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Comment by telomero22 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, that is mostly because your education happened in a 3rd world country, where education standards are quite low. People will be upset by me saying this, but that's how it is and everybody knows it.

However, you already have very good base knowledge and you know how to adapt to new technologies. You don't need more programming experience, but as you have already noticed, you need in-depth computer science knowledge.

A bootcamp is definitely an excellent choice and will teach you more than your degree. You should try to find a camp nearby, so that you are there physically and get to know other coders. Being able to solve problems with peers is invaluable. If you don't have a good offering nearby, definitely do online courses like on Khanacademy.

If you spend a year on CS principles it will be very, very helpful.

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I get your point but I think what’s going on with OP would happen anywhere in the world. CS degrees are not hands-on and so if you are not already working on mastering a certain area of IT you will find yourself just as useful as a philosopher at the end of the program.

The advice on the thread is very good, keep at it, this career path, like many others is a lifetime learning experience.

> Yes, that is mostly because your education happened in a 3rd world country, where education standards are quite low.

I mean, based on the description this sounds like a pretty normal theoretical computer science degree, such as you might get in any university basically anywhere in the world. (There are CS courses which are deliberately practical, but they're very much the exception.)

> Yes, that is mostly because your education happened in a 3rd world country

I couldn't disagree more with this sentiment. I live in Canada and by way of both running a tech company and working with colleges/universities here I can tell you that none of them have curriculum that's adequately connected to industry skills.

The only exception, and it's a small one, is the University of Waterloo. By way of their reputation they've built a robust internship network for the engineering students. Although they still have gaps on the curriculum side, albeit smaller gaps than other schools, students complete up to 4 internships before graduating giving them a big advantage.

Since when has Canada ever been a "3rd world country"? The OP is talking about schools in poor emerging economy nations, not schools in industrialized economies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-Worldism#/media/File:Col... Canada is first world. Switzerland is third world (an also, on of the richest countries).

Is it imperialistic to call developing countries 3rd world-countries? Then again, developing just means "more climate friendly then richer countries" I guess.

Canada is a regarded as a first world country.

No, OP is not talking about schools in "poor emerging economies." OP is talking about their experience doing a CS degree in Kenya. The COMMENTER (telomero22) is generalizing this to be a common experience in "3rd world countries."

I'm disagreeing with the commenter, telomero22, who believes OP's experience is due to studying CS in a "3rd world country." As others have confirmed in this thread, I'm suggesting that these sentiments are extremely common with CS grade in 1st world countries such as Canada.

> students complete up to 4 internships before graduating giving them a big advantage.

It's up to 6. For most programs, 4 is the minimum.

>your education happened in a 3rd world country

the world is bit more heterogeneous than that

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