University for IT specialist: a view from the inside
If you have graduated from the institute a long time ago and have already formed an experienced specialist, then you should not read further. You will not learn anything new and useful from this post. Maybe he will make you smile. But judging by the comments to the articles, the site is sufficient and those who are still studying or just going to study in the IT specialty. For them, this post was written and I sincerely hope it can be something useful.
It so happened that Iwork as a university teacher at a computer specialty and for many years I work as a developer (freelancer and off-seter). Those. I can see both sides of the same medal, whose name is the university.
Next will be a lot of letters and not a single picture. Who else is interested - I ask under the cat.
When should I go to study at IT-nickname? The most correct answer to my opinion is when it is for you a hobby and passion even without an institution and education. Many students confuse the computer as a "hobby" and a computer as "entertainment." If you like to play games, know how to put the program and where to download the latest movies - do not be fooled. For you, computer is entertainment. If you “create” something on your computer (write programs, draw in PhotoShop or CorelDraw, model in 3D Max or Maya, write music, etc.) then this computer is a “hobby” for you. The difference is simple - if you create something, then this hobby, if only you consume, then entertainment. If you continue your journey in the field of IT, then you have to create something using a computer, and this requires desire and effort. Many students who went to study at the computer faculty perceive the computer as entertainment, and not as a hobby, quickly lose interest in learning. because for them to waste time and effort to create something, a burden, not a joy. And there are unexpectedly many such students (maybe 70%). You do not need everyone to break into IT, it is better to find a case that is really your joy, and do not follow the fashion or pressure of parents.
What does the institute teach? If you look through the comments on this topic, they all revolve around the idea that the institute does not prepare a specialist for IT and the versions here begin: whether it teaches to learn, or it gives you an outlook, or immersion in the environment, etc. In my opinion, studying at the university is similar to training in the gym, where a training program is scheduled and scheduled for each semester. And the training plan is very gentle. Exactly. From my experience, the knowledge gained at the institute is only 3-5% of what you need to know, and depending on the specialization, 70-95% of what you did at the institute may not be useful or only indirectly useful. The brain, like muscles, can be developed if used and it atrophies if inactive. University just a reason to use it. Every day, 3-4 couples a day, 5 years. And that's all. Knowledge, outlook, ability to learn, connections, environment - all this as a natural free bonus that is attached to the training of thinking, like health, well-being, healthy complexion and taut figure are just the attendant results of sports.
')
How deep is the knowledge gained in the university? University is a continuation of the school. There is no leap in the quality and depth of the material presented. As the school studies unpretentious fundamentals of the main directions of knowledge, so in the university you will be told the same simple basics, maybe a little more focused in the context of your specialty. You will not be "smart" after the university. Laboratory and practical classes are far from what IT-workers do at work, both in scale and in complexity and this difference is huge. Here the format of training affects: in a short time for a wide and motley audience, well, how can it fail to go deep into some direction? For 2 hours of laboratory work, you can’t write a complex program or a finished product as part of a course project. All this could be described in words: try it, click here. If the chosen specialty is not your hobby and you are not doing anything at home “for yourself”, then you will end up with a zero specialist at the exit from the institute.
Most teachers are bad specialists. Yes exactly. Life is a simple thing and if you understand the reasons, the consequences will be obvious. It is no secret that the salaries of specialists in the IT industry are many times (many times) higher than the salaries of teachers, even in good universities. Honestly answer the question: why do those who teach you work in universities, state employees, on their small salaries? Because they can not qualify for qualified positions in the IT industry, they lack neither experience nor qualifications. Those who have enough - they leave. The maximum hold the minimum rate, either for security, or as a place where the labor lies. The older generation of teachers is usually those who once worked with the union in related areas and with its collapse at least somehow got close to the specialty. They “knew” something (when they worked) and this knowledge is as ancient as the times when the union collapsed. It is good if some of them were interested in understanding something new, but most of them simply read a thick book on their subject that they retell to you. Any question beyond the stated material - enters into a stupor, any remark - annoying. They have work experience, but it is poorly applicable now, because in those days, the country was producing something and now IT is a service industry. Most likely, their experience of how to test satellites on stands before launch is of little use to you, because you will rather finish someone else's cms for a western customer than launch satellites in our country. The younger generation has other reasons. I once asked my assistant why he decided to work at the institute? The answer was simple: but I have not tried anywhere else, because I actually do not know how. Not so straightforward, but the meaning is the same. This is how it is. In general, I believe that an IT teacher should work in IT. It seems to me strange that at a medical university an associate professor accepts patients and performs operations (he is a practicing physician), and at a technical university, an associate professor can afford to walk with his dad for couples and tell students stories without any practical experience.
The teacher has no interest in your knowledge. Surprised? And it is. And not because teachers are lazy or irresponsible people. I will reveal the little secret of the teaching kitchen: the load, and with it the salary and the regular place itself, depends on the number of students studying. Requirements for universities and teachers are tightened every year. Almost at every meeting of the department, teachers directly or indirectly hint that there will be less money and someone will be cut. If the teacher is reduced, then where will he go? Not the same labor market, where will you be a competitor for it? The market economy and competition generally do not imply the transfer of knowledge, and even more so for the ridiculous money that higher education costs. Knowledge is power, competitive advantage. Most teachers simply fulfill the formal requirements of the Ministry of Education by reciting the planned material to you. If a student does not want to perceive him, then no one will be engaged in “pushing” him into a careless student. You are very lucky if your teacher does not think subconsciously of such categories, but simply from the heart shares the knowledge that he has, understanding that the common good is more important than personal gain. There are such people, but often this understanding comes with age, and what older people can give as teachers in IT, see above.
No need to look "at all." Because if you do "like everyone else", then the result will be "like everyone else." In the group, the majority of students are random people who have no prospects in IT. Maybe they were stuffed into the institute by their parents, maybe they just crave easy and big money after reading articles about the most sought-after specialists. But for the most part their destiny is either non-specialty work or a full-time low-paid position of a sysadmin / programmer-handyman with an appropriate salary. The competition in IT is great. And reading about the “shortage of specialists”, pay attention to the word “ specialists ”, and not to the word “shortage”. For talented students this is an extremely bad situation. And because the need to focus on the "average" student reduces the depth and breadth of the material presented by teachers, and because it creates an imaginary impression of their own successes against the background of indiscriminate sloppiness of the main mass. No need to compare yourself with fellow students. The best criterion of your knowledge and success will be your made projects, your success at work. Relate yourself not to the "gray mass", but to the market. Go to the website of freelancing - read what works you are able to do from what is offered and what is not and even abbreviations unfamiliar. Very sobering, even excellent students.
Evaluation is not important. Since school, we have been taught to measure our success in assessments. It doesn't work at the institute (in fact, it never worked). In general, somehow it would be time for a university to grow out of children's pants, when the main reward for success was the praise of others, including expressed in assessment, to a more mature attitude, when the reward is self-satisfaction with the work done, intrinsic motivation. When applying for a job in IT, in most cases your diploma with its marks will not be watched by anyone. Your knowledge is important, because you have to work and bring enough profit to get a salary. The employee is an investment for the company and this investment should pay off. Ask those working in IT if someone asked for their diploma? In normal companies, you will be given a test task, will have a technical interview with a specialized specialist, possibly with your future boss. Open your eyes. The value of the diploma falls. Falls fast, if not catastrophically. And the value of your ratings along with it.
Need to work. The main problem of students is the lack of motivation to acquire special knowledge. Information is already being pushed into them, but why there is no need for any understanding, because this information will not be applied. And what does not apply is forgotten. This is not a vicious circle. Just need to get a job. As soon as you can, better from the first course. On a part-time, remotely, freelance. As you wish. Minimum work has a tremendous impact on the motivation to study and the understanding of what is important and useful, and what is unnecessary and secondary. If you remember that most of the teachers themselves do not work in IT, then the same majority devotes equally much time and attention on pairs and what is really needed and you will use it every day and what is of purely academic interest and you never will come in handy. They just did not work and do not know the difference. For them, everything looks the same and of equal importance, but in reality this is far from the case. As you work, you will learn meaningfully, understanding what is important and what is not, what to pay attention to, and what can be treated formally. If you are familiar with the demand / supply curve, then this is the work / study curve. By the 5th course it is much more important to work than to study. This approach solves many questions. While you are a student, your employer even has subconsciously lower requirements for you, learn. The first place of work is always more beneficial to you than to the employer - you will learn more, and the employer will pay for your on-the-job training. You will have the same "experience of 3 years," etc.
Simply attend. The complexity of the presented material and the requirements for students are already so low that for successful learning even the most incapable students can simply be present at the institute. Just listen, just walk to practice. It's kind of trivial, but most don't even go. Teachers are happy to give you your grade / exam - just walk to the teacher. It creates an illusory impression that you can not go and everything will be, because there is an unofficial ban on the expulsion of contract students who "feed" universities. This is true, but why should one act in order to miss something for which everything was started? After all, the majority misses not because they work on 3 jobs (such as they get exams and pass exams on-site with sufficient practical knowledge exceeding the curriculum), but because they are too lazy to come.
Factual knowledge is not so important. Institutions, out of habit from the pre-computer era, are taught the facts, they ask the facts at the exams (“What function returns the list of files in the catalog?”). All this is not important and normal teachers understand this and do not require it from students. Gone are the days when it was faster to recall the coefficient of elasticity of steel than to search for it in the directory in the central library. Now all the reference information at a distance of two clicks. She is only a means. When you need to “load” into memory what you are currently using for this project, when you switch to another project, then supplant this information with a new one that will be needed at the moment. The capabilities of the brain are very limited and IT workers should feel like no other. You do not need to “memorize” much, you need to “understand”, to see the causes and effects, the interrelationships of what influences, from what follows and what it leads to. “Understanding” allows one to operate with much larger volumes of knowledge than “memorization”, gives an opportunity to look at the problem from a distance / from different angles and no amount of knowledge can be replaced without an understanding of this possibility. I would advise to learn in small iterations: I learned, I learned, I learned, I thought, I understood, I put it in my memory, I connected it with other knowledge. Since the educational system does not change, try to change the attitude to the knowledge gained. No need to accumulate facts, it will lead to debris in my head. Try to understand what you know and link everything into a complete picture of the subject area.
Knowledge of the specialty is not the most important. What else? English. It so happened that solvent customers speak English. If you are not able to communicate with them directly - your inheritance is to work through an intermediary (firm), who will be very expensive for your services (when I worked at the company as a “Team Leader” or “head of the development department” because At that time, the names that were so popular right now were not in use, the employee was paid 30-35% of the income that he brought to the company. Perhaps something has changed during this time and now the employee receives more, for example 50% of his earnings, but the stratum of managers and Manuals are still closer to the original source. Ode and wants to eat) too. It so happened that all serious documentation in English and as long as you do not have direct access to it, your lot is to read translations, which are not always enough and which limit your horizons. What else? Organizational skills, ability to solve problems (what is called the talent of an entrepreneur). You are not surprised that your friend, who studied for C grade now Project Manager and gives you a job? Or even manage the company in which you work? Little troechnikov fall into this category, but those that fall, have for that reason. As long as you simply studied perfectly well with your mind, they did not have your skills in science and developed their abilities: the ability to solve problems, find loopholes, negotiate with people. Those abilities and skills that excellent students usually are not developed as unnecessary. I do not urge to study badly, just pay attention to this issue. Life is different from university. The ceiling in employee income growth is very limited. Team Leader gets a maximum of several times more Junior Developer. This is cool, but the owner receives a rather large percentage of the money each of them earns, and increasing the size of a business gives a much higher income ceiling than career growth.
Education in the university is not all. Now is the heyday of a variety of online courses. Both domestic and foreign. In your university, even if it is metropolitan and there are the best teachers in the country, a limited circle of people from whom you can study, a limited set of subjects, you are limited to the program of your ministry of education and the level of audience around you. If you want to learn more, try a different, perhaps more understandable, approach to the presentation of the material - the entire Internet is at your disposal. And the diploma for which money is usually asked is not important. Your knowledge is important. You can choose courses that are interesting to you personally, correspond to your level of knowledge and just listen to them for free (without obtaining a diploma) or in the form of video lessons. The meaning of self-education. Your future makes you. If something is interesting - it is worth trying to do it, often the interest of a companion of talent, which is a sin not to develop. There are a lot of such courses: Udacity, Coursera, edX and others. Just ask such a question.
This is not all that can be said on this topic, but the post has already turned out to be long. If the topic is interesting, I will try to share other observations from the experience of a practical developer who teaches at the university. Future students success in their chosen field, and the current during the upcoming summer session.
It so happened that I
Next will be a lot of letters and not a single picture. Who else is interested - I ask under the cat.
When should I go to study at IT-nickname? The most correct answer to my opinion is when it is for you a hobby and passion even without an institution and education. Many students confuse the computer as a "hobby" and a computer as "entertainment." If you like to play games, know how to put the program and where to download the latest movies - do not be fooled. For you, computer is entertainment. If you “create” something on your computer (write programs, draw in PhotoShop or CorelDraw, model in 3D Max or Maya, write music, etc.) then this computer is a “hobby” for you. The difference is simple - if you create something, then this hobby, if only you consume, then entertainment. If you continue your journey in the field of IT, then you have to create something using a computer, and this requires desire and effort. Many students who went to study at the computer faculty perceive the computer as entertainment, and not as a hobby, quickly lose interest in learning. because for them to waste time and effort to create something, a burden, not a joy. And there are unexpectedly many such students (maybe 70%). You do not need everyone to break into IT, it is better to find a case that is really your joy, and do not follow the fashion or pressure of parents.
What does the institute teach? If you look through the comments on this topic, they all revolve around the idea that the institute does not prepare a specialist for IT and the versions here begin: whether it teaches to learn, or it gives you an outlook, or immersion in the environment, etc. In my opinion, studying at the university is similar to training in the gym, where a training program is scheduled and scheduled for each semester. And the training plan is very gentle. Exactly. From my experience, the knowledge gained at the institute is only 3-5% of what you need to know, and depending on the specialization, 70-95% of what you did at the institute may not be useful or only indirectly useful. The brain, like muscles, can be developed if used and it atrophies if inactive. University just a reason to use it. Every day, 3-4 couples a day, 5 years. And that's all. Knowledge, outlook, ability to learn, connections, environment - all this as a natural free bonus that is attached to the training of thinking, like health, well-being, healthy complexion and taut figure are just the attendant results of sports.
')
How deep is the knowledge gained in the university? University is a continuation of the school. There is no leap in the quality and depth of the material presented. As the school studies unpretentious fundamentals of the main directions of knowledge, so in the university you will be told the same simple basics, maybe a little more focused in the context of your specialty. You will not be "smart" after the university. Laboratory and practical classes are far from what IT-workers do at work, both in scale and in complexity and this difference is huge. Here the format of training affects: in a short time for a wide and motley audience, well, how can it fail to go deep into some direction? For 2 hours of laboratory work, you can’t write a complex program or a finished product as part of a course project. All this could be described in words: try it, click here. If the chosen specialty is not your hobby and you are not doing anything at home “for yourself”, then you will end up with a zero specialist at the exit from the institute.
Most teachers are bad specialists. Yes exactly. Life is a simple thing and if you understand the reasons, the consequences will be obvious. It is no secret that the salaries of specialists in the IT industry are many times (many times) higher than the salaries of teachers, even in good universities. Honestly answer the question: why do those who teach you work in universities, state employees, on their small salaries? Because they can not qualify for qualified positions in the IT industry, they lack neither experience nor qualifications. Those who have enough - they leave. The maximum hold the minimum rate, either for security, or as a place where the labor lies. The older generation of teachers is usually those who once worked with the union in related areas and with its collapse at least somehow got close to the specialty. They “knew” something (when they worked) and this knowledge is as ancient as the times when the union collapsed. It is good if some of them were interested in understanding something new, but most of them simply read a thick book on their subject that they retell to you. Any question beyond the stated material - enters into a stupor, any remark - annoying. They have work experience, but it is poorly applicable now, because in those days, the country was producing something and now IT is a service industry. Most likely, their experience of how to test satellites on stands before launch is of little use to you, because you will rather finish someone else's cms for a western customer than launch satellites in our country. The younger generation has other reasons. I once asked my assistant why he decided to work at the institute? The answer was simple: but I have not tried anywhere else, because I actually do not know how. Not so straightforward, but the meaning is the same. This is how it is. In general, I believe that an IT teacher should work in IT. It seems to me strange that at a medical university an associate professor accepts patients and performs operations (he is a practicing physician), and at a technical university, an associate professor can afford to walk with his dad for couples and tell students stories without any practical experience.
The teacher has no interest in your knowledge. Surprised? And it is. And not because teachers are lazy or irresponsible people. I will reveal the little secret of the teaching kitchen: the load, and with it the salary and the regular place itself, depends on the number of students studying. Requirements for universities and teachers are tightened every year. Almost at every meeting of the department, teachers directly or indirectly hint that there will be less money and someone will be cut. If the teacher is reduced, then where will he go? Not the same labor market, where will you be a competitor for it? The market economy and competition generally do not imply the transfer of knowledge, and even more so for the ridiculous money that higher education costs. Knowledge is power, competitive advantage. Most teachers simply fulfill the formal requirements of the Ministry of Education by reciting the planned material to you. If a student does not want to perceive him, then no one will be engaged in “pushing” him into a careless student. You are very lucky if your teacher does not think subconsciously of such categories, but simply from the heart shares the knowledge that he has, understanding that the common good is more important than personal gain. There are such people, but often this understanding comes with age, and what older people can give as teachers in IT, see above.
No need to look "at all." Because if you do "like everyone else", then the result will be "like everyone else." In the group, the majority of students are random people who have no prospects in IT. Maybe they were stuffed into the institute by their parents, maybe they just crave easy and big money after reading articles about the most sought-after specialists. But for the most part their destiny is either non-specialty work or a full-time low-paid position of a sysadmin / programmer-handyman with an appropriate salary. The competition in IT is great. And reading about the “shortage of specialists”, pay attention to the word “ specialists ”, and not to the word “shortage”. For talented students this is an extremely bad situation. And because the need to focus on the "average" student reduces the depth and breadth of the material presented by teachers, and because it creates an imaginary impression of their own successes against the background of indiscriminate sloppiness of the main mass. No need to compare yourself with fellow students. The best criterion of your knowledge and success will be your made projects, your success at work. Relate yourself not to the "gray mass", but to the market. Go to the website of freelancing - read what works you are able to do from what is offered and what is not and even abbreviations unfamiliar. Very sobering, even excellent students.
Evaluation is not important. Since school, we have been taught to measure our success in assessments. It doesn't work at the institute (in fact, it never worked). In general, somehow it would be time for a university to grow out of children's pants, when the main reward for success was the praise of others, including expressed in assessment, to a more mature attitude, when the reward is self-satisfaction with the work done, intrinsic motivation. When applying for a job in IT, in most cases your diploma with its marks will not be watched by anyone. Your knowledge is important, because you have to work and bring enough profit to get a salary. The employee is an investment for the company and this investment should pay off. Ask those working in IT if someone asked for their diploma? In normal companies, you will be given a test task, will have a technical interview with a specialized specialist, possibly with your future boss. Open your eyes. The value of the diploma falls. Falls fast, if not catastrophically. And the value of your ratings along with it.
Need to work. The main problem of students is the lack of motivation to acquire special knowledge. Information is already being pushed into them, but why there is no need for any understanding, because this information will not be applied. And what does not apply is forgotten. This is not a vicious circle. Just need to get a job. As soon as you can, better from the first course. On a part-time, remotely, freelance. As you wish. Minimum work has a tremendous impact on the motivation to study and the understanding of what is important and useful, and what is unnecessary and secondary. If you remember that most of the teachers themselves do not work in IT, then the same majority devotes equally much time and attention on pairs and what is really needed and you will use it every day and what is of purely academic interest and you never will come in handy. They just did not work and do not know the difference. For them, everything looks the same and of equal importance, but in reality this is far from the case. As you work, you will learn meaningfully, understanding what is important and what is not, what to pay attention to, and what can be treated formally. If you are familiar with the demand / supply curve, then this is the work / study curve. By the 5th course it is much more important to work than to study. This approach solves many questions. While you are a student, your employer even has subconsciously lower requirements for you, learn. The first place of work is always more beneficial to you than to the employer - you will learn more, and the employer will pay for your on-the-job training. You will have the same "experience of 3 years," etc.
Simply attend. The complexity of the presented material and the requirements for students are already so low that for successful learning even the most incapable students can simply be present at the institute. Just listen, just walk to practice. It's kind of trivial, but most don't even go. Teachers are happy to give you your grade / exam - just walk to the teacher. It creates an illusory impression that you can not go and everything will be, because there is an unofficial ban on the expulsion of contract students who "feed" universities. This is true, but why should one act in order to miss something for which everything was started? After all, the majority misses not because they work on 3 jobs (such as they get exams and pass exams on-site with sufficient practical knowledge exceeding the curriculum), but because they are too lazy to come.
Factual knowledge is not so important. Institutions, out of habit from the pre-computer era, are taught the facts, they ask the facts at the exams (“What function returns the list of files in the catalog?”). All this is not important and normal teachers understand this and do not require it from students. Gone are the days when it was faster to recall the coefficient of elasticity of steel than to search for it in the directory in the central library. Now all the reference information at a distance of two clicks. She is only a means. When you need to “load” into memory what you are currently using for this project, when you switch to another project, then supplant this information with a new one that will be needed at the moment. The capabilities of the brain are very limited and IT workers should feel like no other. You do not need to “memorize” much, you need to “understand”, to see the causes and effects, the interrelationships of what influences, from what follows and what it leads to. “Understanding” allows one to operate with much larger volumes of knowledge than “memorization”, gives an opportunity to look at the problem from a distance / from different angles and no amount of knowledge can be replaced without an understanding of this possibility. I would advise to learn in small iterations: I learned, I learned, I learned, I thought, I understood, I put it in my memory, I connected it with other knowledge. Since the educational system does not change, try to change the attitude to the knowledge gained. No need to accumulate facts, it will lead to debris in my head. Try to understand what you know and link everything into a complete picture of the subject area.
Knowledge of the specialty is not the most important. What else? English. It so happened that solvent customers speak English. If you are not able to communicate with them directly - your inheritance is to work through an intermediary (firm), who will be very expensive for your services (when I worked at the company as a “Team Leader” or “head of the development department” because At that time, the names that were so popular right now were not in use, the employee was paid 30-35% of the income that he brought to the company. Perhaps something has changed during this time and now the employee receives more, for example 50% of his earnings, but the stratum of managers and Manuals are still closer to the original source. Ode and wants to eat) too. It so happened that all serious documentation in English and as long as you do not have direct access to it, your lot is to read translations, which are not always enough and which limit your horizons. What else? Organizational skills, ability to solve problems (what is called the talent of an entrepreneur). You are not surprised that your friend, who studied for C grade now Project Manager and gives you a job? Or even manage the company in which you work? Little troechnikov fall into this category, but those that fall, have for that reason. As long as you simply studied perfectly well with your mind, they did not have your skills in science and developed their abilities: the ability to solve problems, find loopholes, negotiate with people. Those abilities and skills that excellent students usually are not developed as unnecessary. I do not urge to study badly, just pay attention to this issue. Life is different from university. The ceiling in employee income growth is very limited. Team Leader gets a maximum of several times more Junior Developer. This is cool, but the owner receives a rather large percentage of the money each of them earns, and increasing the size of a business gives a much higher income ceiling than career growth.
Education in the university is not all. Now is the heyday of a variety of online courses. Both domestic and foreign. In your university, even if it is metropolitan and there are the best teachers in the country, a limited circle of people from whom you can study, a limited set of subjects, you are limited to the program of your ministry of education and the level of audience around you. If you want to learn more, try a different, perhaps more understandable, approach to the presentation of the material - the entire Internet is at your disposal. And the diploma for which money is usually asked is not important. Your knowledge is important. You can choose courses that are interesting to you personally, correspond to your level of knowledge and just listen to them for free (without obtaining a diploma) or in the form of video lessons. The meaning of self-education. Your future makes you. If something is interesting - it is worth trying to do it, often the interest of a companion of talent, which is a sin not to develop. There are a lot of such courses: Udacity, Coursera, edX and others. Just ask such a question.
This is not all that can be said on this topic, but the post has already turned out to be long. If the topic is interesting, I will try to share other observations from the experience of a practical developer who teaches at the university. Future students success in their chosen field, and the current during the upcoming summer session.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/179759/
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