Friday, March 09, 2018

College: The Hard Way or the REALLY REALLY Hard Way

There is no easy way.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A Masters's in CS is a big waste of time and money. Go read online, you will learn more and faster. Then write impressive software and post it on GitHub. Advanced CS degrees mean nothing anymore; you have to prove your skills. Publishing a useful research paper and associated demonstration software is worth more than any degree from any college. Authoring a popular framework or library is worth more than a thousand degrees.

Even a Bachelor's in CS is only good for getting your foot in the door these days. You still have to pass the technical interview (which 95% of colleges will not do for anything above a junior position), and then you have to stand out among all the other candidates with impressive work experience and impressive side projects who have been coding since they were 12.

Remember, CS is a meritocracy if there ever was one. You have to prove your skills with actual code or actual experience. Most companies don't even ask if I have a degree after seeing my resume and GitHub profile -- I don't even list formal education on my resume because it matters so little compared to my real experience and projects. Degrees are now the CS resume equivalent of "took a weekend seminar on Microsoft Word".