[ale] CS Degree necessary?

Thu Jan 17 07:38:00 EST 2002

Heres a splash of cold water.

I have been doing quite well in the field of IT.  I have a degree "Mass
Communications/ Speech" Translated for you none eclectic types "Acting".  Thats
right Acting.  I am a college trained stage actor.  But I make more money
"screwing" with computers and mainframes.  I am not the best, but I know it and
I do not try to "act" like I am the best.

The point, a degree is a piece of paper that says you are "trainable", it has
nothing to do with wether you are "capable"

Lance

Christopher Bergeron wrote:

> I actually was going to lease that car, but because my credit wasn't good
> enough, I couldn't.  The writer is who contacted me: Scott Fullam is his
> name (he's an MIT student).  He's actually going to write the chapter.
>
> I also own: http://www.carbonfiberpc.com/ which sells designer computer
> peripherals and such... The point is that my degree didn't teach me how to
> be creative and intelligent.  My intellect did.  The degree was a means to
> an end.  My ultimate goal is to be a serial entrepreneur and as such a
> degree is worthless.  However, I do have to have good income to "experiment"
> with my crazy ventures.  Hopefully one of them will be successful, but could
> I have gotten there without the degree?  That's certainly up for debate.  If
> I don't order a pizza tonight could it affect the rest of my life?  Who
> knows...!  I saw a post about this earlier that summed it up perfectly:
> Know yourself and what you want.  Know who _you_ are and what _you_ want and
> you'll get where _you_ want to be.  Consciously or subconsciously... (unless
> of course you use M$ Windows).
>
> :)
>
> -CB
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: kschmidt at mindspring.com [mailto:kschmidt at mindspring.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 11:27 PM
> > To: Christopher Bergeron
> > Subject: Re: RE: RE: [ale] CS Degree necessary?
> >
> >
> >
> > Awesome! How'd they work out the royalty thing, given that you're
> > only contributing a chapter?
> >
> > At any rate, I like the dashpc thing. If I weren't leasing my
> > car, I'd love to do something like that.
> >
> > -Kevin
> >
> > Christopher Bergeron <christopher at bergeron.com> wrote:
> > > Kevin- speaking of O'Reilly, my DashPC project
> > (http://www.dashpc.com) is
> > going to have a chapter in a new book by O'Reilly about "Cool
> > Linux hacks".
> > It's going to be published sometime this year.  I don't know the
> > book title
> > just yet.  The project is also going to be the cover story in the March
> > issue of "Free Source" magazine...
> >
> > (back to the subject)
> >
> > I agree with you about the degree thing.  I know of a few CS grads that
> > "just don't get it" and I know of some genius "dropouts".
> > :)
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: kschmidt at mindspring.com [mailto:kschmidt at mindspring.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 10:50 PM
> > > To: Christopher Bergeron
> > > Cc: Michael Golden; Ale
> > > Subject: Re: RE: [ale] CS Degree necessary?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I must be one of those exceptions, I guess. I've been using
> > > computers since age nine, programming since age 10, and working
> > > full time in the field for almost 10 years (I'm now 28). Not
> > > having a degree hasn't hurt me at all. Heck, I've written an
> > > O'Reilly book and have started on a second one.
> > >
> > > Just because you stick it for four years doesn't guarantee that
> > > you're worth a damn. I've met some real clueless people who had
> > > CS degrees. And some of the best coders I've known where either
> > > college drop outs or guys with non-CS degrees.
> > >
> > > Here's my take: If you have zero experience, then having a degree
> > > will get you in the door. But it has been my "experience" that if
> > > you know your sh*t, then you will never have a problem, degree or
> > > no degree.
> > >
> > > -Kevin
> > >
> > >
> > > Christopher Bergeron  wrote:
> > > > Michael, I went to Florida State for CS, but ended up with a
> > > degree in MIS
> > > because I'm not very good at higher mathematics (go figure).  I've got a
> > > great job and this might be blasphemous to some, but I make
> > more than the
> > > guy with the CS degree in my office.  I highly respect what the
> > CS majors
> > > had to go through to get thier degrees - I just couldn't hack it.
> > > ....buuuuut, since I'm more experienced (I've been hacking since High
> > > School) I equate that to my overall higher salary.  I tend to think that
> > > salaries in general are a logarithmic curve.  When you're not
> > > educated it's
> > > harder to get to the apex, and when you're too educated you're actually
> > > overvalued and it's harder to find work (ever talk to someone
> > > with multiple
> > > degree's and a phD or master's in CS that _wasn't_ an instructor or
> > > professor? - neither have I).  The point of all this is that (IMHO) it's
> > > important to _have_ a degree; but ultimately your experience
> > will pave the
> > > way of your career.  The degree will get you into interviews that
> > > you could
> > > not normally get and as a result I think you'll do much better than with
> > > just experience alone and no degree.  Although, to be practical I
> > > don't know
> > > how far a degree in "Paperclip Art" would get you.  You have to be
> > > realistic.
> > >
> > > That's just my take on things,
> > > -CB
> > >
> > > P.S.
> > > I'm 25 years old and according to salary.com I make in the middle-upper
> > > percentile of salaries for my job description (unix admin) adjusted for
> > > geometery of course!  [or is that geography!?]
> > > :)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Michael Golden [mailto:naugrimk at yahoo.com]
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 7:56 PM
> > > > To: ale at ale.org
> > > > Subject: [ale] CS Degree necessary?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >   I know a similar thread has gone on in this list a while
> > > > back but for
> > > > one I'm too lazy right now to go back and try to find it and
> > two I don't
> > > > recall well enough if it addressed this exact topic.
> > > >   Right now I am set up to major in Computer Science but I've
> > > > only been
> > > > taking general education core classes so far. I was talking to people
> > > > about some of the classes for the major and I took a look through them
> > > > myself and I'm not sure how interested I am in taking half of
> > them. I'd
> > > > like to have a career in computers but I don't know how much
> > I'll enjoy
> > > > this major.
> > > >   Is a CS degree really necessary in the real world for computer jobs?
> > > > What are the advantages/disadvantages to having it? Anything else to
> > > > add?
> > > >
> > > > Michael
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ---
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