Eric wrote: > Point being, it is difficult for me to go through that much misery > for so little CS education. I would rather spend 3 years studying > what actually helps my career choice. Am I just wrong on this?
I agree with Josh on this. In a word, "yes". :) The longer answer is that if you go back to school, you're right-- you'll be taking a number of classes that really have nothing to do with CS and won't help you learn the newest neatest technology. But they'll teach you other things that are invaluable. I don't know how old you are or what your station in life is, but I think if you're not continually learning new things you're on a dead-end road. Classes outside your major will teach you everything from research to public speaking to writing skills. And those skills are critical to being successful (unless you define "successful" as sitting quietly in a cubicle for the next 30 years hammering out code, heh). I have several friends who are absolutely outstanding programmers and have a deep knowledge of, say, Linux kernel drivers. But they didn't go to college, and learned everything on the job. While that serves them very well for a while, eventually they run out of options. A few of them have had their employers go belly-up, and then they learned the hard truth that looking for a job is much, much harder if you don't have some kind of degree. Others who have stayed gainfully employed found themselves painted into a corner, so to speak-- always being passed over for promotions or management positions because they were great coders but not much more. I'm not saying taking a few classes is the only way to overcome these sorts of problems, but a degree and a "well rounded" education will take you a lot farther than a bucketload of deep, specialized technical knowledge. $0.02, Jeff
pgpsNhF8DtI0s.pgp
Description: PGP signature
.===================================. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `==================================='
