Congratulations to all who entered the university!

I want to share some thoughts about IT education in Russia. Shaw, again ?!

At present, Russia is switching to the bachelor + master system. Moves with a big creak.
')

What is being taught

What kind of beast is such a "bachelor"?
Let's open a new educational standard (for example, specialty 230200 “Information systems and technologies”).
Bachelor study for 4 years, of which:
13% Humanitarian, social and economic cycle
27% Mathematical and natural science cycle
1% Physical
3% Practice, NIR
6% Certification, diploma
Actually on subjects in the specialty exactly 50% remains . The previous standard was 45%.
These 50% still include such subjects as far from computers as metrology and BC.



If you open the list of Computer Science courses of some European ( Cambridge ) or American ( MIT ) university, you can see that in the decaying West, education is treated more pragmatically. A cursory overview gives reason to believe that in computer science abroad, all subjects are somehow connected with the specialty. There are no isolated disciplines - if there is economics or mathematics, then it is given in relation to IT.
This turned out to be untrue, thanks MaximKat . The ratio of core / non-core subjects in the West is approximately the same as ours (although it depends on the university, and we have it strictly written in the educational standard).

I will not argue whether the availability of humanitarian subjects is good or bad, or why should a matan, macroeconomics and ecology ask the programmer? The fact is that they eat a great clock of the main program.

Diploma. The diploma project of a specialist must be completed. The graduate work of a bachelor is a kind of “research” on the topic. Drive on the fog and pour water. No design.

How to teach

The second problem: our subjects are often taught without interrelation with each other and in isolation from the main specialty. Teachers do not bother to explain why their subject matter is needed, what disciplines are related, how will this be needed in practice? It is not necessary: ​​unlike foreign students, we simply have no choice - almost all subjects are required. The lack of elective disciplines is another flaw. Of course, the standard includes hours for courses chosen by the student, but in real life it all remains on paper.

As a result, the quality of training of graduates and their competence does not meet the expectations of the business. And on the contrary, the offers on the labor market do not meet the expectations of graduates :) One of the reasons for this is that the business is weakly cooperating with universities - he wants to get good specialists “on a silver platter”, without costs.
What should be able to specialist in terms of the largest IT firms can be found here .

The rest is a list - this has already been talked about a million times:

• Weak technical equipment. Not every university will show you a real server or a powerful switch.
• Teaching Staff. Grows old and loses qualifications. Specialists from the industry a little. Who will read the course on ERP for a salary of 12,000 rubles.?
• Tutorials. I do not know how it was with you, but all our books were only of Soviet times.
• English. As a rule, weak and not related to IT.
• Control. The state controls the work of the university poorly. Certification of universities is inefficient and corrupt.
• Information support is lame. Who will you become, what disciplines will be taught, what does the graduating department do - many will learn only by the third year when it is too late to change something.

What can be concluded? Very trivial: if you want to become a good specialist, you can not rely only on the university!
You will say "yes it is already clear to everyone." I don’t know, this was incomprehensible to me when I was 17 years old.

What to do?

If you are going to enroll at the Moscow Medical University, at the Physics and Technology Department or study abroad, then you can not read further :) Text for the average applicant / student.

To those who are still going to do, I would advise the following:

• Do not enter a non-core university.
• Do not apply for any specialty.
• Apply for an accredited specialty.
• Do not enter the evening, correspondence and distance education - most often it is a bullshit. In any case, just worse than the day.
• Be wary of non-state universities. While it is better to enter the state.
• Try to find out about the department at which you enroll. But you still can not guess: in my university, two specialties with the largest competition were taught very badly, and the average is quite decent.

Specialties for IT personnel:

• 230100 Informatics and computer engineering - sysadmin, networker, programmer
• 230400 Information systems and technologies - analyst, designer of IP
• 230700 Applied Informatics - an analyst, designer of IP
• 231000 Software engineering - tester, programmer, software designer
• 231300 Applied Mathematics - Programmer
• 010200 Mathematics and Computer Science
• 010300 Basic informatics and information technologies - programmer, software designer (?)
• 010400 Applied Mathematics and Computer Science - Programmer
• 010500 Software and administration of information systems - programmer
• 080500 Business Informatics - Analyst, Manager
• 090301 Computer Security - Security Manager
• 09030 * Information Security ... - Security Manager

The profession is very approximate. This is my personal guess, do not take it for 100% truth. Maybe someone from the readers will correct me.

Specialties:

• 210700 Infocommunication technologies and communication systems
• 220400 Management in technical systems
• 220700 Automation of technological processes and production
• 221000 Mechatronics and Robotics
• 221700 Standardization and Metrology

I advise you to read the educational standard for your specialty: a list of educational standards , a rubricator of specialties . Consider that the codes of specialties have changed already 2 times, for example, “Information systems and technologies” were 071900, then 230200 became, and now 230400.

So, if you are in the Russian technical high school of the average level on a computer specialty:

• Do not relax the first two courses.
• After the second course, try to find a part-time job that does not interfere with your studies. Load no more than half-time. You can get to the department, then some buns are possible.
• Independently improve qualifications. Learn languages, technology. You can go to courses, but then you need to clearly understand why they are for you, if you have the required preliminary training - otherwise you will waste time and money in vain.
• Watch for conferences, webinars, courses. Many of them are free for students.
• If a “window” has been formed, it is not necessary to sit in a cafe: there is a reading room at the institute, and periodicals in it. Read industry journals: Open Systems, System Administrator, etc.
• If you have an internship, try to get it. Bald in the summer of 2.5 months - a luxury.
• Learn English. Set a goal to get extra. higher education in language or certificate type FCE.
• Try to be creative in solving problems. For example, in a course project on programming, add additional functionality from yourself - it will be interesting to you and will ensure a good attitude of the teacher to your work.
• Write a "decent" diploma. Try to make it a real development, not a thought spreading through the tree. Even better, if you implement it in the enterprise and sign the act of implementation.

What's next?

At the end of the bachelor degree study the possibility of admission to the magistracy How “strong” is it in your university? Maybe you should enroll in another university or change a little specialty?
Recently, serious paid magistracies with a high level of training (for example, tyts , tyts ) have appeared.

Arguments for admission to the magistracy:

• The load in the magistracy less, especially do not have to strain.
• Employers tend to consider a bachelor's degree "incomplete higher."
• You can adjust the specialty of bachelor - go to the adjacent.
• Postponement from the army.
• Further admission to graduate school.

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I hope my advice will be, if not a guide to action, so at least food for thought for freshmen :)
Another couple of useful topics tyts .