Before the clock strikes twelve
Some year-end reflection for computer science students:
Grades are irrelevant, the things you do outside of class will almost always be more beneficial to your future
I missed a lot of high-school football games learning how to write PHP well. I also missed a fair share of college parties reading about Ruby, because I wanted to. Had I not done that, I probably would have a lot more friends back home, but then I would not be working for CNET two thousand miles away having more fun than I could have imagined.
The language that your curriculum is built around is on its way to becoming/already obsolete
I was taught C++, need I say more? The college converted to Java just this year and they’re about six years too late, so don’t expect to be prepared for your job based upon what you’ve learned in school. All of the skills I need I learned on my own (Ruby, Rails, CSS, XHTML, Javascript, SQL)
Move to San Francisco
I can’t begin to express how much that this area fosters entrepreneurship and excitement in all things web. The first time I got off the plane at SFO I saw a guy wearing a Slashdot t-shirt and overhead a conversation between a couple talking about blogs. It was then that I knew I had found the right place.
Happy New Years to everyone.
I agree with your comments about San Francisco. I’ve been there more than a dozen times (mostly for business, a couple for pleasure) and the place just reeks of technology, innovation, and bleeding edge. It was a spectacular place to be in the dot com boom!
In my perfect world, I’d be able to land a rewarding position there and afford to live my current moderate lifestyle in the Bay Area.
Yeah! I am so glad to read that statement.