4 ms·

That's not how it works. You take a comprehensive background in CS to learn CS, not for direct employment. The benefit is in being as strong an engineer as som

by dsacco 11y ago

That's not how it works. You take a comprehensive background in CS to learn CS, not for direct employment. The benefit is in being as strong an engineer as someone who went to school (theoretically). In practice, all of the people I know who are successful engineers without a degree simply don't have an "Education" section on their résumé. They will make up for it in the other sections. As for your last question - yes, it's completely viable. There are many people who make substantial salaries (much higher than the median engineer) without degrees. Just learn how to network and sell your skills. It isn't even all that difficult. All those job ads that say, "You need to have a Bachelor's, preferably Master's" don't actually require those (with a few clear exceptions). In fact, you will become much more successful in your career if you learn to network with hiring managers and learn to pick out and ignore the more irrelevant requirements on a job ad. Now, I'm not suggesting you drop out. I'm just saying it's completely viable.

dikaiosune 11y ago
Sure -- I'm not disputing that the primary reason for a strong CS background is to be a better engineer (which would of course translate in less tangible ways to employability, like having more impressive projects and promotions). I just already assume that these online mostly free options are equivalent to if not better than your typical 4-year CS degree in terms of gaining a background in CS. In my mind, the reason to pay for the 4-year degree as opposed to a program like this is employment. The (non-HN) mantra usually goes, "having that piece of paper opens doors." So, I think it is relevant to ask these questions regarding employment, as that is usually a big part of the justification for spending money. Further, it is often not accurate to attempt to draw a distinction between the two on the basis of educational quality.
bryondowd 11y ago
Just one example of one of these exceptions is government work. The government requires it's computer scientists to have a degree, and has a rigid pay scale that uses highest degree earned as a factor, along with years of experience, and leaves little wiggle room for any actual demand for your skills. I self taught for the most part, but had to get that piece of paper anyway, because I have ties to the area I live in and the only reliable employment here is the FAA. Moving or commuting to the nearest big cities just wasn't for me. I'll probably also have to go back and get an MS at some point to be able to progress up the pay scale.
- e12e 11y ago
  I certainly hope that remote work, if it's not an option now, will be over the next ten years. It's really sad that we have all this (Internet scale) networking and communication technology, and still demand that people sit like hamsters in little cubicles, getting less done, than if they could sit in a comfortable home office... Yes, there are great benefits to meeting face-to-face etc, but it's still sad. I mean, if people can build and maintain the kind of organizations you see in EVE online and other MMOs without (mostly) meeting -- why not for work?
  - bryondowd 11y ago
    Yeah, it would be nice if there were more remote options, especially outside the area of web development, which never really got my interest. Federal employees here seem to get some leeway with regards to actually coming in versus working from home, which is encouraging, but contract employees are on a tighter leash (or straight up second class citizens, depending who you ask). But there are plenty of things we do that just couldn't be efficient remotely, since there's a lot of custom hardware and lab-testing involved. Btw, I'm not really complaining. Working on air traffic control systems is a pretty damn cool career, imo. It's fun to make a small stretch and answer, "What do you do?" with, "Oh, I just keep planes in the air."

by dsacco 11y ago

dikaiosune 11y ago

Sure -- I'm not disputing that the primary reason for a strong CS background is to be a better engineer (which would of course translate in less tangible ways to employability, like having more impressive projects and promotions). I just already assume that these online mostly free options are equivalent to if not better than your typical 4-year CS degree in terms of gaining a background in CS. In my mind, the reason to pay for the 4-year degree as opposed to a program like this is employment. The (non-HN) mantra usually goes, "having that piece of paper opens doors." So, I think it is relevant to ask these questions regarding employment, as that is usually a big part of the justification for spending money. Further, it is often not accurate to attempt to draw a distinction between the two on the basis of educational quality.

bryondowd 11y ago

Just one example of one of these exceptions is government work. The government requires it's computer scientists to have a degree, and has a rigid pay scale that uses highest degree earned as a factor, along with years of experience, and leaves little wiggle room for any actual demand for your skills. I self taught for the most part, but had to get that piece of paper anyway, because I have ties to the area I live in and the only reliable employment here is the FAA. Moving or commuting to the nearest big cities just wasn't for me. I'll probably also have to go back and get an MS at some point to be able to progress up the pay scale.

e12e 11y ago
I certainly hope that remote work, if it's not an option now, will be over the next ten years. It's really sad that we have all this (Internet scale) networking and communication technology, and still demand that people sit like hamsters in little cubicles, getting less done, than if they could sit in a comfortable home office... Yes, there are great benefits to meeting face-to-face etc, but it's still sad. I mean, if people can build and maintain the kind of organizations you see in EVE online and other MMOs without (mostly) meeting -- why not for work?
- bryondowd 11y ago
  Yeah, it would be nice if there were more remote options, especially outside the area of web development, which never really got my interest. Federal employees here seem to get some leeway with regards to actually coming in versus working from home, which is encouraging, but contract employees are on a tighter leash (or straight up second class citizens, depending who you ask). But there are plenty of things we do that just couldn't be efficient remotely, since there's a lot of custom hardware and lab-testing involved. Btw, I'm not really complaining. Working on air traffic control systems is a pretty damn cool career, imo. It's fun to make a small stretch and answer, "What do you do?" with, "Oh, I just keep planes in the air."