this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
180 points (100.0% liked)
Chat
7498 readers
20 users here now
Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I do not advise going to college for programming degree, it could easily be the worst financial decision especially now that the jobs and pays are not guaranteed anymore, programming positions are getting flooded and wage are tanking. More often than not, college does not teach you standard practices in the industry, the tech stacks that we use, and so forth.
My advice instead is to get some certifications for programming or system administration and save up for like a $7000 classroom course for some of those certifications, it's expensive, but helluva a lot cheaper than college at least. Once you have the certification and some basic understanding, do some projects like:
If you're system admin, try and set up a whole new office network by configuring the routers, firewall, group policies, ADAP, RADIUS, and so go on and so forth. Get comfortable doing it in a virtual setup.
if you're programmer, try and develop some common web applications since that is easily 90% of the job in programming nowaday, it almost always going to be web application everywhere you go.
A WGU computer science degree costs about 3800 per six month period, btw, which is a decent option. I'm with you on avoiding a typical expensive college degree, though. I would personally recommend considering WGU after getting some experience so you can get through it faster (since it's self paced).
Won’t most countries require you to have a degree in order to immigrate there? I generally agree with what you said otherwise, but as a tech worker with lots of experience and no degree, I think it’s limited my options for leaving the US, while otherwise being a good move overall.
I suppose the law degrees could potentially cover this situation, however. Haven’t considered that the degree may not need to be in the field you pursue. It may depend on the country.
In that case, you would likely need a bachelor degree anyway, and I would suggest getting a degree in "backup" career that have a solid forecast for wages and employ-ability, the programming industry are getting flooded now that everyone is trying to get good money in IT.