So what's a computer science degree worth nowadays?

I have a B.S. in Comp Sci and when the tech bubble burst, I got out of the field. I'm in Accounting now.

 

I got my computer science BS back in 2002...right about when the dot com bubble burst. No one that was graduating with me at that time with my degree was finding work. It sucked. Fortunately I was able to kind of stumble into another, even better paying, field and have stuck with it ever since. Sometimes I miss it and having not been working in the field, I have lost a LOT of my experience and knowledge because I haven't really kept up with technology or any of the new languages.

 

You're the guy who developers will cuss out and ridicule for jacking up networks and machines. :grin:

 

I'll plug a router running DHCP into your network. Don't tempt me, I'll do it.

 

Pft, I'm the guy who will cuss out developers for not properly documenting installation procedures and also not adhering to strict TEST, DEVELOPMENT and PRODUCTION environments... and no, I won't give you the information to the production connection strings, so don't even ask!

 

Well, I'm the jackass developer that always pinpoints install/support/IT as being the bottleneck for everything because they fail to provide development with the proper resources/feedback. As for "adhering to strict TEST, DEVELOPMENT and PRODUCTION environments".....talk to those soulless bastards in dev/prod management. They're the ones wanting 80 hrs of work crammed into 40. Adhering to strict rules be damned in those cases....my job is to get it across the line, however I have to do it :grin:

 

I'm ok not knowing production values. Just don't come to me when crap doesn't work and that person thinks it's the code. I mean, after all, it's been tested in at least 2-3 other environments already. I'll gladly be ignorant of production *anything*.

Sadly, it usually just takes a little internet searching to find the solution to one's problem. You are hardly the first person to ever encounter the situation.

 

And I'm the web server admin that says if you have the network setup to allow your dev/test web servers to pass through the firewall to a production db server, then you deserve what's coming to you if someone configures the wrong connection strings.

 

What really matters is what you know about computers after you get the degree. For example, our IT Director here has a Biology degree, which has nothing to do with computers. But he knows his ****, because he put forth the effort on his own. So just because you get a degree in CS doesnt mean you will get paid

 

I realized I never answered the OP's question, hahaha.

I can only speak from my own experience obviously. Honestly, I am not a good student. College was tough for me. I was a Computer Science major at UT. I got by. I learned most on the job. So for me, it's difficult. If an employer gives me a chance, I usually do very well and impress.

It's just during interviews with other companies that have passed on me, I can't give them the textbook-like answers they are probably used to getting from college grads.

At the same time, I've worked with people that have the lingo down pat, but teir code is about as easy to read and follow as...I got nothing. It's just messy, haha.

 

This is a reason that many coding jobs are NOT outsourced and actually onsite. My last job ended up outsourcing to Bangalore and Singapore 90% of the system admin jobs, but still had 27 coders on staff locally.