Do me a favor and read Andrew Chen's brillant piece on this topic.
http://andrewchen.co/2013/06/03/new-college-grads-dont-sell-...
Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#22I'm mostly wondering right now whether there is a bubble in the startup space. I don't think I understand the market very well right now, and I'm not sure whether most startups are profitable or just being funded. Does anyone have insight into whether there's a significant bubble in parts of the industry? Of course, this is hard to evaluate without some concrete data, and I'm not sure if any such data exists.
I don't think there is a bubble. What I mean is that there probably won't be a huge crash or anything like that. But there may or may not be a gradual cooldown coming.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know about basic data structures and know about order of growth. That (and intelligence) will get you through most CS-y interview questions. Otherwise, the reason I get these offers is because 1) I'm skilled in something that is in particularly high demand (Ruby), so people are more willing to excuse inexperience (but I get rejected often anyway), and 2) I apply to a lot of companies/startups - you only need to hav…
Thanks for the response. That's interesting to know. What are these interview questions like? Are they basic questions about lists, stacks, trees, and graphs (and the corresponding algorithms)? Or are they puzzle type questions that you're just naturally good at? Also, have you mostly had success with startup companies? I'm slightly worried about a bubble in the startup space, though I really have little idea how val…
There is a wide variety in the type and format of questions I'm asked.
Phone screen type questions might be stuff like fibonacci, find the min in an array, or find the intersection (shared duplicates) of two arrays.
In-person stuff varies: some companies ask me more practical/specific stuff like Ruby/CSS/JS implementation/coding/design/architectural questions. Others ask puzzle type questions that require me to use data structures in clever ways. Interestingly, hashes and trees are my go-to data structures. Do depth-first search and breadth-first search and that'll get you pretty far with trees. 90% of questions I'm asked require using hashes and/or trees in clever ways.
I actually find interviewing gets more and more fun as you get into it.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#24Work now: high pay in a great market, great resume experience, open doors for other opportunities
College: losing money, boring classes, possibly jobless upon graduation if there is a bust in 4 years. But you get to meet a lot of girls.
Btw, save your money... it's not always easy to make it.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#25What I learned at college: physics, chemistry, optics, lots of heavy duty math - statistics, calculus, linear algebra, numeric computing, electrical engineering (analog and digital), how to write and publish, accounting, algorithms, a bit of management/business, and probably few other things I'm forgetting at the moment. In my career I have done: computed cancer statistics for NIH, worked on a flight computer, done t…
I agree with the opportunities, though in this case it sounds like the OP wants to do both. In this case, maybe it makes sense to take the job, so long as the OP really intends to go through college.
There's a lot of companies who will pay you to get your degree. Most of the college degree reimbursement plans are for Bachelor's, though some are for higher education. He can go to work now, then work, and go to school and have someone else pay for it that's not his parents.
Very hard route to do both at the same time though. I know a few people who did it, so it is possible.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the response. That's interesting to know. What are these interview questions like? Are they basic questions about lists, stacks, trees, and graphs (and the corresponding algorithms)? Or are they puzzle type questions that you're just naturally good at? Also, have you mostly had success with startup companies? I'm slightly worried about a bubble in the startup space, though I really have little idea how val…
There is a wide variety in the type and format of questions I'm asked. Phone screen type questions might be stuff like fibonacci, find the min in an array, or find the intersection (shared duplicates) of two arrays. In-person stuff varies: some companies ask me more practical/specific stuff like Ruby/CSS/JS implementation/coding/design/architectural questions. Others ask puzzle type questions that require me to use d…
Interesting, thanks for the response. Have you mostly had job offers from startups, or are medium / big companies also interested in you?
Also, what kind of software are these companies building?
Sorry for the many questions, I'm trying to get a better idea of what the market is like for people without degrees.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#27This is just my personal experience but I was in a similar situation. I dropped out of high school to do web application development. Tried going to a technical college to get some kind of degree while working full time and I eventually had to choose work or go to school. I chose to work. I was making $100k+ by the time I was 19 and kept advancing my career steadily. To this day probably 90% of the jobs I've applied…
I feel like it's a little odd when you say that startups make up the other 10% that care about a degree. Conventional advice on HN seems to be that startups are the kinds of companies that don't care as much about the degree. What are the other 90% of jobs you've applied to? Are they also at tech companies?
Typically financial companies or IT consulting firms (IBM, CSC, etc) - the exact type that you would expect would ask you about your education. Sometime last year I interviewed with a startup, they loved my resume. Did a skype interview and things were great. Then they put me on a call with their CTO, first question - "Where did you go to school and when did you graduate?"... He cut the interview short and I never heard back.
Re: Should I go to college or keep working in Silicon Valley?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like it's a little odd when you say that startups make up the other 10% that care about a degree. Conventional advice on HN seems to be that startups are the kinds of companies that don't care as much about the degree. What are the other 90% of jobs you've applied to? Are they also at tech companies?
Typically financial companies or IT consulting firms (IBM, CSC, etc) - the exact type that you would expect would ask you about your education. Sometime last year I interviewed with a startup, they loved my resume. Did a skype interview and things were great. Then they put me on a call with their CTO, first question - "Where did you go to school and when did you graduate?"... He cut the interview short and I never he…
That's interesting. Do you approach these financial companies and consulting firms through a connection, or are you just sending a resume? I'd expect HR at big companies to filter for degrees.