I had attended college for three years and realized that wasn't where I wanted to be at that time. I didn't have a job offer. In 1999, I quit school and moved to DC for a summer job. After that, I worked as an office temp for two months before I landed a job working on web pages.
In order to make up for my lack of degree, I really busted my butt learning everything I needed to know to build web applications, how to make them scale, build and manage databases and mange servers. After 13 years, I haven't gone back. I'm still learning. Every day.
Going to college, you get an education. You learn how to learn. Afterwards, you start learning for real.
Granted, you're in a good place having tuition covered. I didn't. I walked away with student loans that I've since paid off. In college, you'll form friendships that last a lifetime. That's important. It's an experience worth living. You'll be lucky if the people you work with at your first job will remember who you are in 10 years (1 or 2 of them will). You'll have other opportunities later.
Leaving college early to get a job, I'd do it again. I wouldn't do it right out of high school.
I appreciate the insight. Money isn't really the issue for me, and I don't plan to skip college altogether. I feel that with one year part time, and one year full time experience, when I do graduate I'll be much more marketable and my job prospects will be better. I also expect that I'll be more focused in college given that I've seen how what I'm learning applies in the real world.
Either way - having more options can't hurt.
That being the case, try landing a job where the focus is pair programming. You'll learn more from a good mentor than you will ever learn on your on. Try to get involved in your local software development community, too. That is equally important as job experience.
Comments
I had attended college for three years and realized that wasn't where I wanted to be at that time. I didn't have a job offer. In 1999, I quit school and moved to DC for a summer job. After that, I worked as an office temp for two months before I landed a job working on web pages.
In order to make up for my lack of degree, I really busted my butt learning everything I needed to know to build web applications, how to make them scale, build and manage databases and mange servers. After 13 years, I haven't gone back. I'm still learning. Every day.
Going to college, you get an education. You learn how to learn. Afterwards, you start learning for real.
Granted, you're in a good place having tuition covered. I didn't. I walked away with student loans that I've since paid off. In college, you'll form friendships that last a lifetime. That's important. It's an experience worth living. You'll be lucky if the people you work with at your first job will remember who you are in 10 years (1 or 2 of them will). You'll have other opportunities later.
Leaving college early to get a job, I'd do it again. I wouldn't do it right out of high school.
I appreciate the insight. Money isn't really the issue for me, and I don't plan to skip college altogether. I feel that with one year part time, and one year full time experience, when I do graduate I'll be much more marketable and my job prospects will be better. I also expect that I'll be more focused in college given that I've seen how what I'm learning applies in the real world. Either way - having more options can't hurt.
That being the case, try landing a job where the focus is pair programming. You'll learn more from a good mentor than you will ever learn on your on. Try to get involved in your local software development community, too. That is equally important as job experience.