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I majored in international relations but his was a mistake

Atomicbackstab · 2018-08-13T21:03:46+00:00

I majored in international relations, and currently have 40k in debt. I wish I had majored in computer science. I am struggling to find work. Can someone...

Atomicbackstab

August 13, 2018

3 upvotes

/r/askTRP

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Title	I majored in international relations but his was a mistake
Author	Atomicbackstab
Upvotes	3
Comments	33
Date	August 13, 2018 9:03 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/9725q6/i_majored_in_international_relations_but_his_was/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/i-majored-in-international-relations-but-his-was-a.130203 https://theredarchive.com/post/130203

Comments

[–]blister3337 points8 points9 points 7 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[–]lampshade28182 points3 points4 points 7 years ago (4 children) | Copy Link

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[–]CalvinRichland2 points3 points4 points 7 years ago* (4 children) | Copy Link

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[–]CalvinRichland2 points3 points4 points 7 years ago* (2 children) | Copy Link

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[–][deleted] 1 point2 points3 points 7 years ago (19 children) | Copy Link

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points1 point 7 years ago (18 children) | Copy Link

Honestly I would say the university largely doesn’t matter unless it’s Harvard or Yale or Princeton. I will say however that college is an investment. Therefore if you go, you should only major in a STEM field. Engineering or computer science will be more profitable for you long term. Do NOT go for a liberal arts major like I did- you won’t find employment in that field. You’ll most likely have a degree, but still be working in a completely different field, making barely enough to scrape by. It’ll be a huge regret for you. It’s a regret for me and many of my friends who are studying it in DC, Florida, Cali, New York, and Virginia. For your life-long success- major in a STEM field. You don’t need to work in STEM, but the degree is worth far more- as are the skills. You don’t learn any marketable skills from an IR or liberal arts major. The real world simply doesn’t care about them. It’s okay to be interested and like the subject- take a class or two about it- but whatever you do- DONT major in liberal arts or international relations. You’ll have massive debt and no real career prospects.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points3 points 7 years ago (17 children) | Copy Link

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[–]TheRedPillMonkey1 point2 points3 points 7 years ago (13 children) | Copy Link

[–]Atomicbackstab 1 points 7 years ago [recovered] (12 children) | Copy Link

[–]TheRedPillMonkey0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (11 children) | Copy Link

[–]Atomicbackstab 1 points 7 years ago [recovered] (10 children) | Copy Link

[–]TheRedPillMonkey0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (9 children) | Copy Link

For all of them, it's more of a hobby and passion. They'd spend their free time tinkering, making web apps for fun, projects they care about. The main thing I look for when hiring is if they enjoying coding and tinkering outside of work.

As for how long: one guy has just been doing this for 15 years, another I hired fresh out of college, but his degree wasn't in coding. He had been writing code less than a year, and he took one elective one semester in coding and stuck with it in his free time.

My advice is to grab a 1-month subscription to Linkedin learning and look at their courses. But also set a project goal for yourself. Build something you are interested in, even if just a proof of concept. Work on it in your free times make it your mission. Then, make something else. Then something else. In about a year, you'll probably have enough experience to get some real work.

Again, if you really enjoy it, you'll be driven to keep going.

As for the degree, no, wouldn't matter. This field is like 60% no cs degree and most cs degrees go deep into firmware and machine coding. You can teach yourself php, swift for iOS, python, HTML, and SQL on your own. I did. Most people do.

[–]Atomicbackstab 1 points 7 years ago [recovered] (8 children) | Copy Link

[–]TheRedPillMonkey1 point2 points3 points 7 years ago (7 children) | Copy Link

[–]Atomicbackstab 1 points 7 years ago [recovered] (6 children) | Copy Link

[–]TheRedPillMonkey0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (0 children) | Copy Link

[–]Zhigaag0 points1 point2 points 7 years ago (4 children) | Copy Link

I've been working on my first game in my spare time for a while now. It's a lot of fun, but can be overwhelming if you're just starting out.

CS programs at most universities are absolute shit these days. They don't teach technology anymore, they teach products (usually Microsoft bullshit products).

If you want to learn programming (not the "coding" buzzword that's thrown around as the end all be all of technology these days) then get yourself a standard Linux installation (I prefer Fedora, personally) and install GCC and CodeBlocks. Learn C++, its the lowest level compiled language that you can work with besides assembly. If you can program in C++, then any other language will be a walk in the park.

The Computer Science field became incredibly watered down with the "dot com bubble burst" in 2001. The jobs pay shit, and most jobs aren't hiring you to do IT work, they're hiring you to manage the contractors that do IT work. Its a disgrace to anybody who knows what Boolean Algebra is.

I am fortunate that I still get to program at my job (I'm not supposed to be, but I said "Fuck you, you hired me to do a job, not be a fucking middleman" and that was that.

My current project is a custom HL7 engine. Only using STL, no additional libraries like Boost or any of the .NET bullshit. If you can't to socket programming without having to use .NET then you're nothing more than a fucking tool.

[–]Atomicbackstab 1 points 7 years ago [recovered] (3 children) | Copy Link