ECE (Electrical Engineering). Once you have a few years of work experience, your major doesn't matter to employers.
I'm kinda the same boat, but my EE degree didn't involve much programming work. God bless the math background I got though.
Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
41–50 of 176 posts
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#42EE degree for me. At the time I felt engineering could be more universally applied. I did enjoy the c and asm courses though.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#43I ignored a job advertised in the paper once because it said it required a master's in CS. I had a bachelor's in mathematics. The job was for a Unix kernel and system hacker at a company making Unix workstations. This was around 1984, when Unix internals experience was not widespread. Several months later, a headhunter sent me to interview for that job, which was still open because they hadn't been able to find anyon…
"or equivalent experience" is now a pretty standard addendum to the CS degree requirement.
IMHO that's an implied addendum to all job ad requirements!
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#44I frequently get asked why I didn't do Computer Science as a degree. Before I even left school to go to University (I'm British) I was already running my first startup. (I was 16 and it was game hosting company. I peaked off at two full racks worth of physical servers (several hundred virtual servers)). At that time in my life, it wasn't even possible for me to have a computer science degree so this startup clearly w…
That's actually a pretty interesting story. What'd you decide to get a degree in instead?
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#45Dropped out out of frustration with ridiculous emphasis on calculus and extremely poor algorithms teachers. I don't regret dropping out, I regret wasting a couple of years fighting that. But almost 15 years later I now find algorithms teaching in top universities completely out of touch with reality. Hardware changed drastically in the last decade and it seems they just gave up. It's turning into a cult of big-O theo…
I really respect your decision to drop out. I am a senior and I decided to take my last semester off and do a long internship. I am lucky to have found a good company, but that fight you had is still going on in my head. Most of the problems I solve at work are new to me, and nothing from my university is relevant, including the algorithms class. For instance, I have never used git in school. In fact, nobody has even mentioned it. Just think about it for a moment. How important is something like git or its equivalents, as compared to outdated theory bound knowledge?
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#46I have one. I know many people without one who have better careers than mine.
Except for possibly your very first job, I don't think having a CS degree or not matters for most jobs. Experience and ability are all that matters.
In fact, looking back, most of the good people that I can remember personally had math, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or nothing. The two with nothing are stellar.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#47I ignored a job advertised in the paper once because it said it required a master's in CS. I had a bachelor's in mathematics. The job was for a Unix kernel and system hacker at a company making Unix workstations. This was around 1984, when Unix internals experience was not widespread. Several months later, a headhunter sent me to interview for that job, which was still open because they hadn't been able to find anyon…
I'm pretty convinced that those phrases are there to keep people that aren't qualified from applying. I've always ignored them and it's never been a problem.
I don't necessarily agree with the practice, but the argument I've heard is that if you only want people with a Bachelor's or higher, you have to say that you want a Master's.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#48My degree is in fine art, with a concentration in design (and a minor in art history). I started out as "designer who can do a bit of development" and over the years, that's changed to "developer who can design."
I didn't plan it that way, it's just where the work has taken me, and I do enjoy programming slightly more, I think (maybe - I love both).
I've engaged in a ton of self-directed learning and have been fortunate to work for some extremely smart, and extremely patient people who were happy to teach and happy to give me challenging, real problems to solve.
I make it a point to learn something new every day.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#49I marked yes although actually I have a CIS (computer information systems) degree. Does anyone else fall into this category?
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#50I dropped out of my Electronics Engineering Technology polytech course in 1982 after working part time for a couple of years with electronics and microcomputers and finding I was learning more valuable things at work than at school. At the time I thought I'd go back and finish, but I just kept on going, learning as I went along. Now with over 30 years on my resume, whether I have a degree is a question I don't often get, but if anyone is hung up on it, it's a good filter.