Is going for a BCS the right move for me?

Question

I'm at a fork in the road. I need somebody to give me some advice from their personal journey in IT.

At the moment, I have a college diploma (2 years) in Computer Programmer, and about 2 years of professional experience in the field of software. I'm currently freelancing my programming skills to the public, and am enjoying a nice income, and the rewards of flexibly working on a variety of projects with different cool people.

I'm young (21 years old), passionate about software, technology, the internet, and also business. I know if I ever want to dwell deeper into the software industry, I might have a hard time doing so without a Bachelors in Computer Science.

On one side, I think I'm better off getting my BCS while I'm still young and malleable. Also, the thought of learning even more stuff in my field is really exciting to me. On the flip side, it means another 3-4 years of studying, and jeopardizing my chances of going on vacation and accumulating wealth for a long time.

Considering that I'm already pretty successful with my college diploma, do you think it's a good idea for me to go get my BCS? Will it open up many more doors in the future?

Answer 1

As far as helping your resume for getting a good job... I consider my stackoverflow profile about as powerful as my education background from one of the top universities in Canada. Just a thought.

I do think a diploma will help you though in 2 main ways:

• In learning ability/thought discipline
• As Resume flair for getting jobs

But experience is king for many companies. Personally if I was in your shoes I'd probably continue to do some contract work and take a class or two at a time.

If you have the will now though, and the money, and the time, go for the education full time and take on some projects part time. You may not be as flexible in the future.

Answer 2

I know if I ever want to dwell deeper into the software industry, I might have a hard time doing so without a Bachelors in Computer Science.

I completely disagree with this statement. If you want to "dwell deeper into the software industry", your drive, determination, and will to learn will be your limiting factors. I've known many CS Masters Degree candidates who, frankly, sucked. I've known CS majors who were very skilled and talented. I've known English majors who were excellent developers. The distinguishing factor between those that could and those that could not was a desire to learn.

I once thought that I needed a degree, but ultimately found it to be a distraction. I even wrote about it here: http://jasonleveille.com/blog/2009/10/the-cs-masters-degree-distraction. I don't know if a degree is or isn't right for you. You have to make that decision. Good luck figuring it out.

Answer 3

My journey is a bit different from yours as I did my Bachelor's straight out of high school. I graduated with a high enough average to get a few scholarships and ended up with CS as one of my majors and Combinatorics & Optimization as my other one. I graduated in 1997 and this was about the time of the dot-com boom so while it did take a few months I did eventually get a job.

Could some of your college credits count towards a Bachelor's degree? Have you considered seeing if there is a Bachelor of Information Systems that may suit you better than a general CS program? Those are a couple of questions that I'd put out there as I'd likely think the key is finding that program that works for you is the key point I'd have as while some places may have that Bachelor's degree as a requirement, there will likely be places that wouldn't have that as a requirement so I kind of second Jason's reply on that point.