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> I had a job in tech for a few years out of high school before I went to college. Can you speak about what your experience was like? I'm currently working as

> I had a job in tech for a few years out of high school before I went to college. Can you speak about what your experience was like? I'm currently working as a backend developer in new york and I'm planning on starting a CS degree at CUNY Hunter this fall, so I'm curious to hear about other people's experiences with working and going to school at the same time.

sjg007 11y ago
You should actually diversify your education. Take the CS core, but also take psychology, sociology, etc... Steve Jobs took a class on calligraphy at one point. Or if you like math, try to take as much math and stats you can handle.
bcheung 11y ago
I had my first job at 18 working on the development tools for embedded microprocessors. I was working about 30 hours a week and going to a local community college for about 20 hours a week. It was a good experience. Ultimately I dropped out because it didn't seem like I was learning much (I was already doing C and assembly language programming, and even training other programmers at my job) and it was too expensive (that was back in 2000, it's even worse now). I have no regrets about not getting a degree.
- philangist 11y ago
  The difference is that I can't actually code in C and assembly and my knowledge of a lot of lower level topics is sparse. Sure I can sling Python/Go, but I feel like my understanding of topics like networking, compilers, or even algorithmic analysis is sorely lacking. And I'm not disciplined enough to learn from a book
rconti 11y ago
Apologies for the late reply. I was a Linux support guy at 18, moved into sysadmin roles for a couple years, then quit my job to go to college. I was supported by my parents so I did not work my way through college the way you likely envision. I did, however, work part-time as a sysadmin all 4 years (20 hours a week), but it only funded some living expenses, not my education. Also not what you're looking for, but, while I was still young at 21, I thought I'd have a huge leg up on all of them 18 year old youngins. Turns out we all liked pretty much the same music and the cool kids were still cooler than me, and the guys good with the ladies were still better at it than me! I majored in information systems and am still doing the same work today, 10 years later, but I love it and wouldn't change a thing. I wasn't ready for college at 18, and I got a lot more out of it and was more sure of myself at 21 when I enrolled. I rarely think of college as improving my career, but of course my degree from a relatively prestigious 2nd-tier private school doesn't hurt my resume. I pursued a professional services track upon graduation and it took me about 1 week to say "fuck this", and 2 months to quit and go back to sysadmin/ops work. If I had no previous work background I wouldn't have known that my new role wasn't right for me -- at least, not so quickly.

sjg007 11y ago

You should actually diversify your education. Take the CS core, but also take psychology, sociology, etc... Steve Jobs took a class on calligraphy at one point. Or if you like math, try to take as much math and stats you can handle.

bcheung 11y ago

I had my first job at 18 working on the development tools for embedded microprocessors. I was working about 30 hours a week and going to a local community college for about 20 hours a week. It was a good experience. Ultimately I dropped out because it didn't seem like I was learning much (I was already doing C and assembly language programming, and even training other programmers at my job) and it was too expensive (that was back in 2000, it's even worse now). I have no regrets about not getting a degree.

philangist 11y ago
The difference is that I can't actually code in C and assembly and my knowledge of a lot of lower level topics is sparse. Sure I can sling Python/Go, but I feel like my understanding of topics like networking, compilers, or even algorithmic analysis is sorely lacking. And I'm not disciplined enough to learn from a book

rconti 11y ago

Apologies for the late reply. I was a Linux support guy at 18, moved into sysadmin roles for a couple years, then quit my job to go to college. I was supported by my parents so I did not work my way through college the way you likely envision. I did, however, work part-time as a sysadmin all 4 years (20 hours a week), but it only funded some living expenses, not my education. Also not what you're looking for, but, while I was still young at 21, I thought I'd have a huge leg up on all of them 18 year old youngins. Turns out we all liked pretty much the same music and the cool kids were still cooler than me, and the guys good with the ladies were still better at it than me! I majored in information systems and am still doing the same work today, 10 years later, but I love it and wouldn't change a thing. I wasn't ready for college at 18, and I got a lot more out of it and was more sure of myself at 21 when I enrolled. I rarely think of college as improving my career, but of course my degree from a relatively prestigious 2nd-tier private school doesn't hurt my resume. I pursued a professional services track upon graduation and it took me about 1 week to say "fuck this", and 2 months to quit and go back to sysadmin/ops work. If I had no previous work background I wouldn't have known that my new role wasn't right for me -- at least, not so quickly.