4 ms·

If you classify an English degree as "un-useful", you should not be involved in educating developers. I studied both CS and English in college, and got my degr

If you classify an English degree as "un-useful", you should not be involved in educating developers. I studied both CS and English in college, and got my degree in English. The communication skills and translation techniques I learned as an English major have been tremendously useful to me in my career as a software engineer. In my experience hiring developers, I've found that those with liberal arts degrees do very well, particularly when they leverage their humanities background as an asset. Anyone can write code, but it takes a breadth of knowledge and perspective to effectively maintain and engineer software that has societal value.

mgirdley 12y ago
I agree that CS+English is better than English and a BA in English is better than nothing. The problem is that the skills from an English degree itself aren't in high demand by employers.
enraged_camel 12y ago
The way I look at it is that soft skills, such as those taught in an English (or any other language) program, act as multipliers for non-soft (hard? solid?) skills. Without them, a STEM major can still be effective. But a pure soft skills major will not be very effective. Zero times X is zero. What would it have been like if you had not studied CS, and graduated with just an English degree? Well, we have a fairly good idea: just look at pure English degree holders and how they are faring in today's economy. Most of them are underemployed and overworked as they work multiple jobs in the service sector to make ends meet. You, on the other hand, were able to use what you learned in your English program to boost your effectiveness in software engineering. But make no mistake: software engineering is the real, solid foundation of your career. Not English. English was useful, but only in combination with your technical knowledge.

mgirdley 12y ago

I agree that CS+English is better than English and a BA in English is better than nothing. The problem is that the skills from an English degree itself aren't in high demand by employers.

enraged_camel 12y ago

The way I look at it is that soft skills, such as those taught in an English (or any other language) program, act as multipliers for non-soft (hard? solid?) skills. Without them, a STEM major can still be effective. But a pure soft skills major will not be very effective. Zero times X is zero. What would it have been like if you had not studied CS, and graduated with just an English degree? Well, we have a fairly good idea: just look at pure English degree holders and how they are faring in today's economy. Most of them are underemployed and overworked as they work multiple jobs in the service sector to make ends meet. You, on the other hand, were able to use what you learned in your English program to boost your effectiveness in software engineering. But make no mistake: software engineering is the real, solid foundation of your career. Not English. English was useful, but only in combination with your technical knowledge.