6 ms·
I'm surprised. Out of all of the STEM degrees, I'd have thought CS was the most useful for guaranteeing a highly secure, well-paid job out of college.
by anonytrary 8y ago
I'm surprised. Out of all of the STEM degrees, I'd have thought CS was the most useful for guaranteeing a highly secure, well-paid job out of college.
- macspoofing 8y agoI don't recognize the world that OP is describing. CS is still a good career option and pays well in relation to the level of skill and education it requires. Having said that, it isn't a utopia and it isn't for everyone. One of the many reasons why I hate the current "Everyone learn to Code" trend is because if you don't love it, programming is as exciting as reading a EULA or TOS or any legal contract. That's certainly how some of my friends see programming, and I can totally see why.
- NotSammyHagar 8y agoYeah, I really disagree with ncmncm's world view. My experience on 25 years of Dev is quite different.
- ncmncm 8y agoReally? Who have you found that pays overtime?
- YjSe2GMQ 8y agoI don't know who pays overtime, I don't get paid overtime, but I also don't do overtime (at a FAANG). Why do overtime if they don't pay for it? Overall it's pretty good, and I'd be fine even if I was paid half of what I'm paid, after a 2001-style crash. I can think of very few other jobs that have such nice prospects.
- maayank 8y agoWhat country if you don't mind sharing?
- macspoofing 8y agoWhat country? In my experience overtime is never mandatory. I think if you work for a startup with young (unattached) engineering staff there may be social pressure to spend inordinate amount time at the office - is that what you mean?
- tfigment 8y agoIn the US, on call/overtime without pay can be mandatory for salaried employees. IT as i recall is called out specifically if you help maintain critical systems. Normally the company just has to be clear on expectations before hand. Fortunately I have had reasonable employers that don't abuse it but i do have to do on call and don't believe i have any option to avoid.
- cannonedhamster 8y agoI had a salary in my last company and did on call which came with a paid component if we were called to do work off hours. We were working on that in my current company, but they just basically let me set my own hours to deal with that. Work a lot for a few days, go home early on other days. Have some downtime? Expect you might need to work extra some other time. My company doesn't abuse this, although there have been a few really critical months of crunch time in the past few years. It's basically all evened out for me.
- maayank 8y agoI worked in Israel in various big companies and I could see situations for myself or others where overtime was never explicitly specified, but a monthly salaried software engineer had been given an amount of work that cannot be completed without "voluntary" overtime. I'm asking for country because I can see it being a cultural difference between different countries.
- Nursie 8y agoMy current gig actually. As a contractor/consultant, I charge for hours worked. You want more than the contracted 40 hrs per week not only do you pay but you pay at a higher rate.
- ncmncm 8y agoReally? Time-and-a-half over 40 hours? Thought not.
- Boxxed 8y agoI've worked in startups for fifteen years and not once have I been in a situation with compulsory overtime. Maybe I'm just lucky? Maybe Boston area startups respect work/life balance more than most?
- systemBuilder 8y agoAnyone developing for a web service or data warehouse is likely to be oncall; if the employer has an SEE organization maybe someone else does it for you ....
- MRD85 8y agoI'm nearing the end of my second year of CS. I was up programming until midnight last night (Saturday night). I woke at 6am this morning excited that I get to keep working on this task. I don't know of a single peer excited to work on assignments but I guess this bodes well for me.
- tyopiuy 8y agoYes and no. Cs is huge. People have preferences for what they’d rather be working on. But it seems it’s a lower div class, whose projects tend to be more general. There’s a possible cases: your peers find the project boring because it is trivially easy but just busy work to them; they find it hard; they are interested in something else in cs.
- MRD85 8y agoThis assignment, in particular, has a reputation for being difficult, even nightmare inducing. I think it's a combination of I like challenges and I like development, while my peers might not like challenges as much or they might find it stressful.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- systemBuilder 8y agoAre you kidding? We have people flooding into CS jobs from ALL other fields, and ALL other countries, because, "If I don't make it in XyZ I can always get a job programming!", at Google I sat next to a math PhD, an EE, and a Music Major! What do you think happens when every one uses your major as their backup plan?
- freyr 8y agoHave a non-CS PhD and “made it” in my field, but joined FANG to make 2X as much money. I mean, why not? You should have an upper hand though with a CS degree. I had to learn everything on my own, and there are still areas that I don’t know and you should.
- josteink 8y agoCan confirm. EE major with computers and programming as a hobby since I was a kid. When my major didn’t work out, I managed to land a IT-job instead and I’ve been here since.
- ForHackernews 8y agoSoftware engineering is not a "CS job". Computer science is a research field that has very little to do with the workaday business of creating good reliable software. Developers would do well to realize that they're skilled labor, not academics or superstar artists, and start behaving accordingly.
- gm224 8y agoI regularly have to design complex systems and also do correctness proofs for isolated functions. But I see the error in my ways and humbly realize that I'm just "skilled labor". Really, if you compare the level of thinking of an average developer to an average academic, the academic often has nothing but his degree. The level of parroting and complete lack of critical thinking is widespread among academics.
- analog31 8y ago
- lpt 8y agoBeing able to program is, and that takes 10 years of self study. Or at some companies perhaps being a whiteboard genius helps. But the output of those companies is ... mixed.
- FranzFerdiNaN 8y agoLearning to program most definitely doesn't take 10 years of self-study. Someone of reasonable intelligence and enough disciple can learn enough in about a year to become reasonable useful for the average company. Does that person still have a lot to learn. Sure, but that can be learned at the job.