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by nikdaheratik
3649 days ago
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Another thing that bothered me about the article, although it did make some good points, is that it just assumes that the choice is either four years of employment as a programmer at some level or four years of uni. If you're trying to get a job as a developer as an 18-year-old with a fresh H.S. diploma and maybe some tech school credits, your competition isn't other H.S. diploma carrying developers, it's a 22 year old graduate with a CS degree. If you live somewhere that you can get a job in the field directly out of High School, that's all well and good, but it's alot harder for a variety of reasons than someone who has finished a degree. Which is one reason why so many people go that route. |
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that is key; there is a strong argument in favor of jumping right to a programming job if you have the opportunity... it's what I did. but I got lucky on a bunch of fronts. (parents in the industry, timing, etc) - I mean, if you have a programming job right there it's hard to argue that you should go to school instead. And in my case, the job was available in large part due to timing; it would have been way harder to get a job in 2001 than it was in 1997, even if I had gotten a degree meanwhile.
I guess the other thing to consider is how hard it is for you to go to school later. I mean, if the parents are willing to foot the bill for your education now and won't be willing a few years from now? that's a pretty big thing. I'm slowly working on getting myself into college now, and it's harder in some ways, because the typical application process was not designed for me, but easier in others, because things like money aren't a huge problem anymore, and I am so much more self-disciplined.
I'm too early in the process to tell you if it's easier or not (I've got either 9 credits, or 0, depending on how you count) - but it's certainly different. It is... difficult to pay people to
But, in general, if you have the opportunity to get a coding job right out of high school, and nobody is paying for your college, take the job. If someone is paying for your college and you don't have the opportunity to get a coding job out of high school, go to college. The optimal course of action gets foggy if you have both opportunities or neither.