[ale] [OT] ?Thoughts? on "CS degree Necessary?"

[Thompson Freeman]

I watch these periodic threads on academic training vs. solid experience
with admittedly jaundiced eyes: I got an advanced science degree, only to
find myself eventually needing to be a full-time mommy (the pay is lousy,
and results will not be known for twenty-thirty more years). Go figure...

Because the future is unknowable from the present, no single strategy
appears to be optimal for all individuals, or even fairly small subsets of
all people. As such, everything I hope to add to the conversation must be
glittering generalities, and recognized as from an unusual viewpoint
also. Your milage will vary - variably.

As an example of how the future arrives in its own way, I ran into one of
my neighbors in graduate school in the laundry. She was quite concerned
and put out about the requirement (which she was starting on that
semester) physical science, specifically chemistry. Why study chemistry
when the career goal is to be a playwrite and poet? (Really, it is a
pretty good question). My response was, and remains, since we can not know
the future before it gets here, getting a broad background gives the tools
which _might_ be needed. No promises, and no way to guess ahead of
time. Cut to the end of the next semester, and we met
again in the laundry (students with children do that a lot). Her last
project was centering on the imagery of the atom from her first semester
chemistry lecture. Did she show a profit from the experience? I have no
idea, but she was proud of the range of imagery she obtained from us
chemists.

>From the background of how unpredictably practical things can be, let us

address the value of acedemic training in two steps:

First, and definitely in general, "Is finishing a degree program
desireable?" On average, the answer seems to be "yes". Although since the
majority of people don't stay in their degree field, I don't
see much value to demanding that degree and career match up. Obvious
exceptions include Medicine and Law, but I don't think that need concern
this list.

Within the academic community, who and where you study can be every bit as
important to launching your work career as anything else. This seems to be
more important the higher the degree, but should hold true through out the
academic progression. If you are not meeting professionals in your
interested field(s), and the influences that hired them, getting started
can be a challenging time. As such, if the school doesn't seem able to
bring in/attract people to meet (and many/most don't do a good job), it is
in the student's interest to get out and meet these people. Co-op programs
and the like should really help. Organizations like ALE (or ACS, AChE, or
AAAS) are another way to meet the people, and learn from them.

Second, "Is completing a degree program necessary?". (Note the change of
emphasis). No. Getting started and getting the needed experience may be
more challenging, but not vastly. Getting to know good people to learn
from and work for will be more important, but also the value of these
people will be more obvious. The risk of pure work experience is a
somewhat greater chance of narrow exposure to the field, but again, the
individual experience depends heavily on the luck of the draw...

Cutting to the chase, and IMHO, YMMV, IANAL, etc....

Go to school, but emphasize studying subject(s) you are curious about, or
have a solid interest. If you know you want to try a particular field, get
courses in the field, even to the point of major if it interests you
enough. But since the future is unknown, ground yourself in as many skills
as you can afford the time for. Invent/find ways to meet people, and learn
to like them (and have them like you). Part time/Full time; the choice
really depends on finances and location.

In school, seek to work some for the job experience and the learning
opportunities. Work fulltime and school part time if that is what finances
and location require, there is no shame in doing things backwards if you
touch all the bases.

Ultimately, there are three things you need to study at the beginning of a
career (and for the rest of your life, you don't get off
easy). Yourself: how you work, think, learn, react. Others: how to like
and be liked, cooperate without selling out, and other social skills. The
Job: the skills that actually do the work. (The social skills seem to help
determine the pay 8-/)

My deep appreciation to the list for allowing me the opportunity and the
bandwidth to sound off. Hopefully, I made some/much sense. And, yes, I can
use the help to sharpen and correct my ideas.

-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
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Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net


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