On Mon, 2007-06-18 at 10:08 -0400, Brad Bonkoski wrote:
> Jochem Maas wrote:
> > Edward Kay wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >
> >
> >> But the advert is for a GRADUATE developer ;) Whilst your messages to this
> >> list show you know a lot about PHP, I doubt you've managed to fit a degree
> >> in yet :)
> >>
> >
> > What does a graduate php developer earn in Scotland? and is it
> > the the piece of paper that's important or is it a reference to the
> > general skill level (personally I don't see much direct corellation
> > between academic capabilities and practical coding/sysadmin skill).
> >
> > just thinking out loud guys :-)
> >
> >
> This is always beat around...and my 2 cents are that all the "piece of
> paper" is worth is showing you have a certain level of commitment needed
> to complete the degree program (important for any job), and that you
> have the ability to learn. Granted...there are always exceptions to the
> rule...
>
> Plus, at least in the US, it [a degree] always opens the door for more
> money! ;-)
Things I learned to do while obtaining my B.C.S. degree:
1. Time management - how to maximize partying time while
still getting projects done on time. I used a "night
before" philosophy that incorporated the all-nighter
strategy. This particular approach isn't for everyone.
I found 2 litres of cola and a bag of Viva Puffs were
helpful at alleviating night-time drowsiness. This
strategy can also work for studying for exams.
2. Efficiency - due to many hangovers there was a great
need for better efficiency in the learning process. To
decrease the requisite time needed to absorb information
it was necessary to not bother showing up to class since
reading the textbooks was much quicker than listening to
the sleep inducing drone of the professor (who in many
cases was practically reading from the textbook). An added
bonus is you don't need to weep through the ignorant
questions that are almost guaranteed to be raised
throughout the class by students who didn't do any reading
at all. Textbooks also often had nice little chunks of
source code and margin tidbits that the professor expected
you to read anyways). I must add though, there were some
exceptionally interesting professors that made the
showing up worthwhile, my favourites were the distributed
and parallel programming courses.
3. Networking - I found branching out to the artsy
disciplines to be quite invigorating. For some reason
the distribution of women to men in these areas are much
more condusive to relationships. I also learned some
other networking stuff but that was course work. Another
good area for networking was the campus pub... I had
an especially delightful time one night when all the
tutors for my 4th year algorithms course were present and
I whupped their butts at pool >:)
4. Independence - all the drooling keeners never wanted the
partying type in their group when group projects were
mandated. As a result you often learned how to do
everything yourself -- the night before of course :)
5. Budgeting - how to pay off a student debt during the dot
com bust days. This mostly involved not doing what was
done during the years of studying... aka partying :/ It
took me 6 years to pay off 70k in student debt *lol*.
For me going to university was a little bit about getting a piece of
paper and a lot about having fun and meeting people (I met my wife
there). One thing that I think is helpful about university is that it
brings a lot of smaller pieces of the greater picture together in a
useful and cohesive manner.
Cheers,
Rob.
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