#CareerChange #HigherEducation #CSDegreeStruggles
Hey everyone! 👋 Have you ever felt discouraged about the practical skills you’ll gain after investing years in university? 🤔 Well, I’m nearly 40 and on a mission to earn a CS degree while working full time. But, I keep hearing that the theoretical knowledge might not be enough to land me a job post-graduation. 😥
So, here’s the deal – should I really spend 5-6 years in university, balancing work and school, just to come out with mostly theory under my belt? Is it worth the time and effort? 🎓
Here’s a possible solution that could benefit us all:
– Consider seeking internships or part-time jobs in the field during your studies to gain practical experience 💼
– Look into online resources and coding bootcamps for additional hands-on learning opportunities 🖥️
– Network with professionals in the industry to get insights and advice on how to bridge the gap between theory and practice 🤝
What do you think? Any other tips or suggestions to share? Let’s help each other navigate through the challenges of pursuing a CS degree later in life! 🚀📚
The market is tough right now so that’s why a CS degree makes you stand out. However what you learn at school is very different from the real world. The stuff you learn during a CS degree is important but I bet you can get way more bang for your time on Udemy.
You have lots of graduates that can’t find a job because they thought that what they learn in school would be enough. The newest junior at my work place got a degree in math, had zero programing classes. He just found software development interesting and is self thought and beat a lot of CS majors to get the job.
Point being if you have a degree you don’t need another one. If you don’t have one then getting one will be beneficial but you will spend a lot of time on it so pick something that is smart but also enjoyable, and be prepared to learn skills needed for the job market on your own.
Here’s the problems you encounter in the “real world”.
* There is a lot of proprietary (secret) code written in any number of languages, frameworks, etc.
* That code contains a lot of business logic (for example, a tax application needs to have a lot of rules about taxes).
* That code can be huge, like hundreds of thousands of lines long
* A CS degree can’t hope to emulate every language and every framework out there. It’s just not possible, so they don’t particularly try.
* CS courses tend to focus on concepts and the programming exercises are meant to help you understand
* This means they aren’t equipped to have you go to a job and know exactly what you’re doing right away. There’s always going to be some idiosyncrasies as one company does it this way, another does it that way, and sometimes the code itself is a mish-mash of code written differently (no one said all the code out there is pristine and beautiful).
Still, many CS grads get jobs and they adapt to the situation, learn how things work, ask questions, and teach themselves the parts they didn’t learn. In a way, the goal of the degree is to have you teach yourself new stuff as opposed to make you 100% job ready where you can work right away and not have to ask any questions.
There’s just no standard way to develop stuff. We don’t all use the same language and code it in exactly the same way. There are some standards in pockets (it’s not totally haphazard), e.g., maybe a Python/Django company will resemble another one, but it won’t look like a Java/Spring company.
Being a programmer is dealing with uncertainty and working your way through it. That doesn’t always appeal to everyone. If it makes you feel better, many CS grads do get a job.
See if you can get an internship before you graduate.
If you want to get a programming job then it will be orders of magnitude more difficult without the degree.
I personally went back to school for a 2nd degree at 40 and have had tons of recruiters reach out to me on handshake (a job site from the school). I haven’t applied to any of the jobs because I already have one. Any good educational program should have career placement as well. Where are you going to school? I would also recommend to step up and take 2 or 3 classes per semester instead of just 1. I didn’t go back to school for a job, however, I went back for personal reasons plus my employer paid for it.
I’ve had this same issue. I’ve decided to leverage my skills I already have and find a niche. I’ve been an English teacher, and since the pandemic worked mostly in edtech for a district. I’m starting the AWS cloud institute (on a scholarship) to learn and earn the developer associate cert. This will allow me to work more in edtech, and teach me higher level skills for the work force.
The more I researched a cs degree, I found the money put in is not worth the time compared to other possibilities. I’ve spent time doing free courses online as primers and now this. I’m not sure yet it will lead to better jobs or more jobs but I do know I won’t be going into debt.
it’s not trade school – and that’s not a bad thing. it is much more general and portable knowledge than that. you’re there to become an expert on computing, generally, not to learn how to smash all the fanciest new frameworks together. You’ll be able to figure that out when it’s time. the market is *currently* garbage, but a four year CS degree is still the gold standard for entry level software positions, at least in the US.
in 5 or 6 years, you’ll either have the degree or you won’t. my advice is to enjoy the learning process. the opportunity to stretch your mind and push yourself to new limits is worth it for its own sake.
that said, I don’t see how one class a semester is going to get you a degree in six years.
I did half a degree then got a job as a sorta qa kinda thing. Now Im a dev.
The course is nothing that can’t be learned elsewhere.
If you are good at selling then you can provide software solutions for your local businesses. An e-commerce project for a retail outlet or an inventory management system for a hardware store. This is what 2 of my friends did and they learnt how to make real world projects and build a customer base locally. But you have to go out there and find clients. This is the hard part. If you need help with real world industry based learning inbox me. I have been mentoring people for 4 years as Head of Software and Architect in a Fortune top 10 company. I will guide you what to learn and how to learn. But you should be ready to self learn 😇
A CS degree definitely will help, but yes it doesn’t teach you the definite skills you need to succeed in a dev role.
I graduated May of 23, finally landed a Soft Eng job in January of this year. The degree was absolutely vital in my eyes. If you take the time during your degree to learn how to think like a programmer, and really push yourself to understand it’s a major edge over others.
During college, I did everything from Java, DB design, data analysis, C/C++, networking, etc and it was all fundamental to what I do in my job now. I also spent a lot of time outside of school learning Git, software architecture and general skills I felt would make me more attractive.
As long as you are determined and spend the time to learn outside of school you’ll be ok. A lot of people I graduated with never spent the time to really learn and round out their fundamental skills and they still aren’t employed. Good luck, it’s a great field to get into if you know it’s what you want 🫡
I think it’s important to recognize that there’s a lot in the day-to-day practice of software engineering that you won’t get in school and need to learn on the job.
That said, I’ll add something positive: You’ll have a head start over people who aren’t career switchers because you’ve already learned how to have a job. It’s kind of odd to think about, but one of the things people need to learn when they first start working in a career is how to have a professional office job. How to talk with people, deal with process, unblock themselves, communicate effectively, etc. Sure, you’ll still need to learn git or how to deal with legacy code, but you won’t have to learn all of the “how to be an employee in a professional career” stuff.
Can you work part time instead? You need to get these courseworks over with sooner than later.
When I was taking part in the hiring process at my work we almost always ignored the people with degrees in favor of someone with ANY amount of actaul work experience.
And when we did hire people with a degree they needed the most on the job training by far than anyone else. Which is why we got to a point that we would consider someone with a degree last when hiring for a position.
And multiple degrees basically got thrown out and got zero consideration.
Software engineering courses exist for a reason, I’m getting really tired(I’m not mad at you op just venting) of people applying to cs degrees thinking it’s programming and nothing else. As someone who does research and firmly loves the science, people should actually research degrees like IT and SWE. The worst part is I’m still the best programmer amongst my peers because I understand that our major is more theory than practical and so I have to bust my ass practicing.
CS IS NOT A TRADE SCHOOL. Stop treating it like one and blaming the industry(which does suck) or the college system(also sucks) when you inevitably can’t center a div in an interview.
At 40, a 4 year computer science degree seems like a waste of time. It’s great for teaching fundamentals but 95% of it is irrelevant to a real job. I think getting some sort of IT certs and starting in an IT role would be way better use of time. I used to work with a few people without degrees that took a similar approach and had great careers.
College works well for teaching basics and how to earn, but only doing your work will save you behind unfortunately additional work will be needed to break into the field, and right now it’s a hard field to break into
The CS degree though will validate your coding that you do learn. You will have a lot more esteem with that degree as far as your coding skills once you can do a few projects.
I can definetley code, but I am self taught and have a journalism degree. Everyone looks a little sideways at me as far as my capability. Kinda a drag.
Valid concerns, but a few questions.
1. You work full time — are you supporting others or just yourself?
2. What would happen if you had an internship, but you lost the full time job, what are the consequences you’d face?
3. If you found an 8-12 month paid internship, could you make your finances work?
4. Have you looked into a co-op position?
The big question is how dependent are you, and others, on your current full time job?
Yeah you gotta do projects in your spare time, practice for interviews, seek internships, etc. It’ll be hard at first, especially when you are going into the industry primarily to make more money and not because you have a personal interest in some technical area from which you can draw ideas. I once hired a dev after they showed me a game they wrote from scratch using OpenGL for iOS back when iOS experience was relatively rare. Was it a AAA game? Of course not, but it showed me that they were capable of figuring out not super-well defined problems and had the motivation to work through it and make something that worked.
Software is a profession, not a “job” in the sense that many jobs are. Yes it’s just a job in the day-to-day but you can’t stare at your feet forever. You’re responsible for your own professional development and skill building. You cannot rely on an institution with a relatively narrow focus to give you everything you need. The software industry is less structured than medicine or law, in part because it’s newer, so it’s not as formal as the “residency” a doctor does. Your internships and first few jobs are basically the same deal.
You can do this. But, you’ve gotta learn more about the rules of the game you’re stepping into and not trust that a piece of paper will take care of you.
This is true of life in general. You don’t just trust everything the real estate agent tells you when you want to buy a house. You research how the real estate market works, common pitfalls, etc. Your career is a significant portion of how you’re going to spend your waking life, eyes up and do your research. Talk to industry veterans, get advice, etc.
Also: https://www.teamblind.com/
I am not sure if this is an option in the states or near you. I am in Canada and I went to a community college for a programmer analyst course that was 2 years and included a 3 months work term. Me and my wife both took the same course and she decided to go the Business Analyst route and has had solid employment since graduating. I went the programming route and also never have an issue finding work. A couple of my friends work for sales force who also completed the course with me and same story for everyone else from my class outside of those that decided it wasn’t a long term career they enjoyed.
I have done lots of self learning after school to improve my skills, but finishing the course gave me a very easy foot in the door to get started.
These sorts of posts are happening daily on this sub now.
Nobody learns how to do stuff, or become proficient at it, without doing the thing they’re hoping to learn how to do. A curriculum and grinding whiteboard interview questions isn’t going to teach you the sort of skills and ability that actually sitting down and making stuff will.
Nobody becomes a proficient bike rider by riding around on some training wheels a few times and then reading about riding bikes and watching other people ride bikes. They become a proficient bike rider by taking the training wheels off and riding a bike, a lot.
No 4-year education is going to make you “job-ready” as soon as you graduate. You need experience within the industry while you’re going to school, which is where internships come in. Do you have a family preventing you from going full-time?
I was working full-time while going to school for mechanical engineering full-time, and eventually had to quit my FT job to pursue summer internships my junior and sophomore years. I was in my late 20’s/early 30’s and definitely not a normal college-aged person. Hell, I even lived in a dorm room during one internship with a 20 year old. That felt awkward.
You are learning to adapt to any situation, or it should be that way