Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by roywiggins on Sunday November 03, 2019 @01:53AM
(#21432564)
College was pretty awful at teaching any of those soft skills. I was good at mostly turning in Algorithms homework on time and not failing tests, so I did fine. You totally can graduate with decent grades from a good school without making much progress on soft skills.
Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by lowercased on Sunday November 03, 2019 @11:32AM
(#21434814)
Most programs aren't going to 'teach' you these things, either (counter to the point of the linked post). You are likely to be put in situations where you have to work with other people on a project (short in-class assignments or longer term projects). I had some of these in various classes (writing, ethics, political science, etc). None of these projects ever involved any directed learning on the soft skills themselves - you just had to 'do it'. "Improving" by whatever metric you want to use was a byproduct of the exercise, not the goal.
Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by detail-oriented on Saturday November 02, 2019 @10:34PM
(#21431702)
Totally agree with your last statement. I've fired more CS degree programmers than self learners.
Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by Supermancho on Sunday November 03, 2019 @01:16AM
(#21432487)
Same here. There are comments further down, which also assert this. This is probably because there are more developers in the market (overall) that have degrees than not, along with a lack of passion to expand their skills.
Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by lowercased on Sunday November 03, 2019 @11:35AM
(#21434840)
yeah, I was going to pound this home a bit more, but was seeing some other people already did.
Coming back to this, one of the defenses I've had from CS people who couldn't do day to day development all that well is "well... that's not what CS is for - it's really for diving deep in to the theories behind problems... " - or some other relative claptrap. On its own - yeah, there's a class of problems that are served well by people with a CS-focus. Just don't try to drop them in to a "developer" role and assume that they'll be "just as good or even better" than someone who's simply been doing development perhaps with minimal schooling or just self-taught. One skill isn't really a superset of the other, but some people tend to think of them as such.
Re:A CS degree is better than teaching yourself how to code?
by detail-oriented on Sunday November 03, 2019 @01:21PM
(#21435558)
Agreed. The main point is that a CS degree is not a proxy for success in all things that require code. I like to keep in mind that a BS in CS only demonstrates the ability to study, memorize and be quized on your memory. Using a set of axioms to build something unique is totally different.
But the majority of the skills listed are not intrinsic to computers, computer science, or software at all.
"There are many skills that Developers now require besides just coding. They need time management skills, organisational skills, people skills, translating skills, negotiating skills.. the list goes on. These skills are often gained through completing an undergraduate degree."
Most people will get experience in exercising and developing those skill sets with almost any degree program.
"Certainly there is some level of prestige that comes with having a degree... it is, in a way, a validation stamp that says… “Yes - you have the skills to be a Software developer”."
Umm... not really. We've probably all met people with CS degrees who were not really all that capable of doing day to day development.