- Some people assume you lack theoretical/foundational knowledge.
- Guidance/mentorship is harder to come by.
- You’re likely learning on your free time while working. Quality time is hard to carve out.
- It’s harder to get a sense of where you’re at.
- External validation is much more difficult to get. But you need it when you’re searching for a job.
- You inevitably make a lot of decisions that university students don’t have to make. This can be taxing.
- It requires more discipline, because there isn’t anyone checking in or forcing you to demonstrate your learning.
On the other hand, overcoming these challenges is beneficial, especially if you never really stop learning/studying. You pause from time to time, but you pick up again, because there’s always more to learn.
A big advantage that might not be obvious: You pick up niche subjects, simply because they interest you.
You’re not just learning things that seem useful in your context. It’s actually often the other way around: you learn things that you’re curious about and perhaps a year later you encounter a situation that you can solve a problem because of that.
Curiosity is an interesting mechanism. It’s often a better guide at driving your learning than an analytical approach.