From Jeff Atwood,
“For a fast-moving field like computer science, the work you’re doing is far more relevant than any classes you’re taking. If you must choose between formal schooling and work experience, always choose work. If you’re in school, aggressively pursue real-world experience that compliments your schoolwork.”
I agree with Jeff! Nothing is more important than trying things by yourself when learning something new. Especially programming which is a mix of Science, Engineering and Art.
Yesterday, coincidentally, I was telling my students that this what Science is all about: doing experiments!
Jeff quotes Stephen Leacock:
“If I were founding a university I would found first a smoking room; then when I had a little more money in hand I would found a dormitory; then after that, or more probably with it, a decent reading room and a library. After that, if I still had more money that I couldn’t use, I would hire a professor and get some textbooks.”
What he meant was that what is important in a University is to have a place where people can meet and talk and learn and share experience. This is sooooooo true. When I think about my years in France, I distinctly remember the various nights my friends and I spent in our rooms having fun and talking about technology, programming and philosophy. I have forgotten about most lectures I attended… This is what is missing here at the University of Mauritius. And this is why many people tell me that it is just a glorified college. And I think I have to agree. Unfortunately.
Jeff gives the following advice to young people willing to become great Computer Scientists:
- Do work placements (stage)
- Participate in local user groups (LUGM is nice!)
- Contribute to an open-source project.
- Publish articles.
- Start a blog.
So, dear students, move your ass and try to secure a work placement (stage) as soon as possible in a good software development company! Yesterday, we were discussing with Accenture and the people there are very nice! I guess the people from Infosys are also very nice. You get the point?
Popularity: 1% [?]
March 31st, 2007 at 21:57
unfortunately cse dpt doesn’t actually impose work placements as it for other courses.
Anyway its not a reason to be lazy, i wonder if accenture will be willing to recruit trainees for a 3 month period
April 1st, 2007 at 11:07
That’s why I want you all to move your ass…
I’ve talked with the top guys there and they are keen to get trainees as (i) trainees are cheap labour and (ii) who knows, they might find someone extraordinary
What you get is a lot of experience and the opportunity to get a nice job if you are good enough…
April 1st, 2007 at 12:52
I absolutely share the idea that universities are here to let people socialise and share lots of ideas at night. It’d be great if UoM provided students with a lodging (decent apartments) facility (against some payment perhaps!) so that they could just live a nice university life!
Huh, I wanted this since my first year. That would enable students to stay up to late for courses and socialise more instead of socialising near the ex-post-office or at James’, which isn’t bad either :()
April 1st, 2007 at 13:47
What u mean by “publish articles”? what’s worth publishing?
April 1st, 2007 at 17:07
Concerning publishing articles, Jeff says:
April 1st, 2007 at 17:09
To Dilraj:
It’s a pity that the Government (or the University) has not realised that dormitories are essential in a university. Until then, many students will continue to behave as college students.
April 1st, 2007 at 20:55
ya that wouldve been a good idea..
well for the moment..we stay up late with friends on msn..
each one having his beer and smoking his cigs at his house..
working collaboratively on msn
wouldve been much mpre fun if we were actually together
i remember in my first year..
we all went to stay at a friends place..we had a comms skill presentation that day and a viva for SSD on the next day
it was pretty fun
i still do have some pics of those times..
which i will surely miss when i’ll leave uni next year (hopefully)
we do have a good social life at uom..although it wouldve been much more fun if we had dorms around in the campus..or nearby..we had fn time at bassin canard..ou meme kass nou pose lor rebord cafet..or in our first year lor balcon kot billard..these we nice time..bt since we lacked a decent dormitory..there were many time when we went to stay at a friends place either to work..or have some fun..or to revise(which i did only once..and we ended up not revising anything lol)
those 3 years at uom were really nice..and will b missed…
April 4th, 2007 at 01:58
I must say that indeed dorms would be nice for us uni students, but i guess as always some of us found a work around to this constraint… by staying over night at friend’s place(i should point out that we have the chance of having nice parents who indulge our fancies)… i still remember the nite preceding the SSD viva, sundeep n i debugging the programs of our friends while drinking our beers, and most important of all having lots of fun.
but i also agree with avinash, being a good computer scientist is not all about sitting in classes, and learning our notes by heart… its more of, understanding what we learn, trying things out, exploring new ways, going headfirst in the wall when we’re wrong and learning from our mistakes. Though unlike avinash, i don’t believe that being a good computer scientist automatically implies that you have to be a good programmer.
And its really sad to notice that at the end of the 3 year course, most of the students will end up being coders, working on a 9 to 16 schedule… with not much hope of progressing beyond…
To all of us, future “computer scientists” lets ask ourselves if that is what we really want to do? do we really feel that the field of computing is THE field for us? If you’re still positive about that, then its really time to shake the cobwebs of ur butt and go explore new openings, get a taste of IT on the professional level… personally i don’t really care if its a big software development company or not, the most important thing is to get the chance to work side by side with seasoned professionals, learn from them, feel the stress and strain as they do.
Else, well it might still be a good time to change ur career path and chose a field in which you will actually excel. From my personal experience i can say that nowadays being good is not good enough, you have to be the best… else you’ll just be another face in the crowd…
April 4th, 2007 at 04:12
I don’t smoke or drink so Jeff Atwood’s 3 step program won’t do me any good.
but…
* Do work placements (stage) done that… (hmmm dunno if i’d want to do that.)
* Participate in local user groups (LUGM is nice!)
* Contribute to an open-source project. (done in tiny tiny quantities.)
* Publish articles.
* Start a blog. (never will do anything this pointless again)
Right now, the university is holding me back more than helping me go forward. Sure i’ve learnt interesting things and will probably learn some more in few months left.
but i really don’t care about a degree right now.
my dissertation is still imcomplete amd frankly, vraiment vraiment pas envie fini li.
… the extension we received really fucked up my time table… Wether or not, I’d had been able to finish by last friday or not, at least, i wouldn’t have to work on it one more week…
i’m in pursuit of fun stuff to do. not a piece of paper and a career writing programs.
April 7th, 2007 at 19:24
ahhh.. VERY logical. indeed you are someone who knows what students need and want.
There are lecturers who like a tyrant swamp ppl with homeworks like as if in college, and then.. finally students have no more time and just forget about real world experience and just do homeworks just for the sake of doing it without any love of doing it.
*note: am not against homework.. but i have seen that in osme classes homeworks are given like as if DOS’in students.. then with 2 lecturers giving massive homeworks like that.. it becomes DDOS’in of student brains :p
+selven
July 26th, 2008 at 23:01
mo bien dacor ar sa. mai mo pa dacor ar dormitories moi. si mo tifi ale liniversite moris dormi b pou ena zafaire coutchou coutchou enba moultron pou derouler. mo pa ler zendre ou zendreS ou vine nana astere la mem moi.
kultire pays la bizin respect.
* Do work placements - ena accenture. banne la p forme liniversite zeleves aprane oracle et servi unix
* Participate in local user groups (LUGM is nice!) — moriciens sa pena boucou ki fer sa
* Contribute to an open-source project — weh, mais kan travail pa gagne les temps et bizin refair contract ar bouzoi pou capave fair side work. ena legal matters la dan
* Publish articles. — lot moi pou ena submission lartciles mari bon
* Start a blog. - weh, mo pa gagnr les temps moi. ena plein couma sa. ena plein ki contan fessebook et sa mama hi5 la.
mo dire - choisir lelite admission pou classe infomratique a coz c ene pillier de lenocomy.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:16
weh mo ena ti question. fer couma dire mo fer mo application mai mo envi license li lro sa zafair opensurce la, ki mo fer? mo dan morice ki mo fer? mo ler mo nom paraite dan sak release, ki mo fer? ena biro international opnesurce pou rengregistrement?
merci.
July 27th, 2008 at 22:45
Hi Ed,
I think you have a slighted skewed image of dormitories. They are not places where orgies take place. Rather, they allow responsible and intelligent young adults to spend more time together doing productive work.
As a matter of fact, when I was at university, we mostly worked after dinner.
Concerning open source licensing issues, it’s no different from commercial licenses. When you write a software, you release it with a license and, from this moment, anyone using the software MUST comply with the license. So no need to register anything. Just distribute the source with the license.