Re: college degrees and such

In article <4fghgs$oe8@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu> jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com (Jack Parker) writes: > >Ok, time for my .02. > >Credentials: > I don't have a CS degree. > Nor me, originally. B.Sc in zoology and Geography, postgrad zoology/stats more years ago.... >1 - I suffer from it all the time. There are sorts of algortihmic things >that I have to figure out the hard way - or drop a note to my brother (the >topology Phd) and ask for help on. I intend to correct this some day. Don't bother. I did a Grad Dip CS and it was a waste of 2 years; see your comments re skills. > >2 - In the meantime I have noticed that CS and business computing bear little >relationship to one another. I was stunned after working with the first few >CS degreed folks that I ran into that concepts like a 'file' were not in >their basic repertoire. They knew all sorts of neat things about theory >and algorithms, but when it came down to reading data from someplace they >were clueless. Furthermore they got wrapped up in all of this theory and >concentrated on how to make things work best or right from a techincal >aspect and NOT on a) getting the job done b) what is right for the customer. Yep. I have a BSc in CS working with me at the moment. Don't really know what he learned, but it sure wasn't anything useful. My colleague has 25 years of OJT and she's 10X as valuable. More. > >So while I feel there is value in a CS degree, I feel there is more value in >common sense and business experience. When I needed a fast sort, I found a >book on sorting and pulled out a heap sort which did the trick. When I had >a brain-stoppage on a simple algebraic function I asked my brother and he >steered me right. There are always plenty of folks to turn to and ask >help of (to wit this group), but knowing what to ask is not handed down by >some pedant in a classroom. > I have Donald Knuth's Art of Computer Programming series and some of P J Plaugher's books. Grab Bertrand Meyer's book on OO programming & design, read and understand these and you'll know one hell of a lot more than most CS grads. But I'm biased. I went and did the Grad Dip to fill holes in my theoretical knowledge and found that most of the lecturers not only knew less than I, they couldn't even write good commercial standard code. the "how many function calls can I nest in one C statement?" mentality. Told him i'd fire him if he worked for me. Set the tone for the rest of my course very nicely :-). Peter Wiley