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I have studied computer science as master in Germany (Diplom) with the best possible final exam score (1,0) in databases, distributed systems, etc. That didn't

I have studied computer science as master in Germany (Diplom) with the best possible final exam score (1,0) in databases, distributed systems, etc. That didn't help me very much with my career. I've worked on the side in startups. That experience helped me found my first VC funded startup and helped my career later on as CTO in several companies. I'm now working as a CTO coach and looking back, my university days didn't have much impact, if any at all. Have I've learned anything useful? Yes. Was the outcome worth 6 years? No. I would have learned the same things watching excellent Youtube (Standford, MIT, ...) videos for one year. EY [1] has shown several years ago that university had no impact on the career of their employees and dropped that requirement. As someone who hired and managed many people I never looked at university degrees. And I never saw a difference. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/18/penguin-ditches-the-need-for-job-seekers-to-have-university-degrees https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/18/penguin-ditche...

linza 6y ago
I work in hiring and people/performance management. In my experience, people with a formal education in average outperform the ones without. There are outliers on either side of course. We investigate the reasons for this but so far couldn't pin point it to anything specific. We too don't look at degrees when hiring, but we do see a correlation of education and promotions.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  It's the reading and writing. Highschool doesn't teach reading like it used to. They are getting promoted because they are better at learning and then expressing themselves on paper, something all proper university programs still teach. Ask the average highschool grad to read a 100-page manual and thier eyes glaze over. But a BA history major could probably do it over lunch.
  - linza 6y ago
    It's not that simple, but it could be a factor, in my experience. It's probably not one single thing. Overly generalized, formal education seems to give one more self awareness. Lesser educated peers overestimate their abilities which helps them getting hired and be successful through the first few years. Then a promotion would require a different skill set and they cannot appreciate the complexity of learning it, so they fail. Peers with a degree often are not confident enough, and overthink. But they can adapt quicker.
YZF 6y ago
How many people do you know who know things like statistics, analysis of algorithms, discrete math, calculus, to the same level as someone with a Master's degree in math or comp. sci. and just learnt that by watching YouTube videos from Stanford or MIT? I know some people (including myself) who got some exposure to some of this without getting a degree (I got one eventually) but finding someone as well rounded as a good curriculum is very rare. Watching videos is more like thinking you're learning. In order to learn you need to practice and internalize. Now you might argue all this stuff doesn't matter. And if you're just cranking out some mundane code maybe it doesn't. But sometimes it does. I'd imagine it'd be hard being a CTO of in a deeply technical business without having the in-depth theoretical knowledge but CTO can mean lots of different things in different companies. All that said universities are far from perfect and their curriculum is a mixture of practical and theoretical trying to balance preparing future researchers and scientists and preparing the future workforce. Software development also tends to be very diverse. I do think software developers need some of this background and unfortunately it's much harder to get it without going to university... The other thing is IMO universities can't make someone who has no aptitude to software a good software developer.
- KingOfCoders 6y ago
  I've learned much more from watching statistics videos from top notch YouTube lectures (I like the Harvard ones) than from statistics at university, although there was a lot of it. That said I regularly need to look up statistics, probabilitiy distributions and hypothesis tests in books when I need them twice a year. The main problem I see in startups I coach is they think they are "data driven" but marketing, sales and top management lacks the proper statistical understanding to make useful decisions. They forgot what they have learned at university and feel no need to relearn statistics for their job. They make all the rookie mistakes.
  - theshadowknows 6y ago
    If you have to look them up then you haven’t learned them. You learned about them and know what to look for. But you didn’t really learn them.

linza 6y ago

I work in hiring and people/performance management. In my experience, people with a formal education in average outperform the ones without. There are outliers on either side of course. We investigate the reasons for this but so far couldn't pin point it to anything specific. We too don't look at degrees when hiring, but we do see a correlation of education and promotions.

sandworm101 6y ago
It's the reading and writing. Highschool doesn't teach reading like it used to. They are getting promoted because they are better at learning and then expressing themselves on paper, something all proper university programs still teach. Ask the average highschool grad to read a 100-page manual and thier eyes glaze over. But a BA history major could probably do it over lunch.
- linza 6y ago
  It's not that simple, but it could be a factor, in my experience. It's probably not one single thing. Overly generalized, formal education seems to give one more self awareness. Lesser educated peers overestimate their abilities which helps them getting hired and be successful through the first few years. Then a promotion would require a different skill set and they cannot appreciate the complexity of learning it, so they fail. Peers with a degree often are not confident enough, and overthink. But they can adapt quicker.

YZF 6y ago

How many people do you know who know things like statistics, analysis of algorithms, discrete math, calculus, to the same level as someone with a Master's degree in math or comp. sci. and just learnt that by watching YouTube videos from Stanford or MIT? I know some people (including myself) who got some exposure to some of this without getting a degree (I got one eventually) but finding someone as well rounded as a good curriculum is very rare. Watching videos is more like thinking you're learning. In order to learn you need to practice and internalize. Now you might argue all this stuff doesn't matter. And if you're just cranking out some mundane code maybe it doesn't. But sometimes it does. I'd imagine it'd be hard being a CTO of in a deeply technical business without having the in-depth theoretical knowledge but CTO can mean lots of different things in different companies. All that said universities are far from perfect and their curriculum is a mixture of practical and theoretical trying to balance preparing future researchers and scientists and preparing the future workforce. Software development also tends to be very diverse. I do think software developers need some of this background and unfortunately it's much harder to get it without going to university... The other thing is IMO universities can't make someone who has no aptitude to software a good software developer.

KingOfCoders 6y ago
I've learned much more from watching statistics videos from top notch YouTube lectures (I like the Harvard ones) than from statistics at university, although there was a lot of it. That said I regularly need to look up statistics, probabilitiy distributions and hypothesis tests in books when I need them twice a year. The main problem I see in startups I coach is they think they are "data driven" but marketing, sales and top management lacks the proper statistical understanding to make useful decisions. They forgot what they have learned at university and feel no need to relearn statistics for their job. They make all the rookie mistakes.
- theshadowknows 6y ago
  If you have to look them up then you haven’t learned them. You learned about them and know what to look for. But you didn’t really learn them.