I got first class degree in CS, but I know nothing about computers

I actually go to university now i started doing programming and built my own business at 16. I learned more than I have ever learned in school. I am really contemplating just going into working for a startup. I heard startups don't care if you have a degree, but I haven't heard back from any I have applied for. So if anyone could post whether they care if someone goes to Uni or if experience is enough.

Stay in school as long as you can, unless you have a burning desire to change the world...

Everyone goes through college feeling this way once they finish. Keep going with your university studies, get the highest degree you can or jump to a well-paying job in industry. You have alpha number of hours in the day, and bravo number of topics to study relating to computing. Where alpha is finite, and bravo is infinite(and growing!).

At a job you will focus (even if focusing on say web development, it's still generic focusing in that area); when you are on your off-time you can begin to branch out into further, specialized focus area's learning what you want, exploring what you want.

The possibilities are always endless and the topics, oh they are many: high-performance computing, gaming, graphics, sound, web, application, server, user-interface, user-design, IT Tech, networking, the list goes on and on. Congratulations on graduating; never forget life is what you make it!

I doubt you forgot everything. It's your brain tricking you. You began school with a strong knowledge of the of the things you were aware of. Now you're aware of many more areas so you feel like you learned nothing overall.

Imagine a large circle A with a smaller B inside of it centered on the same point. A represents your awareness of all things computers, the set of things you know about but haven't learned yet. B represents the things you know very well, a few programming languages, some math, etc.

While you've been learning, A and B are both expanding, but A is expanding faster than B. You're feeling intimidated by the things you are aware of, but don't know very well.

It's probably related to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

You did not need to go to Uni. It really matters what you went for (employment vs well rounded learning).

For employment, it would have been much more efficient to use the same time/money to gain experience and post it through github. I am twice as likely to hire a person with a good portfolio than someone who has a good degree. That said..both would be good.

For getting a more well rounded understanding of what is really happening and why computers do what they do....a uni degree/experience is really helpful.

Not quite sure if you're talking about the underlying hardware and all. But awhile back I ran across the book "Building a Modern Computer from First Principles". I haven't actually read it due to being in school myself but it seems extremely interesting. Basically it walks you from low level boolean logic up through processor design, compilers, operating systems, and languages. Most of the book can actually be downloaded from their site here: http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/plan.html.

I think this might stem from the fact you've finished your academic studies for the first time in your life.

You studied CS and you proved you're capable of learning to a high standard AND you achieved a great result.

Now it's up to you to choose what you study next. What areas do you feel you are missing? Even outside of tech.

When you leave uni it's not possible to have studied every concept. I did CS in the UK too and I went down the analytics, data, ecommerce route and left with very limited programming skills. That's something I've had to address since leaving.

Follow your interests and plug the gaps that are worrying you.