How useful was college in your programming career?

How useful was college in your programming career? Do you think college shaped your into a fine programmer? Do you think your first programming job helped more? What do you think of college computer science classes?

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I dropped out.

They give u certificates and make u immune to open-space offices

You can easily buy a good textbook and teach yourself. Though with that said, you won't have a degree to prove your knowledge so you will need to find that in other ways.

>Get into college
>Finish 2 year degree in programming
>Don't find a job because 2008 recession
>Had UPS job
>Stayed there
>Driver now
>Make 100k/year
>Not a huge fatass anymore

Went better than expected.jpg

You need a university education to get a lot of good programming jobs unless u wanna work your arse off for years for fuck all pay to get experience

How does a ups driver make $100,000? on average a ups driver makes $74,000. how are you making $30,000 more than the average?

>work your ass off for years for low pay
Vs
>work your ass off for years and pay a university tens thousands of dollars at-best
I mean yeah, top uni is worth it esp if you can bum a free ride for some reason. But for most people I don't see the payoff. I got my start as apprentice making a few bucks an hour. It took me 3 years or so to jump up to a good wage. This was in the 90s but still happens all the time. Never regret skipping college desu.

He lives in California where that is below the poverty line.

Sophomore going into junior year. Upper-level classes have been decent for filling out some blind spots that I had in the theory department, but not much else. CS is one those things you can largely figure out on your own if you're properly motivated.
The networking and the degree is nice though. That's basically the reason to go - to get your foot in the door.

I've received my education for free.

>First year of university
>Instructor is pajeet. tells everyone to google everything
Whats the fucking point then? Why shouldn't I just do it on my own and save a heap of fucking money

work experience helped more than college, but I wouldn't have gotten the work experience without the college degree since I worked in analytics/data-engineering

career advice is not technology discussion

>I didn't earn money for four years
Cool

I learned nothing in college that I hadnt knew already

I took math. The few programming courses I took were trivial, telling me things I already knew and other things that were nearly two decades out of date.

The math is sometimes useful. Like when doing Linear Programming or Graphics Acceleration stuff.

$36/hour + overtime. Nobody works a full work without getting at least 5 hours of overtime because our daily work plan is 9 hours

Minnesota

>full work
full week

That's also false. I was properly employed since 19.

Not him, but if you're not getting internships/research done during undergrad, you're screwing up.

Programming is easy on that regard because you can just do your own projects and show people. Compare that to something like biochemistry where you can't really do projects on your own unless you're running a meth lab.

As an undergrad? What a fucking waste of effort. You're in the tech industry, you don't need to waste time on shit like that, you just have to be good at what you do.

I enjoy the research I do, and I get paid for it. Better resume material than any other job I could get on campus; (hopefully) getting published is also a nice feather in my cap.

user, that's really-really simple.
I'm an educated and employed adult.
You're an ignorant unemployed NEET who thinks a university is a waste of time yet does nothing instead.

Technically, nothing stops people from being 100% self-educated, but the abundance of clear examples such as yourself vividly demonstrate why that's an exception rather than the rule. ^;)

If it satisfies you then jack off into the wind all you want but nobody gives a damn about your "research" unless you're a PhD student, you might as well have just put that effort into a personal project just like everyone else rather than some kiddie pool Academia nonsense.

You're so off base you're in a hockey rink.

>y-your wrong!
Sure thing, darling ^;)

Personal projects don't pay, user. I have a pretty nice Github, but I've bought some pretty nice gadgets for myself with the money from my research position. Just saying, there's a balance.

I wish I could experience how cramming is like in college. Dropped out of high school and have been working in the industry ever since.

completely useless. everything I know that I have ever used in a job I learned outside of school.

I dropped out of a college CS program to start my career and have recently game back to finish it since my company will pay for it. I think it's safe to say that there's nothing taught in CS that you can't teach yourself. The trick is knowing which things are actually useful to learn. There's plenty of material in CS that most competent people would discover eventually, a degree program can help expose you to it sooner. You can absolutely get by without a degree though.

I make 150k + bonuses 3 years out of college so it worked out for me ;^)

only downside is seattle is expensive as fuck, I still manage to save about half my take home though

(most classes were useless)

I studied for a different thing, so 0 value.

College just shaves years off the promotion ladder. Also, you will never get into some positions without a degree. Most upper level positions are now wanting Master's or PhD's.

Take care of yourself user, I had group counseling with a dude in his 40s who was a driver too and when he got hurt UPS didn't care about all the overtime he put in, they still overworked him and when he couldn't keep up they found an excuse to get rid of him.

>commercial driver
>not a fatass
Your story don't add up user. I know quite a few drivers and the only skinny ones are pizza boys

I also work in downtown Seattle. I make 125k + bonus fresh out of college. Except I have a physics degree and learned programming by myself for the most part.

Immensely useful. Without it I wouldn't have the job I have now. My college did nothing to really make me a good programmer, they just gave me the basics that everywhere else does for IT majors.

My first internship (which turned into the job I have now) didn't do much to improve my programming skills, but it exposed me to a bunch of technology I've never played with, especially at scale.

If you want to do more academic or theory based work they're fine. However, in the industry those concepts aren't really used. If you can program to a degree and think pragmatically you'll be fine.

I can't program at all and am completely horrible at it

Ok?

Help

No

Why

Trips of truth, fuck working for them then desu. Unless they pay for me im not about to pay for college, i feel like alot of people are fucking themselves doing so even a stem degree isnt worth that much debt they’re milking you for 4 years what you can do in 2.

Many good companies will help pay. However, if you don't pursue one, that's fine, but you may find yourself unable to climb to certain positions since you don't have the degree required.

>graduate in a year
>meet no minimum requirements for any entry level programming jobs

Super cool.
I'm hoping to get into a masters

One of my friends didn’t do that shit at all had a 3.8 and landed a job at google so thats not a rule. I was a cuck intern and work at a medium sized company.

I learned nothing there. Skipped class, only showed up for exams. The only useful thing was the piece of paper to pass automated HR filters.

>anecdotal evidence
Better to do all you can than the minimal effort.

>I learned nothing there
>skipped class

Hmm

True but if you’re not exactly talented in an area and some autistic kid can code with his eyes closed you’re fighting an uphill battle for the rest of your career.

I still aced all my exams and graduated with a 4.0. Most of the content was completely useless so I forgot it right after the final.

Those who fail to put in even a minimal amount of effort have no right to berate those with talent, user.
Push yourself. If you don't know something you want to know or need to know, learn it. You'll be surprised at how far you can get.

So? Can't be all that smart. Why did you even go to school?

To get the piece of paper to get past automated HR filters.

have u seen UPS drivers? guys are fucking jacked.

From someone that went straight to a technical course and started working instead of going to college, I have a few years of experience but now I want a better paying job, and without the degree my applications are not getting past the HR drones.
Looking into what colleges offer post work hour classes this year now.

Yeah as if we don't already get enough to study.

Well it's easy, you just have to steal the extra.

Incorrect

>(hopefully) getting published is also a nice feather in my cap.
All you've done is given a recruiter the opportunity to not recruit you because your resume is too focused on academia

I was incredibly lucky to have a lecturer who knew programming, loved programming, knew teaching, loved teaching, and most importantly: Loved teaching programming!

It had a major impact on me.

But I did not only have a single lecturer throughout. Took about 5 programming courses in total, and the other lecturers were either decent or average. If I did not have that one awesome lecturer earlier, I would not be the man I am today.

who said you shouldn't
also
>trusting pajeets

Got a 4-year CS Degree from a state University.
Got a job out of Uni working on C++ Flight Simulator.

Both the education and work experience were beneficial. The part of Uni that was not worth it was the wasted time in stupid classes like Art History, Anthro, etc.

>How useful was college in your programming career?
The Gen Ed? Fucking usless, nothing you can't learn off of wikipedia and a good discussion forum over a month's time.

The programming? Fucking useful, maybe my school but I built a shit ton of random projects that's padded my portfolio.

That being said, I didn't finish because no money.

I'm going but it has been a waste of time outside of the financial aid disbursements. Gonna fail 3 of my 5 classes in my last semester because I'm sick.
26 years old only had one job for like 10 months but quit. Primarily support myself through crime.
College sucks so far all the professors are retarded.

god I wish I was born in a wh*Te country.

>Primarily support myself through crime
Like what?

I'm an internet gangster.

I dropped out

My 2 years in university taught me absolutely nothing I have ever used at work, and I have been much better served by teaching myself.

I've also never met a competent programmer that was taught academically.

>I've also never met a competent programmer that was taught academically.

Relax Reddit Spacer

>reddit spacing

I've heard of this meme

I thought this was Jow Forums? None of are used to markdown formatting from writing documentation?

none of you*

Seek professional help

>tfw took comp sci and math
>it looks like I know my stuff on paper
>gpa above 3.0 (3.2-3.3)
>can't do math or come up with a solution that uses a trick with math in the algorithm

How do I train my brain to think? Legit, if I'm given an algorithm I can do a straightforward iteration no problem. But as soon as the optimal solution requires seeing it with math first, I'm blind.

What do?

>I thought this was Jow Forums? None of are used to markdown formatting from writing documentation?
Jow Forums users work with raw TeX, not Markdown.

Can you suggest me a book or learning tips? I want to start learning about programming.

100k ₹

Practice. Do a bunch of hacker rank (or whatever other side) problems. Contribute to open source projects with high code standards. Do Advent of Code and compare your answers to other people's.

>Take 4 Year course
>Graduate
>Get offer from startup company
>Take it because the commute is nearby
>Get paid big bucks
>Going to work is a 10 minute walk
>Boss and coworkers are pretty cool, we spend time playing gayming shit and drop catridges in the shooting range in the weekends

About as useful as codecademy and Google

>>work your ass off for years and pay a university tens thousands of dollars at-best

implying community college isnt an option

yeah, i wish the gen ed shit wasn't a requirement. waste of time that shit was

Dream, but is the business actually going good? Thats one of my fears joining a startup, you got a team of cool people but its all for nothing if you’re going out of business in a few months

I failed 5 gen eds, pass all my programming courses though

They give you a lot of assignments and projects that will force you to practice more than you will on your own with your own half-hearted motivation.

When things get tough, most people tend to get bored and play video games, but when an assignment is due, you learn really quick what's going wrong and you fix it.

80% of the time it's the same as if you studied by yourself. The difference is that college will pressure you into doing things -- good and bad.

Well i did EE and i had an absolutely terrible experience. Programming was poorly taught and they made it un necessarily difficult. My intro to programming was in C and our assignments were:
1. Build a checkers game 8/10 marks. Build the AI for an additional two marks
2. Build a personal planner with binary trees. Be able to search with any search term and display calendar front end in the terminal
3. Build a mips complier
4. Final exam is 'complemented' with a practical exam. Failing the practical exam equates to failing the entire course, no resits allowed.
- 2hr closed book prac exam includes
* linked list assignments
* mips compiler work
* Tic Tac toe AI
* rewrite with recursion
* multdimenisonal array data handling

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Holy shit user
Why the fuck are ap many of you giving up on a college degree. Its structured learning that guarantees more job opportunities than not having one. Someone with a 4.0 from stsnford is going to have better luck than a random user with a guthub page with boostrapped boilerplate templates.

Education can only help you. If you don't have cash work your ass off in high school. If you're too dumb to do that join ROTC and have them fund your education.

Wtf 50 years from now you'll be regretting not having the experience of your life.

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>all these entry programing jobs require me to be experts in multiple frameworks and languages for years

What is this? What am I supposed to do?
I don't know any programming language man. I graduate in a year

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why havent job applications been automated and resumes been 100% standardized yet?

What skills do you wish college had taught you regarding programming? Is it all really just about landing a job?

>implying you can get a programming job without a computer science degree

I dropped out, and am teaching myself now with books and online courses. College is scam.

Not if you understand what it's for

>Wtf 50 years from now you'll be regretting not having the experience of your life.
Joke's on you, I'll probably be dead in less than 10 years.

>Jow Forums
>actually programming

now I KNOW you arent from here :^)

>implying that's all I do
Bet my Github is more impressive than yours, friend. Being well-rounded is important.
I'll also have a pretty slick internship under my belt after this summer. One published paper is not """too focused on academia,""" relax.
Not for the networking opportunities it's not. A book can't get your foot in the door at a Fortune 500.

>
>So? Can't be all that smart. Why did you even go to school?
Are you fucking illiterate? He clearly did it for the degree so companies don't instantly throw his application.

Sam's C++, C 3rd edition, Think Perl 6, HTML,CSS, JavaScript book.
Linux bible. Enjoy.