Srenaeb

Did your hacker friend eventually go back to school? I guess it also feels like I'm admitting defeat to the "system" if I go back. I had hoped to say "Forget you! I can hack it on my own just fine". So, I guess a bit of that arrogance still remains...

It feels awful. "Everyone" in my family and their social circle think it's the norm, that you do high school and then you get a degree and get a job. That it's just life, you just play the game that everybody's playing. That the school obviously doesn't care, but also obviously none of the students care either -- they're just paying customers. It feels so awful and dirty to have to go back to that and prove everyone right.

But, that's the firey youth talking again. If I do go back, this time the professors will be a resource to chat up outside of class hours. This time the fellow students will be potential business partners. This time, when presented with esoteric course material, I can think about how it relates to my code, oh so many tiers down later. This time, I know that the academic bureaucracy isn't there to help me, they're just there to make a buck and keep the system going, like my pension plan and unemployment insurance.

Hurray for cynicism!

...yes, I don't think the state of our higher eduction has improved in the (counts) 7 years I've been gone. I'd have to play the system like everyone else there is doing, and my honest opinion is that degrees are an over-produced commodity in the developed world today.

On the plus side, many have pointed out that the true value of a degree program isn't the courses, the books, and the shiny paper at the end, but the contacts you make there and what you can learn from talking to the professors one on one.

Looking at my U-grad friends, I've come to realizes university does not educate people or give them any sort of knowledge. University is a place where you can education yourself and obtain whatever knowledge you seek for yourself.

Thank you for the encouragement. I will spend more time on my hobby projects.

I have a lot of useful knowledge that I gained from my time in the technical trades school, as well as on the job. But sometimes I feel like I've hit a brick wall as well. For example the MSDN will tell me that it's more efficient to use class A rather than class B. Why? I don't know, I can't even begin to device tests for myself to find out if, where and when this is true. I just have to take whatever I find on the Internet as true. Sometimes it's frustrating. But then I still get the job done, so maybe it doesn't matter...?

Also, congrats your going back for religious studies. I did a 1 year theology certificate program between dropping out and programming. Really taught me lots I'll be thankful for all my life.

You're completely spot on. I talked to a couple people in difference industries, and they're all receiving tonnes of resumes from big name companies with degrees. Everyone's getting laid off here....

The portfolio idea sounds good. I do have a small set of hobby programming projects that aren't marketable, but at least I will have something to show in lieu of a degree.

It's kind of hard to pick an industry based on "what I think will be awesome 4 years later." Also I have no confidence in being able to do school for a subject I don't care about.

Hence CS is probably the only degree I'll be going back for. I would really like to learn assembly and proper C and C++. as well as algorithms and data structures....

Ah, sorry. School options here are 4-year degree programs at a university. College has a bad connotation up here in canada. The other option is a 1 year, or 2 years programmes at a "provincial/state institute of technology" generally thought of as career prep type programme, or where University grads go to actually be useful on the job.

I tried the former, and did not finsih. I completed the latter, liked it. Sorry about the confusion.