
Ask HN: Did you regret getting a CS degree? - djisjke
I work with programming, however, I never formally learned it. Sometimes that is a disadvantage when getting a job. Did you who got a CS degree ever regret it, and did you who work in the field without degree regret that?
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jason_slack
I do regret getting a CS degree.

CS came easy to me and so I got a CS degree.

Hindsight I wish I had challenged myself to get a degree in something that
didn't come easy.

I dont appreciate my degree and I blow off the fact that I even have one. It
means nothing to me.

I have a 14 year old son whom I am pushing to challenge himself and be more
well rounded than I was. He is learning C++, yes but he plays basketball,
loves MotoGP, learning to cook and overall learning how to talk and argue his
points :-)

~~~
victorhn
what kind of degree would not come easy if you were able to make a CS degree?
IMHO only a few degrees like pure math or physics may be more difficult.

~~~
geofft
There's a distinction between "difficult" and "comes easily". A lot of CS is
easy for me, I think in part because the underlying thought patterns are
intuitive and in part because I enjoy poking at it on my own. I don't think,
say, mechanical engineering is particularly more _difficult_ on an absolute
scale, but I personally would have had to work a lot harder and develop better
learning skills for a mechanical engineering degree, and I would have learned
a lot more in the process. And exposed my brain to something I'll likely never
get a chance to expose it to now.

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JamesMcMinn
Not in the slightest.

I went into the degree having done a lot of programming and found the first
year of CS fairly easy. However, I was lucky as Glasgow allows you to switch
between degrees almost at will as long as you meet the requirements for it
during the first 2 years (1st year courses generally only make up 1/3rd of the
credits, and 2nd year courses make up 1/2 of the credits for that year).This
meant that I was able to peruse Maths, Physics and CS in my first year, and
Electrical Engineering and CS during my second year - it was only in the final
2 years that CS became my only focus.

Essentially, I didn't need to decide which degree I would do until the start
of my 3rd year, by which point the course had ramped up to the 4 hours sleep
per night level, I was loving every moment of being pushed to the edge, and I
was very sure that CS was the right choice for me.

Practically speaking, I came out of the degree having covered a bit of just
about everything, and in a position to quickly learn anything that I don't
already know. I probably could have become better at programming, but a much
less capable thinker if I'd spent the 4 years working.

I don't think that every developers needs a CS degree, however I'd say that if
you want to tackle really hard problems, the ones that most people wouldn't
even dream of solving, then a CS degree is probably the best tool in your box.

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johnmurch
With any degree - you get what you put into it. I think it has been extremely
valuable in terms of understanding some of the theory/etc. of CS. Then again I
am upset that more real-world + theory tools/process were not part of my
courses.

For example - understanding source control and working with it is something
that SHOULD be happening in classes. Every teacher should leverage git
(<https://github.com/edu>) for managing/submission of code.

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Thebigcheeze
A lot of my CS degree wasn't really applicable to the work I actually do (line
of business applications) but it was interesting as hell. I went to classes
with a lot of people that hated half of the things we did (physics, math,
combinatorics, machine learning, assembly, microprocessor fabrication) but
every one of those things was just flat out interesting. Not really
applicable, but I don't regret learning it at all.

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AlexDanger
In hindsight, the CS cirriculum I did was pretty bad. There were only three
units which I think really had any value for me in terms of application to my
work in IT. The units I did outside of CS (mainly maths) were much more
valuable.

But there are two things I got from university that were invaluable:

1.) People. The people I met at uni are still my best friends today and a
diverse bunch of talented and interesting folk. The social aspect was
invaluable.

2.) Learning how to learn. By the end of my second year I felt I had the
cognitive and critical thinking skills to tackle new topics without the aid of
a professor guiding me. I take this skill somewhat for granted and it has been
a critical part of my success in the workplace. Some people are born with this
capacity for self-learning, I wasnt, I got it at university. So there is still
something to be said about the old brick-and-mortar educational paradigm.

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simondfletcher
I did a Master's degree in CS and have absolutely no regrets. It was, without
a doubt, the most enjoyable, interesting, fun and educational period of my
life.

In the 20 years since I have, at some point, found almost every subject that
was covered useful. Most useful of all, though, was the education in critical
thinking, critical systems thinking and soft systems. The lessons I learned
there are ones I still use every day. Almost every job in technology involves,
in some form, solving complex problems in complex, continually changing
environments with many participants with differing interests, motivations and
capabilities. This has stood me in good stead from my first job as a developer
to my current role managing large programs of work.

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michael_miller
I don't regret getting a CS degree one bit, since it exposed me to people I
wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. I wouldn't have taken ballroom
dancing, buddhist art, or learned how to fly had it not been for getting my
degree.

My intuition is that school marginally helped by day-to-day coding, but gave
me the tools I needed to dig deeper. It was invaluable to take operating
systems, and learn about the nitty gritty internals of how a modern OS worked,
along with the details of CPU caching. I probably could have learned the
information outside of school, but it would have been a much longer process,
and I might have large gaps in my knowledge.

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threedaymonk
I didn't get a CS degree - I did Elec Eng instead, which has some overlap, I
suppose - but I haven't found it too much of a problem. I occasionally become
aware of gaps in my knowledge, but I find that a bit of reading can usually
fix that. I think I'm more motivated and self-directed now than I was back
when I was a student, so I'm not sure I really missed too much. Education is
wasted on the young!

In any case, once people are more than a few years out of university, they've
forgotten enough that it doesn't seem to make a huge difference. Experience,
receptiveness, and willingness to continue learning become bigger factors.

~~~
okjake
Agree completely. I am in the same position, having an EE degree, and haven't
found this to be a drawback so far.

After a few years of work and motivated self-study, a bachelors degree begins
to fade into relative insignificance.

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sbochins
Nope. I wouldn't have taken many of the classes I took when getting my CS
degree if I didn't need to. But, I am glad I took them.

This would mostly be the theory, OS, and compiler courses. If you know the
full stack and the connections between them, it makes it much easier to pick
up new things. Getting a CS degree let me spend 4 years of my life
understanding the fundamentals.

I understand that you can learn all this stuff on your own, but pretty much
nobody does. And having all this knowledge makes it substantially easier to
learn new things (something I do quite a bit nowadays).

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codenesium
If you code all of the time and it's something you enjoy I'm not sure a CS
degree is right for you. I was CS and I switched to music because assembly and
calculus didn't seem relevant to anything I wanted to build. If you work hard
and build projects and put a little effort into learning the CS concepts on
your own you will have no problem finding a job. You better be able to code
though if you're not going to have that CS line item on your resume. I'm
saying you need 5 years experience building things to be qualified most
places.

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purplelobster
Depends on what you want to do, but for me, no. If CS comes easy to you, that
just means you can push even further in the time when others are stuck on the
basics. If you're only interested in doing social web apps, then maybe you
shouldn't get a CS degree. Getting more than an undergraduate degree in CS can
make you knowledgeable and confident enough to tackle problems others won't,
or be able to see solutions that others can't.

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njsubedi
I quite regret joining for a CS degree. I am on my second year (I should have
been in 3rd, but I chose to take an year of academic break). What CS teaches
you, you cannot implement in real world without doing stuff you would be doing
without joining the degree.

Best way is to stay passionate about CS and join a degree for some other
studies, like business or law, hence bringing out your full potential.

I am, for sure, going to regret taking my CS degree.

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dear
Not at all. It makes everything SO MUCH easier. Without it there will ALWAYS
be a question mark in employers' mind, no matter how many years of experience
you have!

Now if you are starting your own company and think you will be the next
Zuckerberg/Gates/Jobs, then it's a different story.

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lsiebert
I kinda regret getting a psychology degree and not getting a CS degree.

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segmond
in the computer field, as of today, a CS degree is not important. the only
reason for someone to regret a CS degree is if they had an opportunity to do a
startup and they refused, and someone else did that startup and made some
serious money.

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bitwize
I should have become a physicist.

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strathmeyer
Many people get CS degrees and never get a CS job so they move on with their
lives.

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suyash
Are you kidding me? You are the one who needs to regret it since you would
never be respected equally amongst your colleagues if all other skills are
equal between you and them.

~~~
geofft
Why wouldn't you be respected equally? The point of a degree is that it's a
proxy for a statement about skills, not that the prestige of the degree itself
is valuable.

