I’ve talked about this with nanodaughter. She’s planning to go to UCLA for programming. She says there’s a nursing program at UCLA and it’s one of the hardest to get in to/most impacted at the school.
If she really wants to program she probably will need to hone those skills on her own. I thought I was going to school to study programming, what I actually got was a weird math degree.
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She is. We are pair programming.
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Cop, fireman, oil worker, many different kinds of tradesman types, truck drivers, and yes absolutely sales people.
The work obviously suits you (as it does my wife for the record, she’s just feeling extra extra extra devalued as a human being these days) so the personal costs don’t seem extreme because for you they aren’t that high. But you gotta realize that isn’t a super normal makeup for people, and a lot of nurses are working really thankless jobs in really dark places.
And going to UCLA as a transfer. She’s in an honors program at Santa Monica City College that has like an 85% transfer rate. I’ve mentioned your history to her. (and it’s possible she ends up with a different major as well as it will be easier to xfer in to the college of letters and science)
If I had it all to do over again I’d seriously consider nursing or some kind of similar medical profession where you can choose to be a nomad if you want, or work 6 months out of the year (if you live cheap and have no kids etc).
It’s very hard to do that as a computer programmer since most of your value is tied up in being the person that built something and knows how to fix it in 5 minutes vs. a week for someone else. You can do 6 month contract jobs, but they tend to be pretty awful. And you can’t just find one any time you want like it seems you can with nursing.
The problem with programming is that in almost all cases you are not creating anything of value. Nursing of course is the polar opposite. Same with teaching.
Wow that’s really high. In an efficient education market it would seem that program should be nearly as tough to get in as UCLA. Especially if you can get a lot of credits for cheaper tuition than you can at UCLA. Then you come out way ahead if you bink the transfer.
So, programming bros, lets say you have a early 20s kid with no formal education but can program in Java, Python, or whatever else is in relatively high demand these days.
How hard will it be for him to get that first job?
How much will his advancement be affected compared to someone equally competent who has a degree from a decent school? What about a top tier school?
It’s definitely easier to get into the program. I think a fair percentage of people bail at some point in Jr College, but generally the UCs encourage transfers. There’s also a TAG program which is a guaranteed acceptance to some of the UCs (not Berkeley, UCLA or San Diego) that nanodaughter will also be in - in case she doesn’t get into UCLA. All assumes successful completion of the program, and the hardest part of that seems to be just getting the right classes, not too many of them, dotting i’s and crossing t’s.
Just the degree matters to a lot of companies - doesn’t have to be in programming. Top school might move the needle at Facebook or something but it won’t matter to most jobs.
It’s a little tough to get that first job. But if you can show some side projects and are willing to start wherever you can get a foot in the door - it’s easier than most industries imo.
I think these (mostly BS’s I guess) nursing takes are hilariously bad.
Nursing is a pretty great gig in a lot of ways. Lots of flexibility, always in demand. Decent pay given the education required. Room for advancement into various cushy admin gigs if you have a bit of ambition. Or you could go down the nurse practitioner route and make a lot more.
Also, and I’m sure this will draw some ire, it’s not something that you really have to be that smart to do. Now I’m aware there are plenty of smart people in nursing, but I don’t think that it’s really necessary. We could say the same thing about a lot of professions, I suppose. But most of those don’t have all the benefits of nursing.
wrt bolded, why is that?
Also if one gets in to a UC that you didn’t list, how difficult is it to transfer from there to UCLA? Seem like kind of a circuitous route, but I guess if you really want to go to UCLA, then you might put yourself through it.
I think there are at least a couple reasons - promotion of diversity and a more efficient and less expensive public University/College system where more of the general ed is done at smaller less expensive schools.
It’s particularly easier to transfer in one of these programs going into your junior year. It’s not impossible to transfer at other times, but there aren’t transfer programs for that.
In my daughter’s specific case, if she got into UC Santa Cruz, but not UCLA, I don’t think she’d be looking to transfer. It’s not like the other UC schools are not good schools as well.
What other degree would even be worthwhile? I got an engineering degree and while I did have to code a bit, I really only relied (much to my detriment) on the basic stuff I learned in HS. I didn’t really need to learn much.
Are there really people with non CS degrees applying for programming jobs?
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I got a degree in Math and after several years doing other stuff I got a computer programming job. This was back in 1999.
I think the hardest part of transferring (like from Santa Cruz to UCLA) is that once you go to school for a while, you’re comfortable, you’ve got friends and your social circle is established. Mustering the desire to transfer is tough. So even though UCLA is clearly “better”, it would be a tough sell.
Yes of course there are. Everything changes so fast you mostly just want someone smart who can learn on the job. You need a CS degree about as much as you need a writing degree to be a writer. It doesn’t hurt but it’s not necessary. The only time I ever needed a CS degree was for doing big O algorithms in coding interviews.
Engineering is perfect. I have a degree in physics. Art history may be a little tougher sell for your first programming job. But once you have some gigs under your belt then just having any degree becomes the requirement. We had to move heaven and earth at my last job to hire a super smart dude with tons of experience but no college degree.
Well depending on what your coursework was there can be a good bit of coding involved in a Math degree.
Where did you learn to program? In school or on your own?
So where do these people with the non CS degrees learn to code? They’re not all self taught, are they?