Yet another "me too" on the self-taught front, with the caveat that higher-level concepts are often better taught at the academic level, ie: you want to study language structures or design patterns from an abstract standpoint.
I've noticed this as a key difference between my compsci major friends and myself. I'm interested in the abstracts, but my thrills come from actually specific project planning / architecture / making the thing work vs. a more passing interest in larger theory. Some of my ivory tower friends seem to burn out quicker because the adjustment from an academic to business environment can frequently mean deciding when to do things the "right" way, and when your deadline was yesterday and it just needs to work. This applies equally to marketing and print folks I've noticed. I'm sure everyone's got a lengthy rant about some job or client in this regard. That said, I think it's dependent on where you want to wind up. To over-generalize: If you're interested in using a language to make neat stuff, self-taught is the way to go. If you're interested in writing the next language other people will use to make neat stuff, go academic. I remember an amusing thread on slashdot around 2001 after the bubble burst, and a bunch of HR people were gloatinig that no longer were they at the mercy of all these self-taught people who didn't print their resume double-spaced on fleckstone paper (insert ridiculous job-application requirement you learned in high school and never used again here). (S)he went on to say "no degree? sorry! no job for you." To which a followup posting replied "Nice going, you just didn't hire Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and half of silicon valley." On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 6:07 PM, atxryan <[email protected]> wrote: > > You've gotten sound advice and I'll just chime in with a "me too". My > career in web development is completely self-taught. I started school > as a CompSci guy, but dropped that major because I was already running > a web dev business on the side and the degree trac wasn't teaching me > anything I needed to know. Everything regarding the web I learned in > school was woefully outdated, though this was in '01-'03 and it may be > better now. Still, as other have said, the web just simply moves too > fast. > > Oh, and I've never once looked at the educational experience of > someone whom I've been in the position to interview on behalf of my > employer(s). Never once. > > My biggest piece of advice to get you started is to make sure your > appetite to learn how the web works is insatiable. See something cool? > Right-click and view source. Save it locally. Reproduce it. Tweak it. > Install Firebug. Play with other people's websites. Learn how all of > your favorite websites are constructed. Deconstruct everything. > > Good luck to you. Always remember you've got a great community of > other web professionals willing to help. It's an awesome industry for > that reason. > > -RYAN JOY > http://twitter.com/atxryan > > > > On Mar 12, 5:33 pm, Mike <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thank you all for your insight, its good to know that I'm not the only > > one who is still figuring things out. Going back to school has always > > been something I never felt 100% sure about and listening to > > everyone's trials and tribulations, I don't have to torture myself > > with more years of schooling. I think learning the basics and > > building on that sounds like a plan to start off with. > > > > any book suggestions? programming languages to start? > > > > Mike > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
