>>17318274
I'm working as a programmer-analyst. I've already have a cs degree and i'm 3/4 done with my software engineering degree. what do you want to know?

>>17318413
What is more valuable in your opinion a CS degree or software engineering?

What is the difference between the two?

How long after you graduated did you find your first job?

Do you mostly do debugging or do you get to develop software for customers?

Is grad school worth it?

>>17318495
> What is more valuable in your opinion a CS degree or software engineering?
Both are valuable. IMHO both excellent programmers and excellent software engineers are required to have good softwares.

Both jobs will get you a good living, but in the long run, engineering will most likely get you a better salary.

Sometimes, the line is fuzzy between developers and engineers. (Especially in small compagnies), developers can work on software architecture, or sometimes engineers are essentially programmers. But let's say the world is black and white and the roles are well defined.

> What is the difference between the two?
On paper, the difference is: CS degree is for programming (learning to write excellent, efficient code) and software engineering is about architecture, project management, best practices. (Note: a good software architect should also be a good programmer.)

If you want to be a programmer; i.e. write code, algorithms, language-specifics, etc, then cs degree is excellent. If you want to design software, manage projects and teams, solve engineering problems with multidisciplinary teams, then software engineering is the way to go.

A CS degree is mainly about algorithms, programming languages, code efficiency, etc.

Software engineering should include some of these, depending on your concentration: business, project management, law, multidisciplinary projects, accounting&finances, etc.


I'd add this: even if I like writing code now, I don't think I'll want to do that all my life. Sofware eng for me is also a way of getting management positions in the long run.


I hope this was clear enough. Part 2 coming.

>>17318495
> How long after you graduated did you find your first job?
Even before I finished my first degree, compagnies had already started to contact soon-to-be-graduated students and offering them jobs. After that, sometimes even while I was at work, I would be contacted and asked to accept positions in other companies. So I never had to actually search for a job.

> Do you mostly do debugging or do you get to develop software for customers?
I do both, but I'd say about 80% of the time is about new projects and features.

It depends on the company where you work. If you work for a company that write software for clients (i.e. consulting), then you'll most likely write new software most of the time.

If you work for a company that produces and use it's own software (i.e. big corps, gov, etc), then you'll most likely see cycles. For a while, new software will be written. They are then put into production, they fall into mostly maintenance. After a while, when it begins to be more costly to maintain than update, the cycle restart and new software is being written from scratch.

> Is grad school worth it?
Define "worth it".
For a work perspective, unless you have a position in mind that requires it (i.e R&D), then it's not really worth it.
For you personally, I think it's very cool and totally worth it.
For the field, the contributions are certainly welcome; CS / soft engineering is a relatively new thing.

I'll check tomorrow if you have other questions.