For years I have been trying to find a teaching gig in the city where I grew up. I’ve been teaching in rural areas for the past seven years. Once again I have applied and once again no job.
I’m ready to make my next move. Rolling my car on my commute has only increased the urgency of this decision. I’m going to take my hard earned math knowledge and enroll in the computer science program at my university. It will be a part-program for a year. This means beginning in September, I will be an unemployed part-time student. I plan to try and fill this time by making my presence known around the city that I’m available for teaching and subbing. I’ve been studying my math for three years(!) reviewing it for the day I would make a dramatic life change. Right now I’m doing very well in my calculus course. The original plan three years ago was to enroll in Computer Engineering, but now that I’m 30 going on 31, I’d rather do a shorter program. So Comp Sci it is.
Basically I’m going to allow next year to be a flexible year. If I don’t get a teaching gig in the city that I like, I will go full throttle into computer science. As I already have an education / music degree I should be able to finish the computer science program within in 2 1/2 years. The degree would add on to my education degree and give me a new skill set in order to find work in the city. I think I would enjoy the more introverted work (I really enjoy working on my math in a quiet environment). However if I get a teaching gig, I will celebrate and look into purchasing a condo. I know so many teachers without jobs I felt it irresponsible to quit my job without a good plan. I think this is the best option.
I will have almost 40k saved up with no debts for the fall (including a brand spanking new car). I also am living with my folks rent free…so this is the best time to make a bold move. I will miss the paycheque, but I think giving this a shot will be worth it. Again… I will have to live with my parents for awhile…which puts a damper on my love life…but sacrifices must be made. Fortunately me and my folks get along fairly well.
It's now or never. Much has happened these past few years...I hope all the pain, work, and time will have amounted to something. There's no excuse anymore. I plan to resign sometime this month and get moving on the next adventure.
Computer science is the current Big Thing.
Everyone and his brother is taking computer science.
Don’t get me wrong, computers aren’t going away or anything.
But if you are planning for your future, you want to get into the next Big Thing before it is overrun by the masses.
I don’t know what the next Big Thing is, I haven’t been looking for it.
It could be a very specialized application of computer science, for all I know.
Just computer science, seems a little general. Is there a more specialized aspect of it that might interest you?
We’re mostly past that now. During the dotcom years, we were overrun by every idiot that thought learning JavaScript (or worse, HTML) made him a programmer. Fortunately, there was never a shortage of jobs. And there still isn’t, but only if you’re bright (at least in the CA Bay Area).
Be respectful on your resignation letter. Ask for a letter of recommendation Now, not when you need it some day. Scan it as a PDF. Talk to managers you work with now (several) and ask them if they would be willing to be references for you in the future. Write down their contact information.
I got to interview a lot of those guys. Most of 'em couldn’t even handle Fizzbuzz.
One had an excellent solution that I must admit I hadn’t thought of before. He’d figure out all the fizzbuzz numbers ahead of time and just make a big list of them in his code.
Well there’s the Next Big Thing but there’s also Old Faithful like my department migrated to a new domain but the folks running the programming environment the company rolled out last month were caught off guard so that brought things grinding to a halt. Plus the new email archiving scheme crashed into a brick wall over the past couple of weeks. There’s always something that needs work or even better some forethought applied to.
I will go ahead and take one for the team here. I will need a small advance from you to take that trip around the world you promised us a few months ago. Someone’s gotta do it.
Thanks…I don’t think I ever promised anything…and that was a real vulnerable time for me. I’m more level headed now and would like to plan for my future. I’d hate for three years of math work to be for nothing. I’m realizing more lately how introverted I am, and I’d like to have more of time revolving around introverted activities. I love travel…but maybe I will just go visit NY this summer.
Quasimodal, how much do enjoy designing and coding a computer program?
What languages or platforms do you find the easiest to use?
How long at a time during the day are you willing to sit in front of a monitor and create things?
I wish you the very best. CS isn’t just about mathematics. But, you probably already know that.
Yes I know. Right now I have next to no skills in coding. I used to code in Qbasic as a teenager and I have had some time with HTML. As far as I understand, to begin CS the biggest hurdle for me was the math skills. I have an 88% right now in my calculus course. Three years ago I didn’t know how to work with exponents. I have tenacity and am undaunted by challenges. Believe me enough people have felt I was climbing an impossible mountain. So far I have proved them wrong.
How will I know unless I try? I’ve spent 8 hour days working on my math class. Very similar process I imagine. I want to work from my computer. I also just want a change. A short break from teaching may be just what I need. If it doesn’t work out, so be it, but at least I will have scratched an itch. Also it beats commuting out to work all the time, and studying is better than being unemployed and sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. I plan to stay flexible and keep looking for teaching work in the city while I’m working part time.
Also on that note…my Calc class is finished in two weeks. I want to start coding to practice for the fall. Have you tried Code Academy? Any other good places to start?
Quasimodal I bet you and your parents would get along even better if you paid them at least a nominal amount each month. Best of luck with your career change.
For 90+% of all computer science related jobs you only need to count up to 1. There’s nothing wrong with having other math skills, I wish I had more, but they’re not a hindrance to you in finding a job, possibly in getting a degree though.
I recommend you start coding in Javascript, today. For the most part it doesn’t matter much what you learn to code in, but you should use something readily available, popular, and desired as a skill. Goto Codeacademyand stop wasting time talking about it.
I agree with my neighbor TriPolar. The hot new thing on the block is node.js, which is server-side (outside of the browser) JavaScript. I’m going to be using extensively in my upcoming project, taking the place of what would have been – in years past – C or C++ daemons. It’s going to make the development process much quicker.
I won’t hire you unless your math skills are solid. I won’t make you recite your integration tables, but you better know–for instance–that log(ab) == log(a) + log(b). Or that a dot product between two vectors is equal to ||a||||b||*cos(θ).
I won’t claim that my job is typical, but it’s not like I’m doing nuclear bomb simulations, either. Everything I’ve heard about the interview process at Google and other big names is that they ask questions that require reasonable math skills.
I’m sure that there are plenty of jobs that don’t require any math at all, but it just isn’t true that it won’t be a hindrance to finding a job.
Best of luck with your career change.