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From Slashdot - Computer Science Curriculum in College

Re:Regarding the purpose of a higher Ed degree… (Score:5, Insightful)
by Coryoth (254751) on Sunday September 11, @12:18PM (#13531976)
(http://jedidiah.stuff.gen.nz/ | Last Journal: Wednesday August 03, @02:42AM)

the purpose of an education. Some would argue that it is to prepare you for a job through the acculumation of a set of skills or a knowlege set. Others would argue that it is to prepare you for a lifetime of learning. In this day and age, odds are unless you’re in a position where you can call in rich, you’ll take more than one career zig or zag in your lifetime.

The issue I have with evaluating everything in terms of “but will it get me a job?” is that, as you say, over your lifetime you’ll probably make a few jumps in career path, so the skills you invest in now might not be what you find yourself doing in 5 or 10 years time. Add to that the fact that, especially in the IT field, there is a lot of churn in what are considered the “right skills” and you could easily find that the job skills you spent time learning are not much in demand by the time you’ve finished learning them.

That’s not to knock vocational courses - they can be very useful and help give you the skills to get things done. Your life shouldn’t revolve around your job however, and not everything should be devoted to that end. The best vocational courses are the ones that are unashamedly so, are usually short (a few weeks or months for the whole course) and something you can pursue when you need it. University courses are supposed to be about learning because you want to know and understand. Some of that may be useful for finding a job simply because people who understand some concepts may well be rare, and in demand. Some of that may be useful in a job because you have a good grasp of underlying concepts and understand what you’re doing rather than just mechanistically repeating a process. Employment is shouldn’t be the point of learning such things however, it should be a small side benefit. If you want a job, take some vocational training. If the job you want requires you to understand things for which you need a university degree then either that’s something you want to learn regardless just so you can understand it yourself, or you need to seriously consider your career goals.

In the end the ability to learn new things efficiently, and the skills involved in such learning are the most valuable job skills you’ll get. You’ll rarely end up doing a job that is precisely what you trained for, so the ability to learn and adapt is highly beneficial. Those are things no university, trade school, college, or otherwise will teach you, it’s something you have to learn for yourself. Of course any sort of education can give you practice.

Jedidiah.

Do you want a job or a career? (Score:5, Interesting)
by LazyLawyer (610380) on Sunday September 11, @03:14PM (#13532958)

I got my CS degree in 1984. It’s still useful, because they taught me theory, The languages they used (Pascal, PL/1 and LISP primarily) aren’t.

My enthusiasm got me jobs. The degree only helped.

When I went to law school, almost everything I learned was theory. When I started the practice of law, I knew virtually nothing about actually running a trial. Now, I’m writing the book, and a publisher pays me for it.

Much of what I learned from the practice of CS and of law could have been taught at a trade school. 95% of the time, my work would be competent.

But that remaining 5% distinguishes between a tradesman and a professional. As a prosecutor, cross-examining the defence’s psychologist or engineer, I have the advantage of knowing the basic theory behind their disciplines, because of the courses I took at university. I only tinker with writing software now, but I grok the new languages fast enough (when I get the chance to turn my mind to them).

I don’t knock the trade schools. Enthusiasm to learn takes some people all the way through the theory they need to be pros. They don’t need a university degree to be good.

And uninspired university graduates are so useless that should not be permitted to do anything important. I wouldn’t hire them.

I remember that IBM used to hire only people with university degrees. Not just CS. Any degrees. IBM wasn’t interested in what they learned at university. They wanted people who had the the enthusiasm/fortitude to slug their way through dry theory. A degree proved that the kid could work. Isn’t that what an employer wants?

So what do you want? A job or a career? How much do you want it?

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