Go To University, Not For CS

151–152 of 152 posts

Re: Go To University, Not For CS

#151

Post by lsc » Tue, Jun 01, 2010, 6:16 AM UTC

ig1 wrote: post #118

lsc wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you need work experience /or/ a degree. If you have neither, you must first do the job you want for the pay you are qualified for. I spent several years doing computer work while earning a McDonalds wage. (I got lucky, and was able to dramatically shorten this period of time because, well, it was dot-com time, and I could spell C.) As far as I can tell, though, requirements for degrees at BigCo type jobs are becoming…

It's incredibly hard to get that work experience without a degree. Why would a company hire someone without experience or CS degree for a programming job when they could hire someone with a CS degree for only a marginal amount of extra money ?

It wasn't particularly difficult for me, and I don't think I'm particularly exceptional. I was working phone support for nine bucks an hour; as soon as the boss noticed I was a passable C and Perl programmer, I got my programming job. (It was a while longer before I got paid like a programmer... but my point is that if you have the skills, and if you are willing to work for below-market wages, it's not too difficult to get the experience.)

Re: Go To University, Not For CS

#152

Post by wmil » Wed, Jun 02, 2010, 5:01 PM UTC

hga wrote: post #129

ilcesco wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense, I've studied 'IT engineering' here in Italy, and we can also get the best of both worlds. The sad thing is that as an engineer you'll be always labeled as a technical person, and somehow not competent when it comes to crucial functional decisions, especially when you end up working for a big corporate, where business analysts are more likely to be former MBAs..

Hmmm, that's true in the US as well. Are there any countries/cultures in the world where "technical people" get a seriously greater amount of respect? MIT takes it position as the world's preeminent technical school seriously and in the mid-80s decided this was the single biggest external issue it/the STEM professions had.

It's an ego problem. They can't do your job, so they assume you can't do theirs. If you could, then clearly you're smarter and that's hard to handle.

Of course the real problem is that non-tech people rely more on political skills and networking to get and keep their jobs. Their day to day work skill set is often quite low.

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