4 ms·

This is something I've strongly considered, but I know nothing of how 'difficult' it is to land such a job. There are so many neat things to do, but I can't rea

by iQuit 17y ago

This is something I've strongly considered, but I know nothing of how 'difficult' it is to land such a job. There are so many neat things to do, but I can't really tell how many companies only care about skill and knowledge as opposed to having just "BS Computer Science" on a piece of paper.

melling 17y ago
Do really well in physics or math and you'll be fine.
- hga 17y ago
  That's what I've observed of others. I certainly know I would hire a math or physics major if they demonstrated they knew their programming and CS (in fact, I did hire one who had an U of Virginia Applied Math major that was largely a CS major, 6 months out of college for his 2nd job). In general the advice here is good. Play the games the CS department insists on if the higher level courses are worth anything and find other areas that are genuinely challenging. If the "you're cheating" attitude is a reflection of the department instead of a quirk of the instructor (who good wants to teach that sort "Learn Java Syntax!" course?) then think really hard about your options that don't include taking many/any more courses in it. And as others say, find a professor to do research with. If you can't, find another school, don't look so much for a "good" school as for one where you can do research. You should be able to find someone who needs good code written cheap.
  - iQuit 17y ago
    I'm sure there are a few good courses. It's just wading through the crap that makes it unbearable. Hilariously awful example: the "teacher" of the class wanted to explain what a pointer was, so he gave us a link to a Wikipedia article on pointers.
    - hga 17y ago
      "I'm sure there are a few good courses." "Trust, but verify." WRT pointers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointers is wonderful additional reading, but a very poor first introduction to the concept. Maybe better than the pointers and arrays chapter in K&R, which didn't work for me, but only that. Yep, this guy is worse than useless (the accusations of cheating). The high school coach who taught my high school computer programming course (punched card FORTRAN "IV" on an IBM 1130) was a lot better ... then again he gave us a not in the book blackboard lecture on the two's compliment system, which I found to be tremendously useful going forward (just knowing that there was something behind the opaque veil of integers and floating point numbers was in and of itself useful). See if you can find a non-loser CS professor (or maybe one who needs some FORTRAN worked on ^_^ ... anything real and concrete ought to beat this) and go from there. Good luck!

by iQuit 17y ago

melling 17y ago

Do really well in physics or math and you'll be fine.

hga 17y ago
That's what I've observed of others. I certainly know I would hire a math or physics major if they demonstrated they knew their programming and CS (in fact, I did hire one who had an U of Virginia Applied Math major that was largely a CS major, 6 months out of college for his 2nd job). In general the advice here is good. Play the games the CS department insists on if the higher level courses are worth anything and find other areas that are genuinely challenging. If the "you're cheating" attitude is a reflection of the department instead of a quirk of the instructor (who good wants to teach that sort "Learn Java Syntax!" course?) then think really hard about your options that don't include taking many/any more courses in it. And as others say, find a professor to do research with. If you can't, find another school, don't look so much for a "good" school as for one where you can do research. You should be able to find someone who needs good code written cheap.
- iQuit 17y ago
  I'm sure there are a few good courses. It's just wading through the crap that makes it unbearable. Hilariously awful example: the "teacher" of the class wanted to explain what a pointer was, so he gave us a link to a Wikipedia article on pointers.
  - hga 17y ago
    "I'm sure there are a few good courses." "Trust, but verify." WRT pointers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointers is wonderful additional reading, but a very poor first introduction to the concept. Maybe better than the pointers and arrays chapter in K&R, which didn't work for me, but only that. Yep, this guy is worse than useless (the accusations of cheating). The high school coach who taught my high school computer programming course (punched card FORTRAN "IV" on an IBM 1130) was a lot better ... then again he gave us a not in the book blackboard lecture on the two's compliment system, which I found to be tremendously useful going forward (just knowing that there was something behind the opaque veil of integers and floating point numbers was in and of itself useful). See if you can find a non-loser CS professor (or maybe one who needs some FORTRAN worked on ^_^ ... anything real and concrete ought to beat this) and go from there. Good luck!