Hi
This article http://www.well.com/user/jaron/general.html ends with
these words "Lanier has no academic degrees". If this doesn't inspire
software programmers all over the world then nothing will.
I've been collecting such details over the past few years. Take the
case of Jeff de Luca who was managing a bank ( UOB ) project in Singapore
while I was working in that country. The IBM site says that he started as a
clerk in IBM.
It seems that people stop learning after acquiring advanced degrees.
Software engg. is a continuous learning process. In India which has the
largest technical manpower pool in the world there are no popular software
books being published. Actually almost nothing. This probably means that
technical guys rest on their laurels and don't continue to learn. My
perception is that only people who are really interested in designing and
creating code throughout their lifetime are the successful ones.
Mohan
-----Original Message-----
From: Craig R. McClanahan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 11:15 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: Does a degree matter?
On Sat, 29 Mar 2003, Arron Bates wrote:
> Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 20:36:21 -0600
> From: Arron Bates <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: Struts Users Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Struts Users Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Does a degree matter?
>
> Brandon,
>
> If you can do the deed (which it sounds like you can), I would hazard
offering
> my opinion in thinking that it wouldn't be the best use of your time. By
> education I'm a graphic designer, not a computer scientist. First job was
web
> design, programmer ever since. Results... I've only had two places not
take me
> on because it's not a computer degree. Two interviews of hundreds.
>
My personal experience (both for myself and for folks I have hired over
the years) mirrors this -- indeed, my personal opinion is that a Comp Sci
degree is worth less (to me as an employer) than a degree in some field
that is more closely associated with the general needs of potential
employers.
Why? A couple of reasons:
* Many folks who go for Comp Sci degrees obsess over learning the
particular technologies being taught in their classes, at the expense
of courses to improve your general thinking skills. Any specific
technology you learn in your first year is going to be totally
obsolete by the time you graduate from the program anyway, so why
bother? The important skill to employers (at least from my viewpoint)
is that you've learned how to quickly adapt your existing skills to
new technologies as they become available. Also, the fundamentals
of good architecture and design practices tend to change much more
slowly than the favorite language de jour -- so if you decide to go
for Comp Sci, focus on fundamentals like O-O, design patterns,
and so on.
* Many folks who go for Comp Sci degrees are so focused on the technical
things, and don't accumulate any domain knowledge along the way that
would make you *more* valuable to potential employers than another
Comp Sci graduate with similar skills. If you're building e-commerce
systems, do you know anything about the fundamental accounting
principles involved in tracking purchases? If you're building
systems to introduce novices to the world of online information,
have you ever studied any human factors engineering? If you're
building trading systems for a Wall Street broker, do you have the
slightest idea how stock and commodity exchanges work?
It may surprise some of you to find out that I don't have a Comp Sci
degree at all -- instead, I got a BA in Business with a focus on
Accounting. This was ***tremendously*** helpful in setting me apart from
everyone else who was learning programming and systems analysis in those
days -- I could immediately communicate with the end users responsible for
the systems we were building, using their vocabulary, without having to be
trained -- in addition to the fact that I was a fair-to-middlin'
programmer :-).
If you are looking at going to college today (either because it's that
time in your life, or because the job market sucks right now), I would
suggest thinking about a primary major other than Comp Sci (with a Comp
Sci minor to keep your hand in on all the technical stuff). The name of
the game is making yourself more valuable, relative to everyone else out
there -- and, quite frankly, there are more interesting things in the
world than just computers and web apps :-).
Craig
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