The computer science degree isn’t dead • Hacker News Board

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#131

Post by maccard » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

mettamage wrote: post #84

platz wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's an example of something you made happen

[flagged]

This is nonsense. It’s referrals for jobs that get filled before the JD is even posted, or discussions about what companies/people _actually_ want when they’re tendering projects. It’s tickets for sold out events, access to golf tee times or bookings that just aren’t available if you have to ask.

Two examples from my life - a friend is a headhunter for tech companies. My last job was been him hitting me up before the job was advertised - I had met the hiring manager and booked an interview before they saw my CV or anyone else even applied to the job.

There’s a major sporting event in my city every year and the tickets sell out within minutes every year, the good ones gone to season ticket holders years in advance. A colleague is a season ticket holder and not interested in that particular game so the last few years I’ve gotten his ticket for less than face value for the cheap seats.

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#132

Post by timoshishi » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

rienbdj wrote: post #90

Larrikin wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your example you knew the issues with the original fix, had some ideas to the cause, even if they were wrong, and generally knew where to look. In my experience the LLM when given the ticket would have done the original null pointer guard fix given the bug. Only under direction does it ever dig deeper and for me it'll often go down some wrong paths unless I tell it to go somewhere else. It's great when it gets it…

Can’t sustain six figure salaries because current prompts are wrong.

I heard prompt engineer is the six figure job of the future

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#133

Post by mawadev » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

lifestyleguru wrote: post #74

jongjong wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes 100%. I was born upper middle class. I have a BIT from a global top 50 University. I understood this after working in cryptocurrency sector in Germany. After I left Australia and moved to Europe, I realized after some time that 'the matrix' had demoted me into a lower social class. I had to work harder for less money and had access to fewer opportunities. Then I joined the crypto sector and the people there seeme…

DACH societies are extremely class based, in fact most of European royal families come from there. They take it as a point of honor to be rude or at least gruff in daily interactions, it's not about you. Their cynicism is indeed a poison, no need for it as the real life will bring enough unexpected challenges.

I'm german and I was at aldi yesterday, one guy was super nice and happy and wished another a good day, and the guy, including us were surprised how nice he was and he said "we need more nice people in this country". Mind blowing. Taking the plane from croatia to germany is also funny, because there is a grey filter as soon as you enter the airspace

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#134

Post by retired » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

zipy124 wrote: post #105

taurath wrote: post #19

If one is thinking about not getting a degree and trying to go straight to work, as someone who did so (albiet out of poverty rather than choice) but didn't end up like Zuck, please heed my warning: Social capital matters more than just about anyone who has a degree can understand and tell you or mentor you about, because the majority of them have always had it, and they tend not even to interact with people without…

This is completely correct. It's the same reason why an MBA or PhD can be valuable if you want to go the management track. In Europe specifically - especially in the UK - the class based system is still alive and kicking and is based on subtle tells such as education, name, accent and more. It's less overt than in say India, but still very much present.

I did what is referred to as a “fun MSc” (pretmaster) in The Netherlands. It’s a Master programme that doesn’t require much effort and doesn’t put you in too much debt but does allow you to put MSc behind your name. Some engineering firms (companies that do engineering as their core business) require all applicants to have an MSc. It is how I got my foot in the door.

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#135

Post by matteohorvath » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

First step is denial

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#136

Post by bluGill » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #114

bluGill wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software tends to be complex enough that you need a lot of people and thus a tech company. It rarely makes sense for a company to make their own software that they only use to internally. Many non tech companies makes their own software but it is shipped to customers as part of the product

Eh it depends. I’ve worked at / with a lot of more traditional non-tech companies and you’d be amazed at how a lot of the software looks like Excel circa 1995. I guess they could be using third party software but it seems like often they are just using an ancient thing they built themselves.

That tends not to be written by software people so we can ignore it even though you are correct.

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#137

Post by anal_reactor » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

yieldcrv wrote: post #126

anal_reactor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I do the reverse of that. I dress like shit and when introducing myself I specifically use the word "immigrant" rather than "expat" because signalling high social position attracts people who want something from me but don't offer anything in return.

Not to this extreme but most people around me don’t know what I do for money or explore in unallocated time I’m fashionable and have a nice place but nothing says “software engineer that earns more than most doctors” People that wake up next to me think I earn about 1/3rd to 1/5th of what I earn, I don’t correct them But at the same time I do want just a little bit of the hypergamy. Unfortunately, broadcasting to tha…

I'm gay so I have easy access to sex and TBH I don't really have much sex, almost nothing at all, because sex with most people just isn't pleasant. I cannot derive pleasure from it if there's no connection, and "wow I love your car" isn't connection.

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#138

Post by anal_reactor » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #121

anal_reactor wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ain't nobody calling seasonal minimum-wage workers "expats".

True, but I'm talking about native English speakers. Those people likely have their own terminology in their own language to describe themselves. Also an ex-patriate is typically in the professional class. So those "English" teachers who teach in Japan, etc., may think of themselves as ex-pats or try to frequent "ex-pat" hangouts but they aren't necessarily because of two things: one, they have not been working at th…

"expat" is rich, "immigrant" is poor. People use the word "expat" to signal they're rich, or at least they want to be.

Here, your theory goes out of the window.

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#139

Post by j7ake » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

rockskon wrote: post #11

mamidon wrote: post #5

This may be a cynical take, but as someone with 10+ years of experience why should I care if companies are too short sighted to value and train juniors?

Because eventually you'll get to the point where you've too much work to do and there's not enough people to delegate it to. Hope you like being overworked!

It is better to be overworked than underworked

Re: The computer science degree isn’t dead

#140

Post by ekidd » Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #3

le-mark wrote: post #2

> The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently placed unemployment for recent CS graduates in the United States at 6.1 percent, with computer engineering graduates at 7.5 percent. Compared to philosophy majors at 3.2 percent and art history graduates at 3.0 percent, those figures look alarming. Alarming doesn’t begin to describe it. This is an existential crises for our industry. The situation for entry level has be…

I think we're going to see a big scramble to pick up the pieces in a few years when a bunch of vibe-slopped houses of cards come crashing down. I imagine it will be like the demand for COBOL developers but on a much more massive scale.

COBOL was mostly outsourced to India, and it's a terrible professional path for anyone in the EU or US, and has been since the Y2K bugs got fixed at the last minute.

(And probably a bad path in India, too, but I have no data one way or the other. It's just that all the excellent Indian devs I know use almost exactly the same tech stacks I do.)