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DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

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Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#81

Post by LoSboccacc »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #57
cmwelsh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you’re downvoted for saying something that’s basically unethical, but I’m interested: how do you propose to buy a home using this strategy? All cash? In my area, I’d need around $200,000 cash. I know there’s trailer parks and etc. but they may not work for everyone.

I know you’re downvoted for saying something that’s basically unethical It was unethical for the system to push an 18 year old down the route of taking on huge loans. I'm not sure that finding a way out of that is.

don't the majority of 18yo guys have parents or adults around they can refer to in helping their decision?

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#83

Post by dna_polymerase »

stonejolt wrote: post #44
tybit wrote: post #34

This looks a lot more like an apprenticeship to me than a degree. Which I think is fantastic, Universities are generally terrible at teaching practical skills and fantastic at teaching theory.

That's what we call 'Duales Studium' in Germany. You just do your semesters normally and in between instead of springbreak etc you work for the company.

Yes, and the founder of Shopify is originally from Germany, I bet he got inspired by that.

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#84

Post by andrewjrhill »

OJFord wrote: post #73
tybit wrote: post #34

This looks a lot more like an apprenticeship to me than a degree. Which I think is fantastic, Universities are generally terrible at teaching practical skills and fantastic at teaching theory.

In the UK it's both, 'degree apprenticeships' were introduced recently (couple of years ago): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... ('Higher' being 'degree equivalent', and 'degree' being with an actual degree conferred by an actual university.) At Arm I had a colleague who was on that programme, and so was also studying at a university. I think it started off part-time, 2 and 3 days of a we…

This is so great. I would have preferred to do something like this when I was fresh out of High School instead of going the traditional route of studying full-time or immediately entering the workforce.

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#85

Post by spinlock_ »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #83
stonejolt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what we call 'Duales Studium' in Germany. You just do your semesters normally and in between instead of springbreak etc you work for the company.

Yes, and the founder of Shopify is originally from Germany, I bet he got inspired by that.

Yeah, I guess so too. Toby told in a podcast [0] that he finished an apprenticeship as "Fachinformatiker für Anwendungsentwicklung". Though it's not the same as "Duales Studium" (which gives you an academic degree while former doesn't) I guess this program was highly influenced by his experience. Though I'm asking myself if this kind of program is common in Canada or is Shopify doing something unique here?

[0]: https://fs.blog/tobi-lutke/

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#87

Post by jaxn »

JDiculous wrote: post #58
dwohnitmok wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the amount, that's actually fairly unlikely to be from the Ivy League education. Generally Ivy League schools cost less (sometimes way less) than public schools unless your family makes more than ~130-150k combined and/or has fairly substantial assets. One possible way for it to happen is if a student's parents have a high income, are unwilling to pay for the student's education and force the student to shoulde…

I'd be that most Ivy League students have parents making more than $130-150k combined, probably substantially more. That's only a middle class income, and at least anecdotally most Ivy League students I know tend to come from upper class families. Tuition alone is $50k/yr, which would equate to $250k for a 4-year degree not accounting for living costs. Even at 50% off the sticker price, you're looking at over $125k i…

That is twice the average household income in the US. Less than 20% of all households have combined earnings over 130k.

You may want to reassess your understanding of middle class.

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#88

Post by pjc50 »

gigatexal wrote: post #21
swyx wrote: post #3

i am wishing i could go back 15 years and do this now. i was dumb enough to go to an ivy league for an unrelated degree, then change careers and go thru a bootcamp, and i'm now still 100's of thousands in debt. if i was growing up today i would absolutely drop everything to do this. kudos to shopify but it really feels a little bittersweet.

While my debt load is not nearly as much I did the same thing. I studied economics even though when I got home from class I would spend hours and hours tinkering with hardware, Linux, and programming. Everyone I talked to thought I was silly for not sticking with my CS major and doing Economics. They were right. I am learning on the job and it’s been kicking my butt but I am learning and it’s been good though I would…

Economics could have been a gateway to a high-earning career, but you'd have had to work in finance.

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#89

Post by cameronbrown »

xupybd wrote: post #39

Wait how do they make money out of this. They're paying salary to people that can't yet code? I've seen companies strugle to make money with mid level devs.

I'm going to tackle this from the perspective of an apprenticeship (which is what I'm doing). In general it seems similar to hiring tech interns - they're expensive but can pay off if you really invest into it. Few things to note:

1) Usually they pay apprentices less but apprentices can still provide huge value to the team they're working on (after a while).

2) I have no solid data on this, but I assume apprentices have a lower churn rate/stay at their company longer.

3) The biggie: Some countries basically force companies to have an apprenticeship programme. In the UK, there's a levy which effectively makes a company put aside 0.4% of their payroll for funding apprenticeships - which nicely incentivises companies to do something that would otherwise be unprofitable.

Re: DevDegree: Work at Shopify and get a free CS degree in parallel

#90

Post by brutus1213 »

Kudos to Shopify! You are leading the way!

I offhand mentioned a previous program they ran (letting people out of the field get an internship) to someone I knew, and it made a huge difference. Creating/sustaining jobs/incomes in this way is actually very cool in my books.

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