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As someone that studied computing and electronics I'm surprised you found electrical engineering useless. I found the vast majority of my computer science cour

by doix 5y ago

As someone that studied computing and electronics I'm surprised you found electrical engineering useless. I found the vast majority of my computer science courses a waste of time, stuff I could have learned by myself. But the electronics stuff was very useful as I had access to labs and equipment I wouldn't of otherwise had. I don't think you should expect your university education to prepare you to hit the ground running when you get your first job. It teaches you the foundation so that you can then learn to do your job. Of course I don't know what you were taught in university nor which field of electrical engineering you went into, maybe you truly got nothing out of it.

hughrr 5y ago
I have an MSc in microelectronics. All transferable professional knowledge could have been self learned in about six months from a book. They didn’t teach us how to learn. They didn’t give us any guidance on that front at all in fact. It was just lectures, material (some incorrect!) and a framework in which personal growth was entirely restricted. Tutorials were rushed and incomplete, staff were rarely available for help and a lot of people flounced loudly in the first year over it. As for incorrectness, to this day I am pissed off that one of the principal lecturers who had precisely zero industry experience shot down an email I sent privately to ask for some material to be corrected. How dare I submit errata! When I landed in industry I took this to a senior design engineer who explained to me in simple terms that the guy was a “jobsworth cunt”.
Jcowell 5y ago
> I found the vast majority of my computer science courses a waste of time, stuff I could have learned by myself. But the electronics stuff was very useful as I had access to labs and equipment I wouldn't of otherwise had. As another point of view, my university courses were useful to someone who had jsut tried it out the spring before their freshman year. It introduced me to concepts and put me against (at the time) difficult problems that I could tackle along side my peers. My Data Structure and Alg class was the most useful since it allowed me to restructure the way I way I saw CS as a whole. The things I learn now are entirely structured based on how I learn CS and would not be the same had I learned it on my own.
- doix 5y ago
  Just to clarify, I do agree that what they taught is useful to know. Just that the barrier to entry to learn it by yourself is much lower. To experiment with software concepts "all" you need is a computer and a compiler. Experimenting with electronics required power supplies, signal generators, FPGAs etc. The barrier to entry is much higher in my opinion. I'm grateful I got access to those labs during my study and felt like it was worth the money. > The things I learn now are entirely structured based on how I learn CS and would not be the same had I learned it on my own I didn't have that experience. My lecturers were a bit shit in my opinion, and I ended up learning everything from watching recorded lectures from MIT/Stanford/anywhere I could find. Had I not gone to university and watched those lectures I would have ended up with the same knowledge. I felt like the point of my CS modules at university was entirely just to get a piece of paper confirming what I managed to teach myself.

by doix 5y ago

hughrr 5y ago

I have an MSc in microelectronics. All transferable professional knowledge could have been self learned in about six months from a book. They didn’t teach us how to learn. They didn’t give us any guidance on that front at all in fact. It was just lectures, material (some incorrect!) and a framework in which personal growth was entirely restricted. Tutorials were rushed and incomplete, staff were rarely available for help and a lot of people flounced loudly in the first year over it. As for incorrectness, to this day I am pissed off that one of the principal lecturers who had precisely zero industry experience shot down an email I sent privately to ask for some material to be corrected. How dare I submit errata! When I landed in industry I took this to a senior design engineer who explained to me in simple terms that the guy was a “jobsworth cunt”.

Jcowell 5y ago

> I found the vast majority of my computer science courses a waste of time, stuff I could have learned by myself. But the electronics stuff was very useful as I had access to labs and equipment I wouldn't of otherwise had. As another point of view, my university courses were useful to someone who had jsut tried it out the spring before their freshman year. It introduced me to concepts and put me against (at the time) difficult problems that I could tackle along side my peers. My Data Structure and Alg class was the most useful since it allowed me to restructure the way I way I saw CS as a whole. The things I learn now are entirely structured based on how I learn CS and would not be the same had I learned it on my own.

doix 5y ago
Just to clarify, I do agree that what they taught is useful to know. Just that the barrier to entry to learn it by yourself is much lower. To experiment with software concepts "all" you need is a computer and a compiler. Experimenting with electronics required power supplies, signal generators, FPGAs etc. The barrier to entry is much higher in my opinion. I'm grateful I got access to those labs during my study and felt like it was worth the money. > The things I learn now are entirely structured based on how I learn CS and would not be the same had I learned it on my own I didn't have that experience. My lecturers were a bit shit in my opinion, and I ended up learning everything from watching recorded lectures from MIT/Stanford/anywhere I could find. Had I not gone to university and watched those lectures I would have ended up with the same knowledge. I felt like the point of my CS modules at university was entirely just to get a piece of paper confirming what I managed to teach myself.