How Compute Science 4 Years course compete with corporate Job?

Hello Ashaybhai,

The best way to think about your question is that it's unlikely you'll get a corporate job without a 4 year CS degree.There are certainly exceptions, but for the most part corporate America (and possibly the world) demand a 4 year degree. That doesn't necessarily mean a Computer Science degree, (I studied Philosophy) but the lack of some sort of 4 year BA or BS degree will likely impede your job search and or limit your career later. The college degree helps most in the beginning when your real world experience is limited, but later, when you have that experience, the lack of a college degree can limit your promotion opportunities.

That said, Computer Science degrees tend to teach fundamentals not popular programming languages. The assumption is learning those fundamentals prepares you to learn your employer's favorite programming language. That's probably true, but learning current programming languages such as Java or GO and getting some sort of real world experience (not necessarily a job but programs you have written) will definitely give you a leg up getting that first position.

You're also correct that software engineers are expected to learn new languages more or less on their own and quickly. So don't wait or assume that a college degree will open the door. What employers are looking for is programmers who love to code and either bring a variety of programming skills to the job or understand the fundamentals well enough that they can pick up new languages very rapidly.

So dive in today. It's not easy now but it's not really any easier when you have a full time job and possibly a family and other demands on your energy and time. Teaching yourself and gaining confidence in your ability to learn new technologies prepares you for the lifetime of learning that your chosen career will demand.

Hope that helps,

Hagen

There are many ways to find work in the corporation's Information Technology (IT) department. Yes, you need some college education and the selection you make might depend on the money you have to spend. This is an Internet link that compares 2 year and 4 year Computer Science degrees. Notice the difference--about $6000 per year. https://www.computerscience.org/degrees/associate/

You could find work in a corporation's help desk with a 2 year degree. Most corporations will pay employees for college courses that improve your knowledge in the IT department and for a degree. I personally worked with an associate that attended college but did not receive a degree and hired on as a computer user support specialist. He learned about the business and made friends with the associates. After taking courses paid for by the company he was promoted to a Software Release Engineer, and has been working for 10 years with raises and promotions because of his work effort.

A quote from Jeff Immelt CEO of General Electric:

"If you are joining the company in your 20s, unlike when I joined, you're going to learn to code. It doesn't matter whether you are in sales, finance or operations. You may not end up being a programmer, but you will know how to code," GE's(GE) top boss Jeff Immelt wrote in a LinkedIn(LNKD)post Thursday.

So I suggest you should go to the Internet and find out what computer languages corporations are using and learn them on the Internet. There are so many free ways to learn how to code.

I agree with the above that while not strictly necessary, a 4 year CS degree (or at least a related technical discipline) will make it much easier to navigate the job market. For instance, my undergrad was in Physics.

In terms of the actual learning, I think the CS degree and a corporate job provide different kinds of learning and they are very complementary. Your CS degree is going to expose you to the fundamental concepts in a broad set of areas, such as compilers, algorithms, data structures, operating systems, etc. Through a corporate job (or any practical experience) you will learn specific and current technologies (e.g. AWS, JavaScript, Django, .Net, etc) as well as how to bring real systems to life.

At first it may seem that knowing the latest APIs for some technology (e.g. NodeJS) is the most important or all you need. In particular because as a junior engineer you'll probably start working on well defined implementation tasks. However, as you grow and start tackling more complex problems, having a strong CS foundation will give you a different perspective and a greater depth of knowledge from which to draw. It also opens the door to working on more interesting problems and to specializing in particular areas (e.g. Cryptography, Machine Learning, Graphics, etc).

While specific technologies keep changing all the time, the fundamentals of Computer Science don't. This makes your investment worthwhile over a much longer period of time.

Hope this helps!

Carlos