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Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

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Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#11

Post by badkangaroo »

i dropped out after deciding that there was no way id be able to afford the debt that i would be going into after 4 years of college.

I got a job as a artist working at a few different game companies then went to work on a movie for disney. i turned into a programmer about three years ago.

making games was more fun than making movies, by far.

Each new job position has been through referral by peers. been at this since atari in `93, I've never been asked about a college degree once.

got a house, a cool little machine shop, 3d printer, in san francisco... not bad, not bad at all.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#12

Post by badkangaroo »

byoung2 wrote: post #3

These days, companies seem to care more about work you've done and skills you can demonstrate and not what degree you have. I currently work with the most amazing UX engineer I've ever met and he has degrees in opera and theology. I am a senior software engineer and I have a degree in English. These are arguably only slightly better than having no degree at all when applying for tech jobs, but our bodies of work spok…

opera? wow that "sounds" cool.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#13

Post by CyberFonic »

Given two equally competent candidates, the one with the degree is usually the one who gets picked. A person who has a degree but isn't passionate will often get passed over, except in the most bureaucratic of organizations.

The problem with autodidacts is that many don't know what they don't know and keep re-inventing stuff. Going to university exposes you to people who are heaps smarter than you and hopefully that provides motivation to learn stuff thoroughly and be aware that you might not have all the answers.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#14

Post by CyberFonic »

nirvana wrote: post #4

If you're an engineer, and you drop out and you work for 4-6 years, nobody is ever going to care, or probably know, that you don't have a degree. My personal experience was that I got a hell of a good job when looking for a summer job, and I just kept at it. I'm in my 40s now, and in my career, not having a degree has NEVER been the slightest problem. I was in such demand that I started limiting how many interviews I…

I assume you mean software engineer. In other fields of "real" engineering, like civil, mechanical, aeronautical, chemical and electrical lacking the pre-requisite qualifications means you don't get the job.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#15

Post by ziadbc »

You can take a break from college without dropping out.

The best reasons/excuses don't sound like "maybe college isnt for me" and more like "Someone offered me a very time flexible paid internship that will allow me to start my own business on the side, and if I don't, then most likely I'll go back to school."

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#16

Post by hedgie »

nirvana wrote: post #4

If you're an engineer, and you drop out and you work for 4-6 years, nobody is ever going to care, or probably know, that you don't have a degree. My personal experience was that I got a hell of a good job when looking for a summer job, and I just kept at it. I'm in my 40s now, and in my career, not having a degree has NEVER been the slightest problem. I was in such demand that I started limiting how many interviews I…

"I think its wrong of people who do discriminate against those who don't have a degree-- engineering is about having the skills and the mind."

there are certain areas of software engineering where a real understanding of the subject takes years of focused study. for example, understanding encryption requires graduate level math courses to even read some of the standards produced or understand how the algorithms work. i have never seen this happen outside of school simply due to the time restrictions of having a job preventing the full-time study necessary to reach that level of mathematical sophistication.

there are other areas where similar training is necessary and pretty much exclusive to schools (think financial software engineering for traders, for whom they generally hire grad students with extremely specialized knowledge).

most software engineers don't need this sort of training. but there are areas like encryption where i'm 99% certain the only training left in the world that can make you a competent professional is schooling.

software engineering is an odd exception to the rule that most jobs require credentials. you can just make the product at home and that speaks for itself, where as no one will let you risk blowing millions on dumb marketing unless you have something to say you're semi-competent.

self-trained software engineers are usually incredible and some of the best employees. but there are areas of software engineering where self-training is impossible that are absolutely necessary when creating certain products.

lastly, if you looked at my degrees, you would ignore the fact i first learned basic in middle school on an apple IIc+.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#17

Post by hitokirikensan »

yusufnb wrote: post #10

If you are not smart enough, it would be smart to stay in school few more years and get the badge. It would be really dumb to be dumb and also not go to school. Not to say, smart people do stay in school, but I would think that's not for the badges.

that's definitely true. It seems like all those who are doing well without a degree already had the motivation, intelligence, and "street-smarts" to do well. College does bring connections and such, but it also teaches you to be resourceful and force yourself to do things you don't want to do (like write essays when you're an engineering student). I was definitely a little kid after I graduate high school but after college, I was much more mature and responsible.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#18

Post by sharmanaetor »

nirvana wrote: post #5
xtx23 wrote: post #2

'cause if you aren't super successful or hardcore at it, you will reach a point of diminishing returns of things. Your peers in other professions will catch up to you in term of pay when you are 30~40. You will lose time to families, and trade that loss for more requirement for financial responsibilities. Also when it's 30~40 time, you end up facing who you really are, and some people'll have to accept the fact that…

People who skip college start out financially ahead of those who get a degree-- they spend 4 years getting work experience and hopefully saving that money. One of the major things about compounding is that the more you save early on, the bigger the impact than saving the same amount later. So, you avoid-- what $200k?-- in college tuition cost and instead earn something like $200k over those four years, and if you're…

If you don't have a college degree, it's highly unlikely that you will get into a reputed company, assuming any company is willing to hire you. This means lower experience and probably lower pay as well. So this means you will spend about 4 years not working to your maximum potential. A person who graduates will easily catch up 6-8 years after graduating. There are, of course, exceptions to the scenario described above, but usually I think what's described by me is most likely to happen.

Re: Dropping out - how does it affect you later in life?

#19

Post by heretohelp »

sharmanaetor wrote: post #18
nirvana wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who skip college start out financially ahead of those who get a degree-- they spend 4 years getting work experience and hopefully saving that money. One of the major things about compounding is that the more you save early on, the bigger the impact than saving the same amount later. So, you avoid-- what $200k?-- in college tuition cost and instead earn something like $200k over those four years, and if you're…

If you don't have a college degree, it's highly unlikely that you will get into a reputed company, assuming any company is willing to hire you. This means lower experience and probably lower pay as well. So this means you will spend about 4 years not working to your maximum potential. A person who graduates will easily catch up 6-8 years after graduating. There are, of course, exceptions to the scenario described abo…

I dropped out directly into a job offer that got me off the ground in my first quarter of college.

That was nearly six years ago, now I'm the CTO at my company.

I think we can generally trust people to follow their gut on this, as to whether school or work is a better idea. I'd been programming since I was a kid and was overall a self-directed learner. For me, school was an immense waste of time.

Books and MIT OpenCourseWare were a much better use of my time.

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