Timeline for Will a computer science college degree ever hurt my employability?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
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| Aug 5, 2011 at 13:29 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Nayrb | ||
| May 24, 2011 at 7:51 | comment | added | quant_dev | GOOD programmers without a CS degree are rare, I agree. But decent programmers with a maths or physics degree are dime a dozen. Now, a decent programmer without any degree... that's a rarity. | |
| May 24, 2011 at 7:15 | vote | accept | Gio Borje | ||
| May 23, 2011 at 22:31 | comment | added | user541686 | I like (dislike?) how people bash people with degrees. When's the last time you saw a good programmer with a CS degree? When's the last time you saw one without? How often does each happen? I think that explains stuff by itself. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 22:29 | history | edited | Bobby Tables | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 23, 2011 at 22:21 | comment | added | Bobby Tables | @Rein Henrichs: You're right. I've fixed it. I knew "exception which proves the rule" felt wrong and awkward, but I was tired at the time and it sort of seemed to make sense. :) | |
| May 23, 2011 at 22:20 | history | edited | Bobby Tables | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 23, 2011 at 21:33 | comment | added | nikie | @Kevin: Faulty metaphor. One plane is flown by a guy with an engineering degree. He knows a lot about aerodynamics, but never actually flew a plane. The other plane is flown by a guy who used the same time to learn how to fly a plane. In a real plane, with real passengers, taught by another professional pilot. I know which one I'd choose. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 19:47 | comment | added | Kevin | You can fly to Hawaii on one of two flights. One is a flown by a certified commercial pilot. The other is some guy that is completely self-taught. I've heard the self taught pilots are sometimes quite good, possibly as good as the certified ones. Probably the self taught pilot will do it for cheaper too. Which do you choose? | |
| May 23, 2011 at 17:08 | comment | added | Rein Henrichs | It's also a personal pet peeve when people use "exception that proves the rule" incorrectly. Prove in this context means "test". | |
| May 23, 2011 at 16:36 | comment | added | Rein Henrichs | In fact, if anything the group of successful self-taught programmers probably correlates to greater intelligence than the group of successful degreed programmers. I'd be interested to see any research that backs this up, but in the absence of such research your argument from personal disbelief is not convincing. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 16:30 | comment | added | Rein Henrichs | @Billare "Are all the intellectually disabled flying through college now?" Please. I'm obviously not suggesting that and you know it. "And how smart can a person really be said to be if they decide to put off getting something that gives many people excess income over the amount of practical knowledge that was actually imparted in college?". This is exactly what I mean by orthogonal. Without further information, they can be said to be just as smart as those who go to college. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 14:58 | comment | added | Uticensis | @Rein Henrichs Think of what you're saying. Being smart is orthogonal to getting a degree?! Are all the intellectually disabled flying through college now? And how smart can a person really be said to be if they decide to put off getting something that gives many people excess income over the amount of practical knowledge that was actually imparted in college? I'm sure there are a many notable stories of self-taught programmers. But I wouldn't hesitate whatsoever to state that on average, the group of programmers who choose to earn degrees is smarter than those who don't. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 14:33 | comment | added | Job | Many people with CS degree cannot program either. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 11:05 | comment | added | Binary Worrier |
+1: Does Degree = Good developer? No. But Degree + Good Developer = Great Developer. If you have the stones to be 'Good' or 'Great' then a formal education will lift you up a level. So Good becomes Great, and Great becomes Truly exceptional.
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| May 23, 2011 at 10:36 | comment | added | Falcon | I totally agree with nikie. The degree does not matter, it's the individual. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 9:17 | comment | added | nikie | It's true, good programmers without a CS degree are rare. But in my experience, good programmers with a CS degree are equally rare. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 7:56 | comment | added | Steven A. Lowe | @Bobby tweren't so long ago that nearly all programmers were self-taught... The smart money is on the person with a track record of success ;-) | |
| May 23, 2011 at 7:15 | comment | added | Rein Henrichs | "the smart money is on the person with a degree." Not in my experience. In my experience the smart money is on the smart people, which is orthogonal to having a degree. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 6:43 | comment | added | Jas | +1 for undressing the "self-educated star programmer myth". Not to mention "relational" databases being used as NoSQL datastores, large 4-5 page PHP functions...etc. | |
| May 23, 2011 at 6:37 | history | answered | Bobby Tables | CC BY-SA 3.0 |