As a CS degree student, I have learned a little bit about a broad mix of subjects. It has become evident that it’s common for a person to complete a technology degree without developing deep coding skills. The Capstone course is an opportunity to sink your teeth into a project and that’s good, but I, personally, will still need to learn some strong coding skills so I intend to go deeper into something – maybe node.js.
Now, Focus on Something that Interests You
A degree program generally provides relatively shallow learning across a broad horizon of subjects, so the student is primed to tackle any number of endeavors, but with very limited experience. For all of the valuable things that we learn in a CS degree program, it is entirely possible – as is my case – to complete a degree program without gaining strong coding skills. In our Web Development course, I (barely) made a website that accessed a database. I couldn’t do it again because as soon as I finished, it was time to start another term of school.
I now find it necessary to go deep on one or more subjects in order to have marketable skills. I think I will wait until this – my last term – is over, and take several free online courses in JavaScript and node.js. I may begin with html, then CSS, then JavaScript and node. At the very least, I would like to be able to make another website that accesses a database. I will probably also take courses in git and GitHub, as I believe those are very valuable tools.
I have started free online courses in git and CSS and JavaScript, but didn’t finish them. One thing that I found, though, is that I learned a lot from them. I’ll go back and restart them and I will finish them this time. When I was taking those courses, I was getting rubber-to-the-road knowledge of real-world skills that can be very useful in the job market. For all the benefits of a CS degree, the degree doesn’t provide any deep skillset. One needs to add that on the side, by methodically learning deeper skills.
As I work through some of the courses I’ve mentioned, I hope I’ll become aware of some additional skills that I might enjoy learning.
As Degree Students, We Have a Good Start
To get a degree in Computer Science is a lucky thing and it will likely be of good benefit, but completing assignments and passing classes in a broad curriculum doesn’t generally provide deep skillsets. I think it’s a good idea for a degree student to pursue a deeper dive into some marketable skills. Find something that interests you and develop some specialized skills that will make you a capable engineer. You’ll probably enjoy the deep dive and if you haven’t already, you may learn what you want to do as a career.
