Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Are you computer/software/hardware engineer..??

Are you computer/software/hardware engineer..??

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
hardwarequestion
19 Posts 12 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • O originSH

    You have someone with professional experience of 3 years or someone with just a degree ... who do you pick? The only time I've seen degree's come into play is to distinguish 2 almost identical candidates or for large business who have more paperwork than sense. Most CS degrees prove you can learn and remember stuff, they don't prove you have any ability for development work due to the incompitent tutors and lack of up to date materials. (I realise this is not always true, there are some extreamly good tutors and extreamly good courses, but for most usual courses it is)

    M Offline
    M Offline
    Miszou
    wrote on last edited by
    #10

    So your problem is with a degree in general, not just those from the UK? It sounds to me like sour grapes...

    originSH wrote:

    You have someone with professional experience of 3 years or someone with just a degree ... who do you pick?

    Professional experience counts for a lot, yes. But there's also a lot to be said for formal training in your field of expertise... I've seen many self-taught programmers who can indeed write software that works, but they tend to lack disipline and a complete understasnding of the background behind their methods.


    Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | A Random Web Page

    O 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • M Miszou

      So your problem is with a degree in general, not just those from the UK? It sounds to me like sour grapes...

      originSH wrote:

      You have someone with professional experience of 3 years or someone with just a degree ... who do you pick?

      Professional experience counts for a lot, yes. But there's also a lot to be said for formal training in your field of expertise... I've seen many self-taught programmers who can indeed write software that works, but they tend to lack disipline and a complete understasnding of the background behind their methods.


      Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | A Random Web Page

      O Offline
      O Offline
      originSH
      wrote on last edited by
      #11

      I've seen alot of CS graduates who couldn't code there way out of a paper bag :P I've also seen alot of self taught coders who created horrific code! Thats why I'd use a proven professional record to judge someone. I never said self taught was better ... just degrees arn't very good indicators.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • E Ed Poore

        How about someone who hasn't reached university yet? ;P  Would have been there this year but you know all about that.


        My Blog[^]

        S Offline
        S Offline
        Software_Specialist
        wrote on last edited by
        #12

        well engineers from different field hv got more scope then..Well i can see many electrical, electronics, mechanical engineer working in a software company but what about computer engineer ..can they work in mechanical, electrical field...i guess no... Any one could do computing in todays time..which is really sad at times for computer engineers..

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • S Software_Specialist

          Who all are working as a computer engineer who never even studied computers in University..???

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Marc Clifton
          wrote on last edited by
          #13

          Software_Specialist wrote:

          Who all are working as a computer engineer who never even studied computers in University..???

          Me! Me! BTW, what's a computer engineer? I certainly don't see any engineering going on this industry! Marc

          Thyme In The Country
          Interacx
          My Blog

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • S Software_Specialist

            Who all are working as a computer engineer who never even studied computers in University..???

            E Offline
            E Offline
            El Corazon
            wrote on last edited by
            #14

            Software_Specialist wrote:

            Who all are working as a computer engineer who never even studied computers in University..???

            well, I never needed to study computers. I dropped out because I was battling politics and not learning anything. I have a tech certificate in business computing (accounting programming) and I do 3D graphics.

            _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • O originSH

              I agree a degree from a good Uni is very handy, especially if you want to go int othe research and theory side of things. But for the majority of jobs experience is a way better indicator than a degree. Who would you choose, someone who has 3 years proven track record in a professional development environment or someone with a bog standard degree?

              C Offline
              C Offline
              Cyrilix
              wrote on last edited by
              #15

              Your example of "just out of school with no experience" vs. "no school, and a few years of experience" is valid, but I don't think that holds much weight, when you're in the industry for 10 years or more. Would I rather have 10 years of work experience or 6 years of work experience and 4 years of formal training? I'd take the latter. Also, anyone that actually has an INTEREST in programming / computer science is not simply going to sit idle during their university years. They will take up personal projects and do a significant amount of development work. In the end, unless you do not have the opportunity to get decent instructors and useful course material, I think skipping university is a short-sighted move. I'm not saying that everyone has this opportunity -- it depends on the person and their situation, but I think for many many people, if they put in a bit of effort and do a bit of careful planning, they will have this opportunity. That said, I would like to say that university programs with internships (or co-op terms) are to me, the most useful way of learning, since they properly fuse together the formal training and the work experience so in the process of doing all your academic work, you also get a chance to apply those skills.

              O 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • S Software_Specialist

                Who all are working as a computer engineer who never even studied computers in University..???

                P Offline
                P Offline
                Phil Harding
                wrote on last edited by
                #16

                Me, straight from school into a trainee programmer position. In my day if you went to University you had to wear a white coat and be a fully paid up member of the BLF[^] My mentor at my first job did go to Uni and so had a beard, although he only wore his white coat out of hours, for some reason :suss:


                - "I'm not lying, I'm just writing fiction with my mouth"

                Phil Harding.
                myBlog [^] | mySite [^]

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • O originSH

                  I'm a C# developer who never went to uni. Sometimes I'm missing a little theory that studying would have tought me but the professional expreience I got instead was far more useful in the real world. Plus the CS degrees in the UK don't count for all that much.

                  P Offline
                  P Offline
                  Psycho Coder Extreme
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #17

                  originSH wrote:

                  Plus the CS degrees in the UK don't count for all that much.

                  Well where I currently work they required a degree or you more than likely (99% of the time) wont even get in to a 1st interview, but thats just my experience.

                  "Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey." Bill Gates

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • C Cyrilix

                    Your example of "just out of school with no experience" vs. "no school, and a few years of experience" is valid, but I don't think that holds much weight, when you're in the industry for 10 years or more. Would I rather have 10 years of work experience or 6 years of work experience and 4 years of formal training? I'd take the latter. Also, anyone that actually has an INTEREST in programming / computer science is not simply going to sit idle during their university years. They will take up personal projects and do a significant amount of development work. In the end, unless you do not have the opportunity to get decent instructors and useful course material, I think skipping university is a short-sighted move. I'm not saying that everyone has this opportunity -- it depends on the person and their situation, but I think for many many people, if they put in a bit of effort and do a bit of careful planning, they will have this opportunity. That said, I would like to say that university programs with internships (or co-op terms) are to me, the most useful way of learning, since they properly fuse together the formal training and the work experience so in the process of doing all your academic work, you also get a chance to apply those skills.

                    O Offline
                    O Offline
                    originSH
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #18

                    Are you talking about the UK here? I'm not on about anywhere else ... in America I think having a degree is especially useful as it is a major factor when job hunting. In the UK if your not in the best CS courses it's shocking how much crap you can be taught. And at the end of it you can come out with a score on your degree and a complete lack of understanding of programming.

                    C 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • O originSH

                      Are you talking about the UK here? I'm not on about anywhere else ... in America I think having a degree is especially useful as it is a major factor when job hunting. In the UK if your not in the best CS courses it's shocking how much crap you can be taught. And at the end of it you can come out with a score on your degree and a complete lack of understanding of programming.

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      Cyrilix
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #19

                      Actually, I was talking about North America.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • World
                      • Users
                      • Groups