For all the pains that I went through for my degree, I think that it was really a smart choice for me. To have actually been trained in the field that I work in, I feel that I have a huge jump on people just with all the background knowledge that I have. And what courses provided me with this edge? Those are the ones that I was like "why are we talking this? I'll never actually need this in any job..."
That material isn't the stuff that most people would see directly on the job, but I feel that it really helps me understand why things are done in certain ways. Weird eh? All the stuff that I thought was a waste of my time has turned out to be my edge, my advantage. Go U of O.
This is why geeks make the best coworkers. People who are interested in computers tend to spend a lot more time on computers, even when away from the job, and are eager to learn new things. You can usually tell the people who work on computers in their spare time from those who don't. There's a lot you will never learn without getting your hands dirty, so to speak. Although geeks rarely ever actually have to get their hands dirty.
ReplyDeleteI think that you totally missed what I was saying.
ReplyDeleteIn school they taught us stuff that normal people, even if they are geeks, would never go into by themselves; no matter how much they are willing to get their hands dirty. I'm talking about the stuff that you really only learn in an academic setting, and only if you "have to".
How about some examples:
(for me) Learning assembly
all those logic proofs
high level patterns ad nauseum
...
In some cases as part of your job people may get exposed to some of those areas we studied, but I think that it would take 15+ years. School gave us a good breadth of knowledge, I think from that you can get the good depth (on your own, or at work).
I got what you were saying, but I was just pointing out another angle. I think you need both sides to get a good developer. Someone who only learned what they taught in school, probably wouldn't fare as well as someone who learned in their spare time. Also, someone who only learned stuff on their own, without being forced to do stuff like calculus, discrete math, assembly programming, and syntax/language theory probably aren't going to have quite as much background knowledge as someone who was forced to learn that stuff in school.
ReplyDeleteI agree the curriculum was well done, especially when you consider we were only the third (fourth) class to graduate. Pretty amazing.
ReplyDelete