company.

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