I would disagree with that. There really isn’t much to differentiate most CS programs, other than maybe specialty tracks and class sizes. I’ve been a programmer for over 30 years, and it’s pretty near impossible to find any correlation between how productive a programmer is and where they went to school. They teach you theory and some basic skills in an undergrad CS program, but the skills that employers really want tend to be either self taught or learned on the job.
Most hiring managers don’t get caught up in CS rankings. I’ve never gotten into a discussion at work about university CS rankings or which schools have the best CS programs. It may be easier to get an interview right out of college if you’ve gone to MIT or Stanford or Carnegie-Mellon, but you still have to pass the interview. After your first job, it’s your skills and experience that count.
Very true. Unless you are in some hard core research field like stem cell, biology, biotech where labs facilities etc. play an important role, in fields like CS lot of things will be self taught since the theory taught and the text books used by all colleges high or low ranked will be very similar.
re post # 40. A friend added a CS masters to her resume (had a PhD in something else). As a CS TA in a quarter system U she covered more material than she was expected to in a semester school as the prof. That means that where you go to school impacts how much you are taught.
Being a computer programmer is NOT the same as being a software engineer/developer. Huge differences in creativity, thought processing et al.
The average person in the average job only needs the average education. To do the top end means needing more than most. Top companies can pick from top grads and easiest from the better known schools. This usually includes many flagships but not the lesser schools within states.
That is incorrect. Both phrases are used interchangeably. The term “computer programmer” simply morphed into the term “software engineer” over time - I suppose because the latter sounds more impressive. Kind of like how “stewardess” morphed into “flight attendant” or how “secretary” became “administrative assistant”.
Apparently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers “computer programmer” and “software developer” to be different kinds of jobs (with different pay levels and job growth outlooks).
44 post - definitely not the same jobs. Good thing the gov't agrees with me, writing code just doesn't seem in the same league as what my son the developer/engineer (now there are two terms for the same sort of work) does. The big difference is the "creative minds" of developers as per the links in #46.
I’ve been doing programming for over 30 years. Early in my career I was called a computer programmer, and later in my career I was called a software engineer. The work is the same.
Here’s an interesting, little discussion about how the terms are used in the real world.
It seems the new administration is forcing the industry to do so by changing rules such as h1b. If the real important training is the on the job training, then that may work except who’s cheap to hire.