I didn't give up but I have to admit I felt quite useless after finishing higher education. I understand that higher education isn't there to teach you VB or J

I didn't give up but I have to admit I felt quite useless after finishing higher education. I understand that higher education isn't there to teach you VB or Java but to teach you the principles... but IMO it certainly wouldn't hurt if there was some connection to real life. I came in as someone who had already coded a while. I was best in class in several subjects IIRC, helped others but felt like I could never have a career in Java. The reasons? We were never taught how to work efficiently. Or rather: teachers actively restricted access to sane environments. Code was supposed to be written in an old unsupported text editor. For many of us this very smart idea teachers has about teaching things "from ground up" has the nasty side effect of demotivating many of the best students to the point where you consider doing something else. I never even dared to apply for a Java job and only started after being picked up. I remember telling my first boss the truth: yes, I have been coding since I was a kid and yes I have passed Java in school but I cannot program it. Luckily he gave it a try and with good colleagues Java soon became my personal favourite.