Worth staying in dead zone for a degree? | CS Career Hub | Page 1

primal citrus Jul 25, 2022, 5:16 PM

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Hey y'all, I'll try keep my questioning pretty brief since I'm sure you all get the same similar thing everyday.
I'm currently a junior developer on a 3 year software engineering apprenticeship (working here for little under a year now) for a bachelor's degree with a small, non IT company.

The issue I have is the knowledge at use with the current repertoire here is pretty small, using fairly outdated languages that really lead to no future career progression employer unless it was for maintaining and transferring legacy applications (VB.net, pascal etc). I've had to try get the IT lead up to speed with basic practices like version control, creating a functional codebase for collaboration, etc etc which he's seemed too lazy to in the past 10 to 15 years he's been working here as an IT manager.

Not that it's entirely useless of course, I've learnt quite a useful amount relating to databases and SQL, useful experiences with SDL, SCRUM, kanban etc, but that seems the extent of it besides what I've listed above.
I've tried working on more "up to date" languages (c#, java etc) so to speak but time and willingness to accommodate this for training is sparse, so it's mostly within my own spare time.

Is it worth my time staying with this company and falling behind my peers for the degree and experience, or should I look elsewhere?

fervent turtle Jul 25, 2022, 5:20 PM

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What alternatives are you looking at? Full-time school, working and funding your own school, working and dropping out?

primal citrus Jul 25, 2022, 5:23 PM

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My main two alternatives was either
Just going straight for a compsci degree and accepting the student debt

Waiting to start fresh with a new IT company when they're doing intake for the same degree programme, (5-6 months from now) but I would be pushed back a year or so and have to start the course over again, working here till that time

static scaffold Jul 26, 2022, 1:39 PM

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So 2 more years until you get the piece of paper?

primal citrus Jul 26, 2022, 2:28 PM

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Could say that, but it's also 2 more years in the sector and a lifetime of student debt avoided, is un utilized experience better than no experience in this instance?

static scaffold Jul 26, 2022, 2:32 PM

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There are better options than both those things.

primal citrus Jul 26, 2022, 2:37 PM

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Want to suggest some? you'd be lucky to even get IT support here with no degree, even if you're self taught

static scaffold Jul 26, 2022, 11:01 PM

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Well I think a worthwhile degree is probably the first. Putting "I have 1 year of experience as a junior developer" on your resume and applying elsewhere is another.

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I think the answer is you should just keep a look out for opportunities.

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Build a portfolio on GitHub, contribute to free and open source software then find another job.

primal citrus Jul 27, 2022, 8:34 AM

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thank you! ill be scouting for other employers in the meantime and focusing more on open source contribution, haven't touched as much of it as i should have.

static scaffold Jul 27, 2022, 9:09 AM

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Good luck.

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Nothing is more helpful IMO than writing down your good ideas of things to do.

#Worth staying in dead zone for a degree?