Some personal questions...

[IDontEB]

1 hour ago, Adept said:

I have yet to find someone who is a useful contact tbh.. some great friends but not too many extraordinarily talented people

Dont specifically look for people who might be extraordinarily talented because those people will typically be working for a huge company getting ridiculous amounts of money but have no say when it comes to what the company does, or they work privately in consulting. The people who are good contacts are just normal people, they can let you know if their company is looking for people to hire or one of their parents might own or be on the board of a company who is looking for people. There are many situations where just being friends with people can help you out, so don't think of it as finding contacts but think of it as just meeting people with the same goals as yourself.

[Adept]

50 minutes ago, Zapako said:

I am in university, and was in the exact same spot you're in. I began learning myself when I was in 8th grade. By the end of high school, I was pretty good compared to other people my age. A lot of my skill was based on actual software development in languages - implementation, not theory. I went into university expecting the classes to be a breeze.

But it wasn't as easy as I originally thought, because after CS 101, the classes delve more into theory (DS 1, DS2), and then into some heavy math (Linear Algebra, Calc I and II). Computer Science's roots are in Math. I originally hated it - I was programming all this while without needing to know this stuff - why should I be bothered learning it now?

I was like that for a long time, frustrated by the system. I took a semester off. During that break, I took a course on Coursera about machine learning online. While it didn't have any prerequisites, they taught the math as it was needed. I was surprised as to how much linear algebra and even calculus was used in a subject that had always interested me, but I had no experience to start.

That was the turning point for me, when I realized that the theory is as important as the implementation. For me, no amount of other people telling me that theory was important worked - I was foolish and naive that way, I suppose.

Now I am a software engineer consultant who writes high-performance networking code, and having an understanding of the theory allows me to solve the same problems I already was able to solve, but in a far more effecient manner (performance-wise). My job mandates it: (Routing is typically done on ASIC chips for the extra speed, so implementing it in software requires some very performant code)

I wish you best of luck in your endeavors!

I appreciate all the replies but yours in particular. Thank you for sharing your experience. You depicted my situation perfectly. I wish they didn't bloat the curriculum with stuff alongside the necessary math and algo stuff but I have no option but to deal with it. I consider your words to be far more valid than any of my peers because you've been in similar circumstances. Your reply has helped me tremendously, thanks again.

[Adept]

2 minutes ago, IDontEvenBot said:

Dont specifically look for people who might be extraordinarily talented because those people will typically be working for a huge company getting ridiculous amounts of money but have no say when it comes to what the company does, or they work privately in consulting. The people who are good contacts are just normal people, they can let you know if their company is looking for people to hire or one of their parents might own or be on the board of a company who is looking for people. There are many situations where just being friends with people can help you out, so don't think of it as finding contacts but think of it as just meeting people with the same goals as yourself.

Thanks for your input. Prior to this reply I failed to realise that by making connections it's not just me learning about new people, it's also other people learning about me and realising that I can be an asset to them.

[rsnoob500]

Seeing what some of you guys are doing or are aspiring to be is very motivating !, im aspiring to become a 3d animator/generalist one day, working hard to get there, to try and answer Adept's question i personally dont think any education is a waste of time, i dont really know what its called in English but after finishing High school i went to kind of a college-esque school where guys after highschool go to to learn whatever profession they want, after i finished what i did i pretty much decided i didn't want to continue with what i was doing and decided to sit down and dedicate myself to the 3D stuff, and seeing that you want to begin doing things for yourself (being your own boss i assume) is pretty nice too, however its very likely you're going to atleast work at some place based on your profession for a few years to gather the experience and knowledge to start for yourself, either way i'd say dont quit, keep going at it and good luck!.

[mrNalbo]

16 hours ago, Adept said:

For those users who actively script (not necessarily hold 'Scripter' status) or develop software and are comfortable answering some personal questions...

What's your level of formal education?
Do you regret it? Do you wish you stayed in school for longer or quit earlier and devoted your time to other projects and endeavors?
What's your job atm? Is a formal education a strict requirement for your job?

I am currently at University studying Software Development. Quite frankly, I don't imagine myself working in a software house or as an employee in general. I see myself doing my own thing. I'm afraid I'm wasting precious time learning useless shit.

Edit for clarity: I bloody love developing and learning stuff which is relevant to my field. It's all I do when I'm at home. However, the university I go to mostly teaches us a bunch of theoretical shit with very little applicable use which is why I feel I'm wasting my time...

Currently a 3rd year student learning computing and I hate every single minute of it. Same as you I do not see myself working as a software developer, more of an outdoor guy (I know saying that in a rs botting forum lol)

Nevertheless best of luck for your studies. 

[Diclonius]

18 hours ago, Adept said:

For those users who actively script (not necessarily hold 'Scripter' status) or develop software and are comfortable answering some personal questions...

What's your level of formal education?
Do you regret it? Do you wish you stayed in school for longer or quit earlier and devoted your time to other projects and endeavors?
What's your job atm? Is a formal education a strict requirement for your job?

I am currently at University studying Software Development. Quite frankly, I don't imagine myself working in a software house or as an employee in general. I see myself doing my own thing. I'm afraid I'm wasting precious time learning useless shit.

Edit for clarity: I bloody love developing and learning stuff which is relevant to my field. It's all I do when I'm at home. However, the university I go to mostly teaches us a bunch of theoretical shit with very little applicable use which is why I feel I'm wasting my time...

I'm currently in my third year of a 4 year Computer Science degree

I don't regret it, firstly student life is pretty damn good. For education, it will probably make it a lot easier to get a job after I graduate. My course has mostly useful content and in third and fourth year we can choose which modules we take so once you learn the core stuff, nearly everything is "useful" because you get to specialize a bit more. By this I mean it's knowledge I want to have rather than knowledge that will actually be applicable in a job. It also depends a lot on your university, for example the average graduate salary for computer science at my uni is 50% greater than the national average. It might not be worth getting a degree from a lesser university since the extra years in industry could raise your wage above that of a graduate.

I don't have a job because I'm still a student but I had an internship last summer at a software company and I'm interning there again this summer. At that point I was two years in to my degree.

About half of the work they gave me was web development which I was able to do because of stuff I'd been taught during my degree although I could probably self teach most of it. Web development was only covered as 1/24th of my second year.

Roughly a quarter of the work was self taught during the internship and the last quarter was self taught knowledge not covered by my degree which I had beforehand.

Sorry this post is probably a really big mess. My point is that even though my degree probably helped a lot in me getting the internship and will help a lot in getting a job, it doesn't contribute as much to making me a better worker.

This is only my opinion and I don't really have much experience in industry so please take it with a grain of salt.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Diclonius