I'd already done some commercial software products by the time I was going to college, and in my youthful arrogance decided CS had almost nothing to offer, and went with Electrical Engineering (Analog and Mix-Signal focus), and pick up a few CS courses that seemed interesting. Overall I'm pretty happy with the decision. I've done a wide mix of PCB design, FPGA design, and software from the kernel level up to high-level Java/C#/Python code. I couldn't say if it was a good career choice, but I do well, and really enjoy the variety of projects I get to work on.
Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
91–100 of 176 posts
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#92Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#93I have a bachelors, masters, and a bit of doctoral work in music performance (guitar).
While music is pretty far from CS, you do learn a lot about how to tackle and break down problems from music theory/analysis courses. In short, I feel like my music degrees taught me a lot about how to learn.
Knowledge you pick up in school is nice. But I'd say the real thing people get out of any degree program is some insight into how they learn. Those skills can happily be applied to any subject.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#94I frequently get asked why I didn't do Computer Science as a degree. Before I even left school to go to University (I'm British) I was already running my first startup. (I was 16 and it was game hosting company. I peaked off at two full racks worth of physical servers (several hundred virtual servers)). At that time in my life, it wasn't even possible for me to have a computer science degree so this startup clearly w…
Wow, your story is very familiar to me (without the successful startup, sadly!). I'm British too, and simply found all the options available to someone interested in the web severely lacking. I'd done a couple of years of building websites for small businesses and such, and I was pretty much ahead of everyone I could find (admittedly I was from a fairly sleepy area).
I ended up joining a course but dropped out after less than a month; the first sign that it wasn't going to work out was at the initial interview where someone said "You've done some web work I see? I bet you'll be able to teach me a thing or two!" that person was the head lecturer.
Algorithms, advanced maths, and cryptography are also the areas I feel I lack.
All in all, I don't think I've suffered in the slightest either. Finding the first job was probably a bit tricker, but in hindsight I've had an additional 3/4 years earning good wages than those people who did do the degrees. I'm not strongly opinionated as to whether they're worthwhile or not, but I don't believe I've been negatively impacted by it.
I have thought a few times that the traditional style of education simply isn't applicable to some people; I was never very good at school, but flourished once I learnt how to teach myself what I wanted to learn.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#95degree in math with my honors project in AI and 3d graphics - was pretty damn close to a degree in CompSci.. was never really a problem except perhaps the occasional brain dead HR filter that doesn't deserve to work (EDIT: by which i mean 'i deserve to work' they don't deserve to hire me)
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#96It's pretty standard that with age, experience trumps education. Case in point: at Slide (run by Max Levchin, a top flight programmer himself), the VP of Engineering had an English literature degree and absolutely no formal computer science education.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#97The poll has 3 questions and 4 answers. If I choose "yes" or "no", I am not sure, which question it is meant for. And questions 2 and 3 are opposite to each other. Please clarify the poll with only one question.
I'm sorry if its not clear. The question in the title is to be answered by poll selections, the others are more for comment based response.
No problem. Now it is clear to me.
I don't have a CS degree, but it didn't affect my career at all. I feel that CS would be helpful for interviews and expressing the problem using CS terms. I used to read up on basic CS stuff and talk to CS friends to gain CS knowledge. As long as, one can read and write english and familiar with basic math (logarithms, algebra, calculus, probability etc.), CS is very easy to pick up.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#98I ignored a job advertised in the paper once because it said it required a master's in CS. I had a bachelor's in mathematics. The job was for a Unix kernel and system hacker at a company making Unix workstations. This was around 1984, when Unix internals experience was not widespread. Several months later, a headhunter sent me to interview for that job, which was still open because they hadn't been able to find anyon…
I don't think it is important. the best programmers don't need the degrees to prove that they are programmers.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#99I got a shit kicking customer service job right after I started my CS degree. That was enough to get me a programming role shortly after, and I've never needed the degree since. I never finished it. I plan to finish it so I can work overseas.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#100I have a non-cs degree (film making) and I am a CS undergrad... Here in Brazil it is very hard to get a job without a diploma, no matter your resumé and past works.