Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 122 posts

Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#1

Post by throwaway_pKmOh »

I was always a straight-A student until I came to university, where I could never seem to care about the course material or putting effort into my classes. As a result I never even finished my bachelors degree, and I'm now in my early 30s and regretting it a lot.

Fortunately I was able to land a job in tech, an industry which cares a little bit less about credentials, and I've now held a number of jobs in software. I'm paid well and I think I'm pretty good at what I do. But then I look around and see the cool jobs in 3D graphics, in distributed systems, in machine learning, or other "hard computer science" fields, and it feels like I will never be qualified without a graduate degree.

It really bums me out and constantly thinking about it is starting to wear me out mentally. Putting my career on hold for a few years to go back to school has a very high opportunity cost right now, and even if I were to do that I would still feel like a massive screw-up for going back to university in my 30s. At the same time, I feel like I'm throwing away my potential and my curiosity about deeper technical topics.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? What should I do?

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#2

Post by pwned1 »

I screwed up in university early on as well. I took a break of a few years. I don't know where you are, but there are a lot of universities that offer night/weekend classes. I worked full time and took classes at night. I ended up really enjoying my education because I was working and using what I was learning in class in real time. I ended up being glad that I waited and I feel like I got a lot more out of my education than I would have if I had started right out of high school.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#4

Post by mindcrime »

Why put your career on hold while you go back to school? You could (possibly) do both. There are an awful lot of educational opportunities available in this day and age, including graduate degrees - including some from highly reputable schools - that are available purely online, in very flexible formats that could allow you to both work a "day job" and go back to school at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#5

Post by breckenedge »

Non-technical degree holder here (BA English ‘05) working as a developer.

Yes and no. Some employers are going to consider a lack of a CS degree as a negative, including some really large employers with interesting projects. If you want to work directly for those employers on those projects, you will most likely need not just a CS degree but one from a prestigious program.

If it means that much to you, definitely consider doing it, but in my experience that’s already a very narrow and competitive field to pursue, so make sure you’re not just settling for any CS degree but one that has a network of graduates working in those fields already.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#6

Post by dgorman »

I suggest: -get certifications in your area of focus (I personally am looking at AWS ones); tons of resources for certification study at your own pace

-stay working but study at night; to avoid debit and continue to increase years of experience

-Once you have the certs, then eval if you really want the degree.

-Some companies offer tuition reimbursement; taking some night classes towards a degree shows employers motivation

-maybe change jobs every 3-5 years to stay fresh or at least interview periodically other companies

Beware of burnout, you may find that the certifications gives you enough mobility. Years of experience plus certification should get you in the door to most jobs. You may hit your 40s and realize you should have spent more time with loved ones.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#7

Post by cableshaft »

I went back to school full time at 28 and graduated at 30, for computer science. I figured it was now or never. I already had two years in but dropped out for what in retrospect were dumb reasons.

Tuition had and has gone up an insane amount even since I've been out, I'm not sure I'd make the same choice today. As it is, for two years of school I spent 10 years paying it off (probably could have done it a bit faster).

But from an education and experience standpoint I don't regret it. And the feeling weird about being the oldest person there in most classes feeling went away after about two weeks.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#8

Post by jasonpeacock »

What is your goal for getting a degree? Be honest with yourself, then figure out how/why to achieve it.

If you just want a degree to say that you have one, and to complete something that you started, that's OK. But the way you approach solving that (casual evening courses over the next 3-4yrs) is different from "need a degree to get more specialized job", in which case it may be worth a more focused study to get your degree ASAP so you can change jobs.

If you just want to learn more about other topics, or go deeper - there's lots of approaches that don't require formal education. MOOCs, self-study with text books, seminars/auditing classes, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#9

Post by JasonCannon »

A lot of those fields still care more about what you can do, rather than what college credentials you have. Learn to do the work, get samples in your portfolio showing you can do the work, maybe blog about it, and apply. Let them decide if they want to hire you or not, don't preemptively reject yourself.

Also, there is NOTHING wrong with going to school at 30. Or 40. Or 50. Or at any age. You will never be a loser for doing that.

https://www.kron4.com/news/national/age-is-just-a-number-to-...

This dude was almost 90 and got a phd. He isn't a screw up.

Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?

#10

Post by InvertedRhodium »

I'm in a similar position, thankfully in a country that cares even less about degrees than the US. I've just had to accept that, at this point in my life, going back to university would be a vanity project and nothing else. After >10 years experience, I'll never recoup the ROI on a return to study.

My advice would be that, if it's something that you would actually enjoy, or it'd scratch an itch you can't quite shake then go for it.

Post reply on HN