| Maybe this isn't the type of answer you're looking for but … Today I am 44. I started my CS degree at a Canadian university at 38. I was a self-taught programmer, but had never worked in industry. - What doors will the degree open? Will I still care about those then (i.e., trying to get a job in the US at FAANG).
I don't know the answer to this. I'm eligible to work in the US through another method so I never looked in to it. - I would (hopefully) graduate at 32. Then what?
I graduated at 44 and found a job immediately. Maybe not a sexy job with a ping pong table in the break room and beer on Friday, but it pays. - Can I both get a CS degree and work full-time?
I worked full-time, except for in the final year, I worked 22.5 hours for the final push. That said, scheduling everything was … hard. I couldn't find a way in Canada take an entire CS degree online (except Athabasca, and I was not interested in a degree from that school). So attending classes, mostly during business hours is required. If you don't have a job with flexibility in scheduling you will use a lot of vacation time. Sleep was minimal throughout. - What's the opportunity cost, in time/money/experience?
Only you can answer that. What else is going on for you? What are you going to do with the degree when you're done? - How likely am I to complete the degree, given that things in my life could change (opportunities, disease, motivation, depression, passion, love, children)?
Again, only you can answer that. Does taking 3-4 classes a term and working 40 hours a week sound like something you can do? I would work, in one form or another, from 6am-10pm for months on end. I would say only the first 1.5 years worth of classes was easy for someone who could program. After that things weren't really programming directly anymore. Once the higher year classes started I was able to aim my projects to things I didn't know, or things I knew (depending on how busy I was that school term and how much effort I wanted to put in to a particular class) |
> I graduated at 44 and found a job immediately. Maybe not a sexy job with a ping pong table in the break room and beer on Friday, but it pays.
Before I recently quit, I had a job. The same job a CS degree holder would have (all my coworkers had CS degrees). There was even a ping pong table and beer taps on Friday. Getting a job is not what I'm worried about. Getting the flexibility to work in many roles at any company in any country is.
> I worked full-time, except for in the final year, I worked 22.5 hours for the final push. That said, scheduling everything was … hard. I couldn't find a way in Canada take an entire CS degree online (except Athabasca, and I was not interested in a degree from that school). So attending classes, mostly during business hours is required. If you don't have a job with flexibility in scheduling you will use a lot of vacation time. Sleep was minimal throughout.
I'm considering a completely online CS degree. I don't think I would be able to physically attend school, the commute alone would kill me. I've always preferred to learn things on my own, outside of class, and never attended optional lectures.
> What are you going to do with the degree when you're done?
Right now, I think I would apply to FAANG or other US tech companies. I expect that working there for 5 years (if that's even possible with a TN visa) would more than make up for the opportunity cost of going back to school. But I don't know if the plan will hold by then.
> Does taking 3-4 classes a term and working 40 hours a week sound like something you can do? I would work, in one form or another, from 6am-10pm for months on end.
This sounds like hell. I imagined that 5 classes would take closer to 25 hours a week. How much knowledge of CS did you have prior to taking these classes? What takes the most time? Are lectures long? Are there a lot of homework? Big team projects/labs? Maybe my expectations are skewed.
Congrats on finishing your degree. Your perspective is very useful. Thank you.