Early in my software development career, it was mentioned to me that a degree in Computer Science might help me grow. As an entry-level developer, I was eager to learn but frustrated at how little I knew. Oftentimes, even the simplest tasks took me longer than I felt they should, and I was open to any and all advice. The person who mentioned this to me is a fantastic developer (and now a dear friend), so I took the suggestion and ran with it. With a bachelor’s degree in hand, it seemed silly to enroll in an undergraduate program again; however, during my research, I found the OMSCS at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This seemed like the one for me, and I applied without giving it too much thought. It should be noted that I am not an academic, nor did I particularly enjoy my undergraduate program. To this day, I’m not sure why I was so taken with the idea of a computer science degree. All that aside, I found myself starting my first course at Georgia Tech before the reality of the situation caught up with me.

…some time later…

It’s hard to concisely verbalize my experience at GT. There were classes I loved and classes I didn’t. I certainly learned a lot. I was both in awe and intimidated by how intelligent some of my classmates were. Although it was an online program, I really enjoyed being in an environment where everyone was interested in learning. Slack discussions about the material were always interesting. Recorded lectures were hit or miss, but the ones that hit were wonderful. In every course I took, I can point to one thing of value I learned.

The biggest thing I gained from the program is a very non-computer-science-related subject, and that is self-confidence. During the program, it was expected that assignments were completed in the language of choice with no real concern if students knew that or any other language. Java, C++, C, Python, SQL, PHP, Javascript/Typescript, it didn’t matter; if you wanted to pass the course, you needed to figure out how to use these tools. Having gone through this, I feel pretty confident I can come up to speed on most languages somewhat quickly (or maybe I now more thoroughly understand the feeling of being completely lost but having to find a way). This doesn’t mean I can write idiomatic, clean, testable code at a moment’s notice in any language, it just means I now have the confidence that I will eventually figure things out.

Having this degree doesn’t mean I know everything or am some galaxy-brained developer. Oftentimes, I’m not sure what it means. In my experience, most potential employers don’t care about my degree. They want 5-10 years of Python experience, and if the recruiter (or more likely some automated resume scanner) doesn’t see that, I’m not moving on in the application process.

At the end of the day, I’m just an application developer. What I enjoy the most is being able to write clean, maintainable, testable, and extensible code that my coworkers can understand without needing any continuing education.