Making a serious decision, what is the best path towards work in software developing?

[Sticky06]

I am currently in high school, and I am planning on going to university next year for Computer Science. I don't necessarily love Computer Science as I do programming. I just think developing my own stuff is rewarding and half the stuff in CS classes don't even teach you relevant stuff for a programming job. Now, I don't have much experience with programming. But I plan on learning as quickly as possible. I have a solid understanding of how HTML and CSS work. I worked a bit with Javascript for a few weeks, and the same with PHP. I just bought a book on Python but I haven't started it yet because I don't have much time. I consider myself quite bright. I have taken all of the highest level math classes my high school offered (pre-calc, AP stats, etc.) I have a year of experience working in a business setting. It didn't have anything to do with computers, but I learned a lot of useful skills from it.

Now on to my REAL question...

Is college even worth it?

I found a few different camps such as:
http://www.codecademy.com/
http://www.devbootcamp.com/

These camps basically give me a good foundation in a particular language. In addition, I will be around bright people (and most of them are in a similar position looking for work) so they will be very useful in finding a job. The benefit is that I can gain useful experience in such a short period of time, and it won't break my bank account. If everything worked as planned:

I would come out of this camp, find an entry level job that gives a salary that I can easily live off of (I live quite frugally). I will have no debt because I have been saving money for what was supposed to be college. The job gives me the opportunity to grow and learn more. I will eventually start taking weekend/night classes. Once I establish residency in one of the two states where I move to (I live no where near SF/Chicago), I can THEN start working on a degree more seriously. I think by this time I could apply what I am learning to my work experiences. However, this plan lies entirely on one thing: I have to get a decent job out of one of these camps. So, for all of the people in the software field out there, does this sound like a good option? How hard is it to find an entry level job in the software/programming field without a degree but with knowledge from one of these camps?

Opinions?

 

[Nullware]

Codecademy: It's a good starting point but from what I've seen so far you can only learn so much from it. Mostly it only teaches a basic to intermediate level of programming at best. Also, you don't gain enough of the other useful concepts like data structures, algorithms, complexity, and so on.

Devbootcamp: I guess you didn't get far enough to notice that the tuition is 11000$. Anyways that's all I have to say about that. Wouldn't recommend too highly.

Is college even worth it: Yes, today a formal college/university education is still worth it. While programming and computer knowledge can be learned very well independently it is still a little difficult for employers to differentiate between the good and the bad so they use degrees to do this for them. It's not the BEST method but it works reasonably well. I tihnk we may be on the verge of a paradigm shift though with free online university classes such as Coursera and Udacity possibly changing the game.

My recommendation is to start taking an introduction course or two right now at Coursera or Udacity to start improving your programming skills and also learning other key concepts. Go to college or university now because you WILL NOT want to go back at a later point in time after you are already working and making money. Ultimately university will probably land the best job right out of school but if you're smart and work hard you could always get to the same place with college as well. It's more about the person than it is the education.

 

[SuF]

Large companies want people who can think and work together with others just as much as they want someone with good technical skills. That's half of what college is about. One of the seniors at my college said that starting salary for any large company will be 60-80 grand a year and you will most likely get a fairly massive bonus at the end of the year if you are good at your job. If you get a masters degree you'll make anywhere from 10-20 grand more when you land your first full time job. For computer science it is definitely worth it to go to school and get an education because you will be able to find a job if you are at all smart and you will be paid well. It is the best investment you can make.

 

[matt_sells]

My opinion is it's best to work for yourself, but I'm sure you've read the posts above me and I would agree with nullware. Suf is being unrealistic, 60-80 grand but how many people apply for that one job. Your first job is going to be close to minimum wage, and it's like any other type of job, you have to work your way up.

From the languages that you've already listed it seems you must have been doing abit of webdesign, which I think is the best thing to do, however webdesign is only one third of the picture. Anyone can make a very nice and tidy looking site, making it rank on google is a different story so if you do decide to do something like web design I would highly recommend looking for someone to tutor you on SEO(it's not cheap, it will cost 25 quid(40 usd) an hour for someone who is good). The last part of webdesign is being able to write English "fairly well". If you do choose to do something like webdesign forget going to college/uni it will be a complete waste of time.

 

[Swan]

A degree is probably a good idea. Even if you don't need it, a qualification is better than nothing. I'm not sure what it's like where you live, but in Australia it's possible through many universities to do your degree from home rather than attend full-time university. If you find that university just isn't your thing, that's a good alternative because you're still doing work and putting an effort in, but some people find it easier. Basically, if you want full-time work then college/university isn't a waste of time, because as I said a bachelor's or master's degree is something that may be the difference between you and the next guy applying for a job.

--

Python is a very simple language, you should grasp it quite quickly. The great thing about it is even though it's simple, it's also very useful. My friend's brother has full-time employment as a Python programmer. I guess the key is to really care about what you're doing, and not to give up on it.

 

Honestly, if coding is what you like, don't do computer science. Go for a degree since it's better to have one than not, but try to do it in something like software engineering or design instead. Computer science is more the theory, analysis and planning of systems as opposed to incorporating them and creating them yourself. That's why you do such an assload more math in comp sci than you do in software engineering/design. The only bad thing about the software engineering courses is that a lot of the times you're stuck with all the other first year engineers in their various disciplines, so you'll be stuck taking chem, physics, thermal dynamics, etc (a bunch of shit you won't ever use).

 

[ManAmongHippos]

Computer Science is not about learning the new and hip programming languages and frameworks. Computer Science teaches you a foundation that will last you your whole life if you stay involved. It's based on theory, math, solving problems and thinking on mathematical terms.

The industry is full of fads, frameworks/languages die quickly. An upcoming trend is Google's language Go; another fad is Ruby on Rails, everyone thinks it's the bee's knees, until something cooler comes out of course.

You shouldn't focus your learning on specific languages and frameworks, a Computer Science degree will do better for your programming skills and employment opportunities in the long run.

Work on projects in your free time, and with friends you meet in school to keep up to date on current software and throw them up on github to start building your portfolio. If you come out of a CS program at a decent school, with a few projects under your belt on github where you worked with other people (or contributed to an open source project) and you understand all about memory, pointers and could understand some assembly code.. you could get any freaking job you want brah, you'll be the one rejecting them.