

Ask HN: Is a CS degree worth the effort today? - brux

I just read this Quora thread:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Would-you-choose-a-coding-bootcamp-or-a-computer-science-related-degree-Why<p>How useful is a four-year CS&#x2F;IT&#x2F;SE degree if people coming out of three-month coding bootcamps get a better job placement and salary?
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smt88
A bootcamp grad can probably do better _junior_ -level work, but they couldn't
be the person at the top of that hierarchy without a lot more experience. And
the only reason they're better at junior-level work is because it often
requires minimal understanding of the underlying workings of the application,
let alone the server, OS, or hardware.

The problem is that CS schools haven't done a good job teaching practical web
technologies because web technologies are a poor way to study computer
science. There's only so much time in a degree program.

The ideal situation would be to get a CS degree and then do a cheaper course
on web technologies (that's still led by an instructor). I think there's
something called Code Union offering that.

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paulhauggis
I'm sure they can get some sort of job, but the degree will give you a better
chance at a long-term career as a developer.

First, in a competitive marketplace, if you are up against a person with
similar skills/experience and you have a degree and they don't, you will have
a better chance at getting the job.

Second, I don't think a person coming out of the 3-month bootcamp has any sort
of real understanding of the fundamentals of development (algorithm design,
what the compiler is actually doing, how, why, and when to optimize code).

The great part about learning the fundamentals is that you can move to other
languages quickly. I just started with Python 2 months ago (I know
c/c++/pascal/perl/PHP) and I'm already writing full apps pretty easily. Since
I've already learned many of the fundamentals, I just needed to learn syntax.

