I work for a big national lab. Bs/ms in cs. Take a hard science major as well (make the cs a minor or double major). The best programmers/CS people I know are cross-disciplinary and are able to adapt CS approaches to hard problems in other fields.
Ask HN: What minor/major would compliment a CS degree?
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Re: Ask HN: What minor/major would compliment a CS degree?
#22I personally wouldn't focus so much on your career. If you're doing well in your CS program and internalizing that material (and learning how to program), you'll be fine there.
Instead, I would do something "out there" that interests you. If you're like most people, this is about the only time you'll be able to learn about philosophy or literature directly, in-person from subject-matter experts. I've studied philosophy a bit on my own, and with others, and let me tell you, it's a very dense, difficult subject for self-study. It might not benefit your career, but it will benefit your life.
Re: Ask HN: What minor/major would compliment a CS degree?
#23I majored in both math and philosophy and they have been useless in my career as a software engineer. If you want to do another quantitative discipline I'd suggest statistics. Non-quantitative, I'd suggest something like art history over Philosophy, or even graphic design if you wanted a more "practical" minor.
Why art history over philosophy? Just curious.
Re: Ask HN: What minor/major would compliment a CS degree?
#24I majored in both math and philosophy and they have been useless in my career as a software engineer. If you want to do another quantitative discipline I'd suggest statistics. Non-quantitative, I'd suggest something like art history over Philosophy, or even graphic design if you wanted a more "practical" minor.
Why art history over philosophy? Just curious.
The classes are more fun, often you go to museums. You have something to talk about with other people that they might actually find interesting. It gives you another dimension to travel. You can meet other interesting and nice people in class - in philosophy class you mostly meet creeps.
Re: Ask HN: What minor/major would compliment a CS degree?
#25I recommend doing a BA - I did a BS and wasted a lot of time in engineering courses. I enjoyed taking Japanese.