Do you have any regrets about not going or going to college (programmers)?

[puddinlover]

This post is targeted mainly at programmers but anyone is welcome to take part. If you are not a programmer please make sure you mention that in your reply though.

Basically I'm curious to see what programmers have to say about college and going or not going and what one may gain or lack from doing so.

I made a blog post with other questions here (http://codejustin.com/do-you-have-any-regrets-about-not-going-or-going-to-college/) if anyone cares to read all my questions or see replies from outside the ubuntu community (like they matter:p).

[lisati]

As an occasional programmer, I sometimes wish I had been wiser with my choice of courses and the amount of effort I put into my studies. Receiving letters which refer to "insufficient academic progress" isn't the kind of thing you want to be doing....
Having said that, if you're sufficiently interested in a topic, you'll find a way of gaining experience and knowledge that no course or textbook can give you.

[anaconda]

if you're sufficiently interested in a topic, you'll find a way of gaining experience and knowledge that no course or textbook can give you.

I agree with that.

If you really want to learn programming , then college WASTES your time, You will be studying lots and lots of stuff that wont have anything to do witn programming or computers... Like mathematics, physics, electronics, more mathematics, probability, ergonomy, law, etc....

And when they will actually teach something interesting the course will end almost before it started, and you wont have enough time to study it as throughly as you would like (because your time is eaten away by other subjects, homeworks, and pointless assignments.)


Having said that I think college can be a fun place to be, especially if you don't take studying too seriously.

PS: I spend 7 YEARS in university studying "programming" (6-7 years in uni is about average in my country). When finished I counted that I could have studied EVERYTHING that I learned about programming (and computers) in less than 9 months. (about 25 of 180 study weeks)

Yes the graduation paper is good to have, but you can also go another way. eg. became good at your chosen field, do some demo work. eg.. develop programs for linux.. and apply for a job with those credentials.

[billgoldberg]

This post is targeted mainly at programmers but anyone is welcome to take part. If you are not a programmer please make sure you mention that in your reply though.

Basically I'm curious to see what programmers have to say about college and going or not going and what one may gain or lack from doing so.

I made a blog post with other questions here (http://codejustin.com/do-you-have-any-regrets-about-not-going-or-going-to-college/) if anyone cares to read all my questions or see replies from outside the ubuntu community (like they matter:p).

Ever since I was in high school I wanted to do a bachelor in "Informatica" (not sure about the english word) but I couldn't do it for financial reasons at the time, so I did History. I stopped after failing twice (I didn't even study and hardly attended classes, that's how interested I was).

So now I have to do ****** temp jobs all the time (which is pretty hard now since there are almost none, so I'm without a job a lot of the time). I'm even thinking about going to work in a bar now if I'm without a job much longer.

I'm still going to get the degree in adult classes but that will still take a few years.

[dmizer]

Not a programmer, but I had to skip out of college for money reasons with one semester to go. In the corporate world, I was constantly passed over for promotion and the reason was always that I did not have a degree, even though my skills in the job were far superior to my coworkers. I doubt that would be any different in programming.

I've had to jump through a lot of hoops and work extremely hard to get where I am now, and I've lived a very unconventional lifestyle. Not finishing college certainly doesn't guarantee that you'll be unsuccessful, but it will certainly give you difficulty.

[pwnst*r]

Not a programmer, but I had to skip out of college for money reasons with one semester to go. In the corporate world, I was constantly passed over for promotion and the reason was always that I did not have a degree, even though my skills in the job were far superior to my coworkers. I doubt that would be any different in programming.

I've had to jump through a lot of hoops and work extremely hard to get where I am now, and I've lived a very unconventional lifestyle. Not finishing college certainly doesn't guarantee that you'll be unsuccessful, but it will certainly give you difficulty.

agreed.

i'm an executive at a corporation where other execs have 4 year degrees at least. i have a two year, but am continuing in the fall to finish off school. i've had to work very hard and sacrifice a lot to get where i am now, but the money is good and i actually love my job (how many of us can say that?).

[Johnsie]

It is alot more difficult to get a job as a programmer without a degree.


If you don't have a degree then the best way is to get an ordinary office admin job and then over time make sure everyone in your office knows that you are a computer whizz.

That's how I got my full time programming job. I went to college but had to drop out in my final year and only got a diploma instead of a degree. To be honest I would love to redo my final year.

Most HR/recruiting departments don't have a clue about programming so look for degrees as a way of proving you know what you are doing. That's why going directly into a progamming jobs is difficult. Once you're already past the recruiters it's alot easier to move departments. Start low and aim high.