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Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

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Re: Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

#3
I find the alternate methods people use to become programmers fascinating (alternate as in "didn't graduate with a CS degree from a 4 year school when 21). I did something different than this article suggested-I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to take almost every single CS course at my local community college.

Re: Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

#4
This is a real pet peeve of mine, but "Liberal Arts" is not synonymous with "Humanities": http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal%20arts

> College or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. ... In modern colleges and universities, the liberal arts include the study of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.

Computer science (as distinct from "programming" or "software engineering") is a liberal art! As are pure mathematics, and natural sciences like physics, chemistry, or biology.

Re: Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

#7
A more accurate title would be "Studied Humanities, Will Code". I have a liberal arts degree from Middlebury College where I studied Computer Science, so it shouldn't be too surprising that I will code (and do code full-time professionally).

Re: Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

#9

I find the alternate methods people use to become programmers fascinating (alternate as in "didn't graduate with a CS degree from a 4 year school when 21). I did something different than this article suggested-I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to take almost every single CS course at my local community college.

Sounds like you made good use of the GI Bill. But were the classes necessary in helping you land the first programming gig?

Re: Have Liberal Arts Degree, Will Code

#10

I find the alternate methods people use to become programmers fascinating (alternate as in "didn't graduate with a CS degree from a 4 year school when 21). I did something different than this article suggested-I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to take almost every single CS course at my local community college.

Sounds like you made good use of the GI Bill. But were the classes necessary in helping you land the first programming gig?

I think so. I went to a rather large community college, and was able to get a wide diversity of coursework. Having all that exposure certainly helped, as well as a lot of programming on my own-having a repository of (what are now rather embarrassing to look at!) code samples I worked on in my spare time also helped. Having a paper credential (in this case an AA) also helps a lot.
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