I am in a somewhat unique position to comment on this topic. Over the last 4 years, I have been pursuing a career in Flash programming (mostly full time) and I have also been taking courses toward a 2nd Bachelors degree in Computer Science, which I hope to finish up in the Spring. (My original undergrad degree was in History.)
I spent a number of years teaching myself how to program, but at a certain point I felt like I needed the structure and motivation of a CS program to help me fill in the gaps. There were certain topics that were too tough to teach myself. A really great professor can make a huge difference by communicating a difficult subjects. For example, I don't think I every would have had the motivation to teach myself assembly language, computer architecture, prolog, compiler design, or linear algebra. There are no "Head First" books that effectively cover these topics. And the artificial motivation of homeworks and exams, while often tedious, is also critical. School gives you a breadth of knowledge that is very difficult to acquire in a regular job, where you're usually working on the same codebase, on the same platform, in the same language. School allows you to explore various ideas and approaches, and to experiment. Most businesses (except maybe Google) can't afford to give their employees this amount of freedom to explore their personal interests. School does not make you a great coder -- mainly coding skills come from practice -- but school does give you a better context to think about problems at a high level. For me, the experience of studying and working at the same time has been intense and challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. Taking an abstract concept I learned in class, and then applying it to solve a real business problem on a project at work -- sometimes in the same day -- has been a great feeling. I don't mean to denigrate anyone who's come into this Flash Development from other directions. One of the great strengths of the Flash community is its diversity due to the fact that every persons' journey into the platform has been unique. I just wanted to share my experience, and to encourage anyone who's thinking about taking some classes. _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
