Ask HN: Should I Go Back to College?
I'm 32 years old and currently working as a senior fullstack developer. I have an associates degree in science but I never pursued a computer science degree, I'm self taught and started with a junior developer position and now around 8 years later, I'm here with a senior developer position.
In the past I thought about it but I always felt good about where I stood with my career. I've not something I necessarily love, but I think I'm decent at it and it's a good living. Lately however, after layoffs, the bad job market, and the uncertainty with AI, I've felt more anxious about my future and I've really been putting serious thought into going back to college.
I would like to get my electrical engineering degree and focus on power systems. However, I worry about whether it is worth the money when I could spend the money on a house or other expenses. I know I won't be making more money but I like the idea of the type of work and the employability of it.
I'm not married but I am in a serious relationship and we would like to have kids in the next two to three years. I know it would be hard now to go back to school with that plan in mind but it would be even harder after that so I feel like this is a decision I need to make now, one way or the other, and stick with it.
Any advice or stories of personal experience with this is greatly appreciated.
29 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 68.0 ms ] threadDo you really like this and want to work in it / have friends or family you could ask about this career?
Because if not FYI, it's likely LESS salary than your software engineering job, plus less likely remote work is feasible if that's important to you.
I understand it's less salary and there's less chance of remote work but I'm just thinking about long term job prospects. I'm also okay with sticking with software engineering, but I worry about not having a job and also not having a degree. But I figure if I'm getting a degree, it might as well be in a field I'm interested.
Not to put you off, anyone can do it, but you have to commit pretty seriously.
Also, what is the local job market like for Electrical Engineers? Start there first. Look for opportunities locally, in your country, or wherever you want to end up.
I transitioned from EE career into Computer Science.
One thing I found really challenging with EE is the slow feedback loop during practice/study/tinkering. In contrast Comp Sci has a really fast feedback loop so you can learn at a rapid rate.
In an EE degree you learn a really broad range of topics, and the mathematics is relatively advanced, and relatively advanced physics too. These concepts are really great to learn, and will help you grow intellectually- but they are pretty abstract.
But can be a rewarding career, one of my best friends still works as an EE and he loves it, finds it really rewarding.
I’ve been thinking of going back to EE long term (firmware so half programming half EE)
As far as the job market goes, I don't really have roots where I am so I would be open to moving for an opportunity, for EE or my software.
Interesting to hear about the slow feedback loop. I guess that's something I take for granted with development so I'm not sure how that owuld affect me.
Do you ever worry about the future of your career in comp sci? It's gotta be nice to at least have EE as a backup.
If you instead tried to get into embedded programming (C, C++) your programming knowledge can help, but you’d still need to know circuits and electronics etc. But that’s probably your best move if you are deadset on EE. You can maybe even get in without a full degree (maybe).
I have ~4YOE in Software. I’m not worried at all about my future career, because even though I don’t have a CS degree, I study and program almost every day. AI doesn’t worry me (I use LLMs every day, I think they are overhyped imo). I know a lot of people do worry though.
My job is frontend, I’m Intermediate/Senior doing typical frontend, but I’ve been diving deep into C programming for graphics programming (and eventually electronics) in my spare time and pick up free courses all the time to not just be a “web developer”.
Also EE I had 1 ~EE job when I graduated and it was harder than the current stuff I do. TBH I don’t see EE as a fallback option because I’m so out of practice I’ve forgotten a lot of my studies :0
Can you tell me what your main worry is? If it’s AI, that’s great news - I’d love to help you think more about it so you don’t worry :) if it’s that you don’t have a degree, can discuss that too :)
An EE can do a CS Masters Or a EE Masters
But a CS can’t do an EE masters
So I guess EE gives you more opportunities than just doing CS
Maybe that's something I should try first, diving into other subjects like graphics programming. In my spare time I just try to pursue other frontend projects and I end up not making much progress, maybe because I already do it so much for my day job. Can you point me to any resources you recommend for graphics programming? I've been playing around with three.js but that's still pretty high level.
My main worry is definitely AI. I feel like I have to increasingly prove my worth, and not even to my job but to myself. I worry that in the future I'll be laid off and it'll be hard to find another opportunity. That's also where the degree comes in as another worry. It feels like a no brainer that in a pool of applicants, someone with a degree would get picked over someone without one.
I appreciate you sharing your experience with EE and your thoughts about AI. It's nice to get another perspective on everything.
For graphics I recommend getting into C first (try C programming a modern approach book) and then looking at a graphics API like SDL2 or OpenGL - that’s what I’m doing. I’m also picking up a UC San Diego course on graphics later this year.
I think the AI worries are mostly because AI seems so magical. Sure, it can spit out an algorithm, but it’s terrible at system design or anything slightly off the proven path. LLMs are beyond useless as soon as you hit any complexity. So, try building something complex (graphics, heavy DOM manipulation, games etc) maybe you need to challenge yourself a bit more etc. I’m pretty confident LLMs will not replace any seniors who can actually program and understand systems. But, if you ONLY know frontend, it may be worth broadening your knowledge.
Also consider that AI compute costs are INSANE and they are exponential, and LLMs are a huge factor worse at information compression than a human mind. I do not see this changing for decades. Consider that ChatGPT Claude etc have effectively been “trained” on all human knowledge, yet if you ask either which is bigger number “1.9 or 1.11” they always say 1.11 lol. LLMs are shit haha.
Also the fact you are already a Senior developer means more than a degree, you have experience.
Why not consider doing a Masters degree in Computer Science? You said you already have a Physics degree, I think a Masters is only 1-2 years. That would be much much easier than jumping into EE.
But, do what will make you feel best. When considering taking on studies, think how you’ll feel in 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years time etc.
You could look into a decision matrix to weigh up your options. Come up with 10-20 priorities (ageism, opportunities, compensation, remote work ability, fulfilment … etc) and rank them most important to least, and assign increasing weights of 1 to “n” where “n” is your top priority.
Then compare your options, eg “do EE degree”, “stay in CS”, “do CS masters” etc and give a unique score from 1 to “m” (eg in this case 1,2,3) for each option against each priority.
Then multiply by weights, sum up totals and see what comes out ahead!
That’s what I do for all big life decisions. Then brew on it for a few days, weeks, and play around with the calcs.
You're right about AI. I do use it as a supplement at work and I was never really worried about it until people I know that work on it or with it started getting in my head about how it's going to replace me. I realize that they're biased but it's hard to not take it personal. I really like your line about challenging myself more, you're completely right. I've gotten stagnant and while I think I would enjoy EE, I am using it as an escape from my current situation.
I've considered the degree in CS but I would have to start almost from scratch. I only have an associates so I would still have to get my bachelors first. I wouldn't mind pursuing it, but again I hear that it's not so useful anymore which led me to think about other degrees I would enjoy.
I'll definitely try the decision matrix and like you said, brew on it for a bit before making a decision because I have made rush decisions in the past. I think there will probably be a "grass is greener on the other side" moment with either choice but I just have to make one and stick with it.
The mass media, and most people are getting twisted regarding AI. I stopped listening and reading any AI news a while back, which really helps. I do think EE sounds a bit like escapism in its current form. If you do decide to do EE, do it from a place of confidence and passion rather than fear of career failure etc. that’s when you’ll know it’s a good choice.
I do think people over estimate degrees a bit, in Software you can get very far without one, just pays to have experience and a portfolio if possible.
Speaking of decision matrix, make sure to add a special priority called “green grass bias” and give it the inverse weight of your top priority. Eg if your top priority weight is “10”, this bias should be “-10”.
And for all the options that aren’t your current situation, add this negative bias to their totals. So if doing EE scores 50 points, after the bias it will score 40 points.
I use it as a way to calculate for bias where the grass is greener.
Good luck mate, it will all be okay
Sure you can get a job without one. But try to get a coveted job at SpaceX or Netflix (just examples) and your resume will be thrown out in the first cut. In a downturn like now, you won’t even get to the phone screen stage for jobs without an ally inside.
[0] https://github.com/Artoriuz/OSEE
Take a look at Western Governors University. They are fully online, and their courses are "if you pass the test, you pass the class" - you don't have to attend any particular set of lectures or be on any particular schedule.
I was well into my career before I got my bachelor's and I can't say if I would've been filtered out of my current job without it. I feel fairly confident that if I'd gotten past screening otherwise, I'd still have gotten the job. I'm really glad that I went back to school.
Much like planting trees, the best time to go back to school is 10 years ago, second best time is now. That said, I was able to pay for my schooling out of pocket and as I said I was already working (and making decent money)
A last random anecdote: A friend of mine got his EE, and then pursued and became a patent lawyer. I once asked him why (because patent law seemed boring to me, and we both loved electronics) and he told me that he realized he didn't want to spend his career designing and maintaining a print server product. You don't often get to pick what you work on.
Anyway, good luck.
Picking what you'll do specifically without starting the degree does not sit well with me. I am in CS and not in EE, but believe a degree gives you a breath understanding of the subject to let you choose wiser.
In my days, lots of students started CS because they would "like to put up websites" or "work for this specific employers in town". Those goals were determined based on what they could see around them at the time. Then the field shifted (like AI coming) and the company's trajectory shifted. They were disappointed on either the school didn't teach them skills specific to the job or didn't graduate before the downturn. The specific type of job or the field could also be saturated with folks with years of experience on their job: Entry-level positions could be hard to come by.
Now I make web apps.
But a funny turn of events means that I myself need 2 hip prosthetics, so I will become a mecha/cyborg myself anyway
- Like others have said, EE is a very difficult degree to pursue. Studying power systems will probably save you from having to study too much of the really complicated theory, but there are still some strange abstract concepts you will have to have a good understanding of in order to know whats going on, and A LOT of complex math that goes with these concepts. Make sure you know what you are signing up for and if you like to study these types of things before fully committing.
- EE jobs are probably marginally safer than software related jobs from being consumed by AI, but making this switch will not guarantee job security. When / if the day comes that AI takes 90% of developer jobs, so too will it take a massive percentage of jobs that EE's have traditionally done. Power systems design is already one of those fields that is largely done via computers. Being the person at a power plant that helps debug when things go wrong isn't going go be replaced anytime soon, but you can say the same thing about software related jobs as well (maybe AI does a lot of the groundwork in the future, so there will be less need for swaths of people to work on software but there will always be need for a human in the loop until we get to a super intelligent AI which is unlikely in our lifetimes)
- Part of the reason I left EE to pursue more traditional software was because of how slow it moves and how much investment upfront you need to do really anything. It's also more difficult to get a job as a EE in general compared to software because of fewer opportunities in general and also companies not wanting to hire new people to make mistakes at their company before they figure out what they are doing and move on to not make mistakes at other companies. It's also an order of magnitude more difficult to debug problems you encounter working on hardware or power systems. A large part of learning how to be a good EE is understanding how to use all of the very expensive equipment in the lab to gain any kind of understanding as to what is happening with your project.
Overall I would recommend taking some classes about power systems and see if you like it or not before committing. I honestly wouldn't worry about the AI super intelligence taking your job anytime soon, if anything software fields might start to get more interesting because we won't have to slog through writing so much boilerplate before getting to the interesting areas where people are actually needed to think critically about.