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Guys, this is not a rant. But I need a career advice. I don’t have a BD in CS, but I studied by myself and took some other classes and was working in the field for more than an year now after graduating from university. I do full stack developing with javascript and sometimes java at a startup now.

My goal was to eventually get to grad school in CS. I found some programs what accept students from non CS back grounds too. I can’t do BD again it will take too long. And I’m old ! lol

If any of you had similar experiences, or know some good programs would you let me know? Should I prepare portfolio or should I accomplish something great in order to get accepted? Or should I just try applying first? I’m focusing more on east coast to choose schools from but open to anything for now.

It’s quite scary to really start working on this since I already have a job and there are so much information regarding grad school, I get overwhelmed. Though it’s something i need to overcome. It would be really helpful for me if you could share your two cents.

I love what I do now, and really hope that I get to study further and explore in depth. Also I’m interested in AI or machine learning. Also if you know good source for reading recently published papers on CS let me know!

Thanks for reading! :)

Comments
  • 1
    Here is some advice from me and from someone else.

    You don't need a BD in Computer Science. Sure, it helps, but it also comes down to pure experience. I got my degree in CS in 2017 and I ended up working straight out of college in a non-technical position. Didn't like it, wanted to get into SE. Applying for jobs, I didn't have the experience they wanted, but I had the motivation and skillset for the job. My job now, I got because I studied for the position and I showed I was motivated to learn what was needed.

    My coworker, who did not go to college at all, had experience in the field just by doing personal projects and learning what he needed to learn, plus more. It took a lot of effort, but now he's doing a senior position at my company in IT.

    Build a portfolio, develop some projects, and get your feet in the water. You don't need a master's degree to get a good job. Show them you're motivated and working hard!
  • 2
    Assuming bd is bachelors, you really dont need it unless you wanna be a researcher for half the money you get at a company
  • 0
    @byogdc thanks for the advice :) I always felt like if I lose my job, it would be really hard for me to get a new job regardless of my skillset since I have no degrees in CS. But then regardless of my concern about looking bad on the resume because of lack of BD, I do feel like I need to get a better foundation. Working is great but I want to learn more and have my own specialized academic field
  • 0
    @ganjaman BD is bachelor’s degree yes. I have a BD but its not in CS :P would I make less as a researcher/ scholar at a lab? But wouldn’t it higher my chance to get a better job with better salary if I get Master’s degree?
  • 1
    A good portfolio and a bit of prepping for interviews will get you a long way. That's how I did it anyways :)
  • 1
    Most of the time a degree will only get you in the door of your first job. Experience counts for so much more later on...
  • 1
    @bassel same thing here in Brazil. "Too much Overqualified people", resulting in hundreds and hundreds of bc unemployeds.
  • 1
    I havn't studied CS, but EE equivalent to master's degree. We didn't have even CS basics except one C programming course. Now I'm developing embedded systems software for (partially) critical systems, shit that just has to work. So that kind of career jumping is quite possible.
  • 1
    @Fast-Nop Did you mean Electrical Engineering? Did you just started working right away?
  • 0
    @busybeemel yeah Electrical Engineering. I got into embedded systems development straight after studies.

    My final thesis was designing and implementing a signal processing system in assembly. I hadn't been doing assembly before (only Pascal and C in private projects), but I figured it out as I went along.

    That was a major point when I got hired because the company had a major embedded project completely in assembly where they needed manpower.
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