The what use is a csci degree meme has been going around again, so I thought I'd interrogate what mine got me.
First, a few notes on my career journey:
- Elected not to go to grad-school. Didn't have the math for a masters or doctorate.
- Got a job in helpdesk, intending to get into Operations.
- Got promoted into sysadmin work.
- Did some major scripting as part of Y2K remediation, first big coding project after school.
- Got a new job, at WWU.
- Microsoft released PowerShell.
- Performed a few more acts of scripting. Knew I so totally wasn't a software engineer.
- Manage to change career tracks into Linux. Started learning Ruby as a survival mechanism.
- Today: I write code every day. Still don't consider myself a 'software engineer'.
Elapsed time: 20ish years.
As it happens, even though my career has been ops-focused I still got a lot out of that degree. Here are the big points.
Continue reading What my CompSci degree got me.