5 ms·

Anecdata to try and level expectations. As someone who eventually came out of that era fine, it wasn’t without hardship. Expect to graduate without a job. Exp

by hysan 2y ago

Anecdata to try and level expectations. As someone who *eventually* came out of that era fine, it wasn’t without hardship. Expect to graduate without a job. Expect to continue the grind for many many months. Expect to get rejected not for not meeting the bar, but for not exceeding everyone else who also passed that bar. Expect to very likely settle for a job that doesn’t meet the expectations that college (and the previous 10+ years of history) sold you on. Expect that financially, you will end up years behind the curve and that many life plans (ex: home ownership if that’s one of your goals) will be delayed. Expect that you will meet many people younger than you who will be at your financial level because they graduated post-recovery. If you can accept that you just happen to be born at the wrong time, you will be in a better place mentally than where I was at for a long time. I won’t say it’s easy; it will suck. But it is possible to make it out ok. I luckily had some financial and emotional support from my family to keep me going. I don’t know your situation but hopefully you are able to find support too. I wish you the best of luck.

giantg2 2y ago
"Expect that you will meet many people younger than you who will be at your financial level because they graduated post-recovery." Yep, the people who graduated about 3-4 years ago are all making more than I do after more than a decade. It seems like that's just how it works.
- swagmoney69 2y ago
  Huh. This is making me realize that perhaps my situation is more bizarre and unstable than I realize... How uncommon is it for someone with no highschool diploma (GED), or college diploma to get a job as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company? Am I completely fucked if I ever lose this job? It's my second SE job... Like OP may have been hinting at, I had a really fucked up family situation and this path was the only one that I could take- should I plan on going back to school just for future job market security?
  - r14c 2y ago
    I'm in a similar boat. I dropped out of uni for reasons (a bit of a story, I can tell it if you buy me a beer) and ended up making a career out of software engineering. The main thing to do IMO is spend time building a network. A recommendation in the right place at the right time can open doors that would otherwise be closed to you. School is an option, but the opportunity cost has been too high so far for me. Though doing a freelance PhD thesis probably wouldn't hurt.
  - mattmanser 2y ago
    I wouldn't worry too much, 20 years ago when I entered the industry (with a philosophy degree), the adverts which emphasised degree pedigree over experience were common. I have watched that diminish over the last 20 years. The unspoken secret in programming is that a CS degree basically signals absolutely nothing about programming skill. You can get a 1st in CS and be a rubbish programmer, you can get a chemistry degree and be an amazing one. A lot of CS is utterly irrelevant to programming, and the vast majority of programming skills are not covered by CS degree. Once you're past 2-3 years experience it stops being relevant, before that it's a way to filter CVs by managers who want to pretend their CS degree wasn't a complete waste of time. If they're asking for a CS degree for a senior role it's basically advertising they're a clueless company.
  - camcil 1y ago
    I'm in the market now and I honestly don't think anyone even looks at the education section of the resume if there is applicable work experience following it. After 10+ interviews in the past couple of months, education hasn't been mentioned once in an interview, and my unofficial transcripts have been requested one time prior to and interview.
b3ing 2y ago
Yeah it sucks, but for many even in a good economy, you will struggle like that coming from a small college that isn’t well known or just not looking the right way. Life isn’t fair, just do what you have to, to get by

Anecdata to try and level expectations. As someone who *eventually* came out of that era fine, it wasn’t without hardship. Expect to graduate without a job. Exp

by hysan 2y ago

giantg2 2y ago

"Expect that you will meet many people younger than you who will be at your financial level because they graduated post-recovery." Yep, the people who graduated about 3-4 years ago are all making more than I do after more than a decade. It seems like that's just how it works.

swagmoney69 2y ago
Huh. This is making me realize that perhaps my situation is more bizarre and unstable than I realize... How uncommon is it for someone with no highschool diploma (GED), or college diploma to get a job as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company? Am I completely fucked if I ever lose this job? It's my second SE job... Like OP may have been hinting at, I had a really fucked up family situation and this path was the only one that I could take- should I plan on going back to school just for future job market security?
- r14c 2y ago
  I'm in a similar boat. I dropped out of uni for reasons (a bit of a story, I can tell it if you buy me a beer) and ended up making a career out of software engineering. The main thing to do IMO is spend time building a network. A recommendation in the right place at the right time can open doors that would otherwise be closed to you. School is an option, but the opportunity cost has been too high so far for me. Though doing a freelance PhD thesis probably wouldn't hurt.
- mattmanser 2y ago
  I wouldn't worry too much, 20 years ago when I entered the industry (with a philosophy degree), the adverts which emphasised degree pedigree over experience were common. I have watched that diminish over the last 20 years. The unspoken secret in programming is that a CS degree basically signals absolutely nothing about programming skill. You can get a 1st in CS and be a rubbish programmer, you can get a chemistry degree and be an amazing one. A lot of CS is utterly irrelevant to programming, and the vast majority of programming skills are not covered by CS degree. Once you're past 2-3 years experience it stops being relevant, before that it's a way to filter CVs by managers who want to pretend their CS degree wasn't a complete waste of time. If they're asking for a CS degree for a senior role it's basically advertising they're a clueless company.
- camcil 1y ago
  I'm in the market now and I honestly don't think anyone even looks at the education section of the resume if there is applicable work experience following it. After 10+ interviews in the past couple of months, education hasn't been mentioned once in an interview, and my unofficial transcripts have been requested one time prior to and interview.

b3ing 2y ago

Yeah it sucks, but for many even in a good economy, you will struggle like that coming from a small college that isn’t well known or just not looking the right way. Life isn’t fair, just do what you have to, to get by