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> "I would never be able to do that, I need to do something more creative and social" Why do you think this is short sighted? Genuine question. I'm a about 2/

by hazz99 7y ago

> "I would never be able to do that, I need to do something more creative and social" Why do you think this is short sighted? Genuine question. I'm a about 2/3 of the way through my CS degree and I'm having second thoughts. I did lots of programming as a teenager, and I'm fairly confident in my software engineering ability and ability to learn. The thing is... I don't find it creative. I don't get to socialise as much as I'd like, and fellow CS students are often pretty elitist and try to "one-up" people around them. I know this is a generalisation, but (anecdotally) I've experienced this much less in other fields. I've really enjoyed pursuing entrepreneurship and hanging out with business, creative arts and philosophy students instead. I'm thinking that maybe I should've done a business degree and just developed my CS skills on the side. I'm very much an extroverted "people person" and I feel that side of me is neglected in this field. I've had an internship and although I definitely talked to my team, it's not the same. Am I wrong? I've barely worked in industry. I'm a bit worried about my career path. (Not saying that any of the above is bad, just maybe not suited to me)

3bodyProblem 7y ago
>> Why do you think this is short sighted? Because I do think my job is creative and social, and she just decided that my job wasn't, without trying to understand what I was really doing. >> The thing is... I don't find it creative. Well, the weird thing, is that I do not have a CS background, I have an Art background of all things, I choose to change careers. Perhaps from that perspective I definitely see all the creative decisions I have to make. Thinking about maintainability, solving technical puzzles, understand really what the customer wants challenging and supporting the product owner. I think creativity is more than deciding something needs to be red. Don't underestimate the amount of systems and process in "creative" design work. The "real" creative jobs are very rare. I was freelancing and at one point I was making a pack of rice dance for a fortune 500 company, I hated it. Sure, I understand there are Elitists CS students, but I don't think companies will enjoy working with them. If they stay that way I really think they get a rude awakening at the end of the day, perhaps they can hide in their dynamic programming at Facebook. I know this is N of 1, but a recent CS grad just left the company I was working for. He fled back the the academic CS world, not able to function that well in a company that also required engineers to understand and communicate with other people. >> I'm very much an extroverted "people person" There are plenty of places where extraverted engineers have a place. Perhaps go to a few technical meetups to get a different view of the work-field.

by hazz99 7y ago

3bodyProblem 7y ago

>> Why do you think this is short sighted? Because I do think my job is creative and social, and she just decided that my job wasn't, without trying to understand what I was really doing. >> The thing is... I don't find it creative. Well, the weird thing, is that I do not have a CS background, I have an Art background of all things, I choose to change careers. Perhaps from that perspective I definitely see all the creative decisions I have to make. Thinking about maintainability, solving technical puzzles, understand really what the customer wants challenging and supporting the product owner. I think creativity is more than deciding something needs to be red. Don't underestimate the amount of systems and process in "creative" design work. The "real" creative jobs are very rare. I was freelancing and at one point I was making a pack of rice dance for a fortune 500 company, I hated it. Sure, I understand there are Elitists CS students, but I don't think companies will enjoy working with them. If they stay that way I really think they get a rude awakening at the end of the day, perhaps they can hide in their dynamic programming at Facebook. I know this is N of 1, but a recent CS grad just left the company I was working for. He fled back the the academic CS world, not able to function that well in a company that also required engineers to understand and communicate with other people. >> I'm very much an extroverted "people person" There are plenty of places where extraverted engineers have a place. Perhaps go to a few technical meetups to get a different view of the work-field.