Re:No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
by james_in_the_uk on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @02:57PM
(#20509227)
Good comment. I can code, and I am knowledgeable about computing in general terms, but I am not a computer scientist as I haven't benefitted from the rigour of formal training. (I am a lawyer, fwiw).
Re:No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
by staticassertion on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @04:28PM
(#20509925)
At what point do I get to call myself a computer scientist? I dropped out of college halfway through.
Re:No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
by daveFNbuck on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @07:30PM
(#20511130)
There's no real fixed meaning to computer scientist, so you can call yourself one if you like. I considered myself one when I was doing computer science research for my PhD, but I don't consider myself one now that I'm working as a software engineer.
Re:No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
by Melkor765 on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @06:08PM
(#20510671)
I think it's fair to call yourself a computer scientist if you do computer science. If I walk dogs I'm a dog walker right?
Re:No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers
by danielscrubs on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @01:18AM
(#20512535)
If you write papers that is.
Doing cs is not coding just to clarify.
That's actually not what a CS degree is primarily about. You learn to code in maybe the first 2 or 3 classes. After that, it's assumed that you can translate ideas into code and you start learning about different areas of computer science.
If you just need to learn to code for a job, there are bootcamps that can teach you that in a fraction of the time and cost.
> But those who can't probably have an ongoing problem in keeping up with the state of the art.
Personally, I wasn't able to learn to code in any meaningful way before college. I had tried to learn from books and online sources but never got beyond basic scripting. After working my way through a bachelor's degree and PhD, I don't have much trouble keeping up with the state of the art now.