Ask HN: Should I focus on my job or my degree?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6765722

by codecurve • 13 years ago

9 9 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm a student studying in my final year of a Computer Science degree in a second rate department. My own time I spend as the lead web developer for a small, but focused software startup. It sure as hell, is an exciting world.

I can't help wondering, which of the two should I be prioritising? It's not a run-of-the-mill startup (so far we've worked with the NHS, the RAF and a whole raft of local businesses and innovators). I've had the chance to play with a lot of cool technologies (Nodejs, Go, MongoDB, Redis, Phonegap etc) and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. If we get off of the ground, there is a directorship waiting for me when I graduate.

Succeeding as a company however, is going to mean working hard for it this year, not something I can do alongside studying at uni. I can probably coast my degree and get a 2:1 or 2:2 or I can focus and almost certainly end up with a first. Which is going to count for more in the long run? The classification, or the experience?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Thoughts and advice are very welcome.

elwell• 13 years ago

Do both; but the job should be more important to you (unless you're planning on staying in academia).

ssafejava• 13 years ago

In my experience, it is absolutely worth having a degree - by all means, don't give that up, you should graduate, especially since you've come this far.

In terms of grades, I found that only my first two jobs cared about GPA - I took it off my resume shortly after because work experience became much more important. That's not to say you should give up on your GPA entirely, but in my experience companies care far less about GPA than they care about whether or not you can actually code.

eddiemunster666• 13 years ago

Finish the degree, it's amazingly helpful visa wise if you ever want to apply to jobs in other countries. I left the UK for Canada and it would have been way harder without a degree (I believe there's some amount of 'years in the industry' that adds up to a degree for work visas, my memories foggy but i think it was around 10 years..)

bmelton• 13 years ago

I slightly prefer advocating job experience over academic experience, usually. There are a lot of things that factor into that, but at least for me, graduating high school, I knew good and well that I'd never be able to commit to caring about college, and that despite the multiple scholarships I had offered to me despite an abysmal graduating GPA (I graduated 148th in a class of 150), I just knew that if I'd gone, I'd have pissed it away.

Moreover, I was really excited about technology (I'm 36 now, and it was a very different field then), and even tech support seemed like a way to learn more/faster/better than whatever I might have learned in school -- partly due to how sad CS education was back then, but partly because IT was still a developing field, and real world experience trumped college experience, at least in my mind, and at least at the time.

That said, if you've already gotten to your final year, it would be literally foolish of you to abandon your current investment for a job, especially when that job will be there later, and especially when that job isn't already paying you ridiculous amounts of money.

In short, if you aren't already a millionaire, finish your degree. Even if it's just to have on paper, throwing away > 75% of your current education costs is just a silly investment.

jamesjguthrie• 13 years ago

I'd make sure I finish the CS degree with a good classification as your job is just a job and with a degree you can do more than just code for a living.

wallflower2• 13 years ago

I would prioritize relationships over experience. Relationships cannot be metric'd - and that is why they are so important.

If what you are getting in your job experience is valuable - that is excellent - however, if you are building true relationships (where relationships are built on trust - almost approaching - perhaps beyond a romantic level) - then. Don't rule out the CS program - there has to be at least one or two professors in the department that you hit it off with - and if not in CS, maybe in another department. When you are in college, there is an open-door policy with professors - depending on how persistent you are.

Avoid burnout by not putting everything into one area of your life. Its inevitable (depending on your focus, type-A ness) but you can hedge by doing stuff where no one cares what you do outside of that sphere (e.g. drawing portraits in a drawing class)

Ultimately, as you progress in your life, you build your own community. The size and strength of it depends on you, your leadership ability - and your ability to inspire others to do what they want to do (the true Internet superstars like Zenhabits, Problogger et al. build communities in the millions).

I've been in my small share of companies/long-term projects (with friends) that sometimes end up - the friendship isn't strong enough to survive the problems that may arise.

And, as others said, the degree is an important quasi-legal HR credential (look up Griggs v. Duke Energy) and signal that you were able to start and finish a large project

Also, diversify your basket - take a theater or short/long-form improv class or art class. All CS and coding makes for a boring Jack once you get outside that bubble - and you will - especially for romantic relationships with Jill - and you want to run up the hill...

codecurve• 13 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. I agree, relationships are the priority, but I can then extend the phrasing of the question to ask: are academic relationships more important than their industrial counterparts? I have engaged with most of the professors in the department (it was actually through one of them that I got the job), but almost without exception (it seems that) they are neither driven nor motivated and only a tiny percent of them have had any academic success.

Outside of CS I am a focused musician and graphic designer and I like to use that as both an escape and as diversification, so I'm not too worried about ending up as a boring Jack.

Somewhat due to my poor wording, it seems like people got the impression that I would be dropping out (or giving up on my degree), this is not the case. I just need to know how important it is that I achieve a good grade? Is it worth the sacrifice of job experience and possibly the position within the company?

wallflower2• 13 years ago

The true test of relationships are when something is at stake. It is does not matter what realm they lie in for your life. So my revised advice is to pursue relationships that go beyond superficial friendliness. The company you are working for falls in that area. You seem to be a renaissance individual with diverse interests. That is very good to hear. Be open to everything. Much of success (and its sometimes corollary -,financial success) is due to how much leadership you take on - which runs the spectrum from being a senior developer on a project to the guy (or girl) responsible for all software development projects or being your own business owner. The beauty of business is that if you start one - you will be exposed to all aspects. The flip side is working for a quasi-stable company will pigeon hole you into a slot - for that is how they operate.

So to answer your question - I have had many project-based relationships. When the project ended, the relationship ended. However, in a few cases, I remained friends, however loose, with a few individuals. The answer to your question is to try to work with and be around with individuals you want to be around with. And do not let the work be the only definition for the relationship.

Truely extroverted connected people have multiple circles of friends with concentric circles of trust and intimacy. For example, this means, many people might want to have some of their time but they get to choose who they spend time with. And having known a few of these successful individuals (who I need to clarify are not always extroverted - but passionate for their cause), they make you feel important when you meet with them.

So in closing of this ramble, do not be biased who you spend time with - but make the most of it - and if you do not like each other, it is natural and ok to drift.

alt_f4• 13 years ago

For God's sake, please at least get a 2:1. Otherwise, should anything happen with your current gig, you are unemployable by grade cut off.

Ask HN: Should I focus on my job or my degree?

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