So fed up with college ...
Hey guys,
I'm sorta in a weird place mentally right now. I go to the University Of California, San Diego (quite a mouthful I know) and I'm pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
I feel like I am not learning a lot. I've been going through the motions doing programming assignment after programming assignment, but none of the homework I do feels like it's contributing my ability to do anything in the real world. That is all fine and dandy I know that teaching me how to make things really isn't the goal of the university, but the countless hours working on programs that don't do anything of purpose is wearing down on me. I want to make things that solve meaningful problems!!!
I want to become a better developer, but I struggle with finding the time to create things as well as the knowledge gaps I have.
Also what is frustrating me is what exactly I want to do with my life I know that business will always be a big part of what I do, but I have a lot of skillsets that are confusing me which is having an effect of reducing my effectiveness on the occasions I have free time.
Example skillsets:
I've been a professional photographer for 7 years now. I now only do concert photography and sometimes tour around to one or two cities within driving distance to me with hip hop artists (I'm working on revamping my portfolio site right now but here is my personal Instagram to see examples of my pictures: https://www.instagram.com/realturbanboy/?hl=en. ) I would possibly like to become an artist manager of some kind.
I'm very passionate about marketing. Particularly Direct-To-Consumer marketing right now.
As already stated, I have some decent coding abilities.
Etc...
IF YOU GUYS HAVE EVER BEEN IN A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE OR ARE CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH THE SAME THING ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. 😭🙇🏽♂️🙇🏽♂️
p.s. I forgot to mention I'm just entering my senior year of University (3 more quarters).
:wave: Hey bud. UCSD (masters) alum checking in.
Be happy that you have so many interests and passions that you want to develop.
These things may shift over time and that's OK. I know a YC alum rockstar who has entirely fallen out of love with coding... and doesn't have the interests in business, marketing, or photography to fall back on.
You have one massive opportunity that you seem to be overlooking: one more year on a world-class university campus. Go join clubs. Make friends. Take classes in other departments (I advise GPS policy students who sneak over into Engineering every so often..). Join someone else's research lab and work on a challenging problem domain with real-world code. Stop binge-watching stuff and go be too busy to do normal slacker stuff. Cut classes if they're too easy. Enjoy the beach. You do not need someone else's permission to do any of these things.
There is big, negative signal in not finishing college, and there doesn't seem to be an issue with you staying there except boredom, which is a solvable problem.
Take a breath and recognize that you get one more year to do things that are wayyy outside your lane. These opportunities don't arise in the real world.
And seriously, go enjoy the good weather. It's expensive to live near/at UCSD; enjoy it while you can.
Thank you so much for your advice 🙇🏽♂️
Honestly you are right maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I should just try to enjoy this year and get geared up to take on the real world!! 💪🏽
Been there done that. The difference in my situation however was that I did not have experience running my own business.
After 4 years at school pursuing a bachelors degree in CS I decided to drop out. There were many reasons for it, including some you have posted. Most prominently however, I started to burn out, and school was part of that problem.
Since then I started looking a bit differently at formal education. One can pay money and invest time in order to get a degree, or one can invest the time (and probably a lesser amount of money) to start a decent business. As such I dropped out, and a little bit later I started my own business.
The thing with coding is that it can "easily" be learned on the job. Not overestimating your own abilities for the given timeframe herein is the most difficult thing, or at least it is for me. What made it somewhat easier is to use coding as a tool to make solve certain problems easier. I do not write code for the means of writing code. I write code to solve a certain problem in life.
If you don't feel a bachelors degree has added value for you personally, go for it. The way you run your business is totally up to you, but by all means; go for it.
Thank you for responding!!!
The point of the contrasting ROI from getting a degree vs bootstrapping a business has been something I think about a lot. Definitely going to try to find a small way to test out creating something. I just have to make a decision on whether I should take a break from school or not.
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Thank your for your advice 🙇🏽♂️