Top products from r/cscareerquestionsEU
We found 7 product mentions on r/cscareerquestionsEU. We ranked the 7 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
1. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Prentice Hall
2. The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Save up to 15% when buying these two titles together.The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process--taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users.It covers topi...
3. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
4. Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition (International Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Mit Press
6. Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
ISBN13: 9780814474570Condition: NewNotes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
If you like python, I'd double-down on really knowing how to use the language well and to work fluently in it. There is a huge advantage to having a language and toolchain which you feel really comfortable with.
It seems like a general shortcoming of bootcamps, although I have not attended any personally (I have a CS degree), so that's only my impression.
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I think CS fundamentals can be self-thought. The main issue is the sheer volume of the material and deciding what is important and what's not. For example, Cormen's Introduction to Algorithms is an acclaimed classic, but sometimes it's hard to digest and it contains some stuff that can be skipped. If you decide to learn everything in the book on your own, you run into a risk of wasting precious time that could be put to a better use.
I've seen many "Algorithms and Data Structures" courses and books, but there's also other stuff you should know:
It can all be learnt, but some of these topics don't have as many good courses as "Algorithms and Data Structures", so you'll spend time just looking for good sources, and then it's easy to dig too deep into a topic, therefore wasting time. The added value of having a teacher is that you receive a pre-selected choice of books, guidance with the parts you struggle to understand, and you don't waste time on drilling the less useful stuff.
Now, from a perspective of a CS-graduate with real job experience, it's easy to look back and say "it's simple" and "I could learn it in a couple months", but when I was 19 and had no idea about any of that stuff, it obviously took me a lot of time and effort to wrap my head around all those concepts.
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It's significantly easier to get a job in IT without a degree than in most other fields. There's no formal requirement of a degree, and many companies wish for "A CS degree or equivalent experience".
Not having experience, I think your best chance is to have a CV with a list of completed hobby projects / freelance work. Github link may not help much, but it will not hurt either.
Anyone who chooses to hire you off the back of your Masters will expect you to know next to zero and will train you from scratch. Employers like these degrees because it shows aptitude, an interest and dedication in learning and (preferably) a different set of skills to traditional CS graduates. They won't be hiring you expecting that you already know everything they need to be a productive hire from day one.
I had my first interview booked in by the end of November of the first semester and I barely knew what a Java Class was. Similarly, of everyone I know from my course, only about half got jobs using Java (the only language taught on the course itself) and most of those hadn't used their new language of employment before getting the job.
What is generally quite poorly taught at university is actual software development as opposed to writing code. Learn how to test properly, how to use git for version control, how to use a unix command line. Read Clean Code. All of those things you can learn and apply to the course as you go. I wouldn't try and learn whole new subjects/languages/stacks/etc. while doing the course though. If it is anything like the one I did, you will have a huge amount of work on your plate as it is.
I finished in late December of last year. After that I took another spent a month taking Udacity's software testing which in reality was more of a QA testing for large software systems, the concepts taught was interesting, at least. After that I spent a few months using a Linux distro as my primary OS--primarily Arch, but some others as well--while at the same time reading up on and trying out various topics:
push
,pull
, andcommit
ingAs of now I have a few projects lined up, but no actual results sadly, I seek to change that.
I once came across this, upon my realization of how little I really know, and how much there truly is, I kinda just want a whole lot more free-time. While there might not be a single decent intermediate course out there, believe me I looked quite a bit, there's no shortage of resources available, all for free!
I agree that you should finish it. Once you have, you shouldn't have that many problems getting hired. From what you've told us, you already know programming and algorithms. That's what you'll need to survive in the wild. The rest will be changing in no time anyhow.
Oh this might be a useful book for you: Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. While it focuses on the situation in the USA, it also deals with some of the more generic challenges of graduate school.
I'm not experienced enough to even remotely consider consulting, though this book is one I have bookmarked.
It's US-oriented(ish) though should be of some help to you.