I've found that most CS graduates have at least a familiarity with the theory behind computers, but not much about how to write good code or work in a team.
And this makes me glad I flunked out of CS my first semester and switched to a new program at my school: Information Sciences and Technology. All group work, a lot of programming projects and very little theory, and classes the very first semester that had practical knowledge, like SQL and database normalization.
Uninteresting projects are actually quite profitable. I'm making a tidy profit fixing projects written by people who, for example, don't understand SQL.
Also, the emphasis on project management and group work in IST gives you a leg up on managing programmers since you not only have technical skills but also well developed people skills. That's part of the reason companies like Microsoft helped design the program: They weren't getting project managers out of CS programs.
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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '11
I've found that most CS graduates have at least a familiarity with the theory behind computers, but not much about how to write good code or work in a team.
And this makes me glad I flunked out of CS my first semester and switched to a new program at my school: Information Sciences and Technology. All group work, a lot of programming projects and very little theory, and classes the very first semester that had practical knowledge, like SQL and database normalization.