Comments on: School vs. Work http://www.john-lai.com/2009/03/13/school-vs-work/ work of life Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:44:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: John Lai http://www.john-lai.com/2009/03/13/school-vs-work/comment-page-1/#comment-6014 John Lai Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:36:39 +0000 http://www.john-lai.com/?p=199#comment-6014 Chances are, the peers offering you advice have not worked in industry for at least 5 years. If you come out to work, the one thing you'll notice is that your co-workers come from ALL backgrounds and universities. If you don't believe me, convince yourself by visiting engineering companies and talk to the engineers, managers and lead architects. In fact, do that right now! Call up a few companies and ask for a 5 - 10 minute phone interview with other engineers! That ought to convince you. Open-source programming experience is great experience! Any kind of programming experience is great as long as you can "make something of value". You are already one step ahead of the game. Congrats! Chances are, the peers offering you advice have not worked in industry for at least 5 years. If you come out to work, the one thing you’ll notice is that your co-workers come from ALL backgrounds and universities. If you don’t believe me, convince yourself by visiting engineering companies and talk to the engineers, managers and lead architects. In fact, do that right now! Call up a few companies and ask for a 5 - 10 minute phone interview with other engineers! That ought to convince you.

Open-source programming experience is great experience! Any kind of programming experience is great as long as you can “make something of value”. You are already one step ahead of the game. Congrats!

]]> By: Joe http://www.john-lai.com/2009/03/13/school-vs-work/comment-page-1/#comment-5990 Joe Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:53:09 +0000 http://www.john-lai.com/?p=199#comment-5990 Hello. First of all, thank you so much for sharing your career advice on your blog - they're very helpful. I am a college transfer student who was accepted to study computer science at a top ten university for CS, as well as to one that isn't. Due to my current financial situation, however, I may have to skip my 'top ten' choice and study at the one that isn't on the list. Aside from what you mentioned in your blog (education = 2 lines on resume), I keep hearing from my peers that employers will generally consider those who go to a top ten college to be easy candidates for jobs. Is this necessarily true? (BTW, once I graduate, I will have almost a years worth of open-source programming experience, although I'm not sure how employers in the real-world would see something like this.) Thank you for your time. Hello. First of all, thank you so much for sharing your career advice on your blog - they’re very helpful.

I am a college transfer student who was accepted to study computer science at a top ten university for CS, as well as to one that isn’t. Due to my current financial situation, however, I may have to skip my ‘top ten’ choice and study at the one that isn’t on the list.

Aside from what you mentioned in your blog (education = 2 lines on resume), I keep hearing from my peers that employers will generally consider those who go to a top ten college to be easy candidates for jobs. Is this necessarily true?

(BTW, once I graduate, I will have almost a years worth of open-source programming experience, although I’m not sure how employers in the real-world would see something like this.)

Thank you for your time.

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