If you want some more formal education to improve your confidence, why not try taking some classes without entering a degree program? You could pretty easily take one or two classes without adding too much to your plate and figure out whether it is actually something you want to pursue further without sacrificing your current job.
Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
111–120 of 122 posts
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#112If you want to get into 3d graphics, you could apply for an entry level position in the industry, for example, a Pipeline TD in Visual Effects (VFX) or an R&D position. Usually it's very hard for them to find talent that has experience in the software field, and you can easily ramp up in the 3d graphics field while in the company.
But the pay is pretty bad
No it isn’t. It’s FAANG level without the stocks. I wouldn’t call it pretty bad.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#113"The only thing that interferes with my learning, is my education"- Einstein.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#114Speaking as someone actively hiring here and having worked with top teams on the PhD + industry side: Pick an area, get dangerous over say 6-9mo on your own time through a mix of planned practice (vs random noodling) + projects, then get more dangerous via an employer with senior talent happy to train some junior talent over 2yrs. From there, you're firmly in. That's not an option for everyone (aging parents, needy k…
This shows some light at the end of the tunnel, thanks!
How does one find the “employer with senior talent happy to train some junior talent over 2yrs.”?
I’m in a similar situation than OP, but I find myself in the IT Operations side of tech, not software where I want to be.
I know I will devote myself to any project they give me and turn 1% of mentoring into loads of progress, but I can’t seem to arouse the HR filter enough and I don’t have contacts in the software world to get through the personal route.
I do have a somewhat big (viewed from my junior point of view at least) project I’m working on and it’s constantly updated in GitHub, but I don’t think anyone even gets to look at it.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#115> 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 topic…
Hi there. I am in almost the same situation as OP, but I’m about to turn 30 and I enrolled back in school already.
I’ve been considering that quitting my job in IT and doing school full time could get me the degree sooner and therefore putting me where I want sooner, but this whole thread makes me think that might not give me what I’m after.
If you’re open to talk to someone other than OP my email is in my profile and I would truly appreciate your time.
Thanks
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#116Education != university.
I'm not deriding university, but education is everything. You are educating yourself for your entire life. What you learnt at university was that nobody was there holding your hand. To learn, you must do it yourself.
>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.
You're bored and you're hitting your 30s where you're concerned about 'could I have been more?' dont worry, everyone goes through this and it gets worse later in your 30s.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#117I think you can check out those online courses such as the ones on Coursera. Gatech... All have good resources and offer a good graduate degree in many fields of CS.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#118Anecdote: Not directly relevant, since we had different goals, but...
I had the same realization, at around age 28. Had a BS (both meanings) undergrad degree in applied science.
Path:
-Math fundamentals on Khan Academy. Videos, exercises etc. Algebra, trig, calc etc -A barrage of science classes for a few years on MitX, only after I was comfortable with the math. Physics, chem, bio, biochem, QM etc Lectures, excercises etc. - Got more aggressive with personal projects applying these. Ie transition from learning fundamentals, to applying them to practical problems.
It's not too late! It gets harder with age. EO Wilson (famous biologist and ant expert) described taking calculus for the first time in his mid 30s, and having a struggle.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#119Nah, forget those cool jobs they don’t exist. They’re taken by a happy few. (Except perhaps machine learning where you can find a (probably bad) job after following a mooc).
It’s as if you were a dropout of acting school and you would lament that you should not have dropped out, cause all those acting stars didn’t.
Re: Ask HN: Messed up my education, now 30 and regretting it. What to do?
#120Apply to the jobs and see what happens. Maybe you don't need the degree after all.
If you do end up needing it, you can probably transfer some of the credits you completed and do nightschool if you don't want to stop working.