3 ms·

Can you not study part-time? When I was studying CS, there was one older guy in his thirties who was already a programmer for a defense contractor. Simply being

by EnderMB 10y ago

Can you not study part-time? When I was studying CS, there was one older guy in his thirties who was already a programmer for a defense contractor. Simply being a professional programmer put him ahead of plenty of others in my class, leaving him with the task of purely getting his head around the theory while supplementing the programming knowledge he already had from working. When he graduated, he ended up studying for a masters full-time, and then he joined Microsoft. In terms of finding work without a degree, it's not impossible, but I'd be prepared to start near the bottom of the ladder, underneath the graduates. A dedicated developer will do well regardless of their education, in the same way that a shitty developer will still be shitty even if they have a top-tier CS degree. I've worked with incredible developers with little to no education, and shitty developers with Oxbridge degrees. If you're looking to study part-time, that probably won't matter all that much anyway. When you graduate, you'll have several years of solid experience, and you'd be in a much better position to evaluate what you need to know before joining a big company.

neverminder 10y ago
He could go with Open University. Accredited worldwide, everything done remotely and my understanding is that some people even manage to study and work full time, so theoretically he could get there in 3 years or 6 if part time.
Calist0 10y ago
You make a good point-- If I study part-time, by the time I graduate I would have accumulated ~5-6 years of experience which would diminish the value that I'd get from a degree. I'm leaning towards joining a bootcamp, building a portfolio and then looking for work. I feel like I'm missing out on the whole university experience, but in 4 years time I can accumulate a lot of work experience. The only issue with finding a job right away is I would likely be starting as a junior at whatever company that will take me. I'm afraid that this will make me a less desirable candidate to good companies later on. The last thing I want to do is be stuck at a unknown company for a few years doing menial work and not learning anything new.

by EnderMB 10y ago

neverminder 10y ago

He could go with Open University. Accredited worldwide, everything done remotely and my understanding is that some people even manage to study and work full time, so theoretically he could get there in 3 years or 6 if part time.

Calist0 10y ago

You make a good point-- If I study part-time, by the time I graduate I would have accumulated ~5-6 years of experience which would diminish the value that I'd get from a degree. I'm leaning towards joining a bootcamp, building a portfolio and then looking for work. I feel like I'm missing out on the whole university experience, but in 4 years time I can accumulate a lot of work experience. The only issue with finding a job right away is I would likely be starting as a junior at whatever company that will take me. I'm afraid that this will make me a less desirable candidate to good companies later on. The last thing I want to do is be stuck at a unknown company for a few years doing menial work and not learning anything new.