University — Yay or Nay?
During the summer break between my first year and second year of university, I had somehow managed to find myself a job in my chosen field of study — a junior software developer position.
But with that, apart from all the usual excitement and initial impostor syndrome came a serious dilemma. Normally, at least in my point of view, if you take away all the novelty of university such as “Im going to uni for the learning experience ” most people, attend a university to get the job that they want, so that they wouldn't have to work in a blue collar job.
Which is all well and good, and nothing is wrong with that, but If as in my case you've already somehow have gotten your foot in the door, I fail to see the relevance of going to university anymore. Most of the stuff they teach (please note I tend to speak in absolutes but i am fully aware that this is just my experience and opinions, and that the world is a big place, ok?) is either out of date or just not relevant in this day and age (especially computer science courses).
So now, me — a big boy, with a job and gradually increasing cynicism towards higher education, got to the point, that I was seriously considering dropping out of school and just keep working full time. And seeing next years module list didn't really help either.
So why should I keep going in debt just for a piece of paper, that I arguably no longer really need?
But before i pulled the plug on my higher education, my dad came up with a few counter arguments that for better or worse stopped me from dropping out:
quote
- Firstly, you must finish what you have started
- Secondly, trust me on this but sometime along the way, you will hit a wall where without higher education you will not be able to proceed
- And finally, you will have the rest of your life to work in a job. So while you can, experience the life of 5am chips and bad decisions
unquote
Were I not as uncertain as I was at the time, I might have actually ignored everything he said, and drop out of university. As i have a plethora of real life examples where people have noticed the pitfalls of higher education, dropped out and now are just killing it out there. (Again, please note these are very bright individuals and everyone is different, its not that dropping out equates with success).
But I stayed, and now, that I have had some time to reflect I believe that that was the right choice. I am about to participate in my first ever hackathon, met loads of smart people that were able to help me with my personal projects (I'll talk about those later) plus I get to enjoy myself from time to time.
So I guess what Im trying to say is…
