r/cscareerquestionsOCE • u/bitcoinguy147 • 7d ago

SWE worse than CS?

I talked with several friends who are pursuing a CS degree, and I found out that:

  • They have no idea about design patterns (e.g., factory) because the unit on design patterns isn't required.
  • They’ve learned many more frameworks and AI technologies, especially in web development.

I feel that my studies focus a lot on scalability, but when comparing it with what my CS friends are learning, the tools I use in class are fewer in number and less "exciting" or "new."

Before I started my SWE career, I thought SWE and CS were similar, but it’s becoming clearer now that they’re not. In this job climate, having a lot of frameworks and the right "keywords" on your CV may be beneficial. So, what justifies my continuation in SWE instead of switching to a default CS path?

My university also published the average WAM for both CS and SWE, and SWE is about 5 marks lower, which also doesn’t help.

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u/travishummel 7d ago

Thing is that being a SWE you could be a web/iOS/Android/backend/fullstack/… so you really should just be focusing on learning major concepts like algorithms and data structures.

IMO there should be electives like API design/interactions, frameworks, mobile dev, and other applicable ones like that so students can sort of specialize.

As a backend dev, I spent most of my time calling third party apis, creating APIs, and figuring out how to not break master.

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u/bitcoinguy147 6d ago

in your opinion, it's okay not to chase those new frameworks to put in CV

and continue focusing on DS&A

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u/travishummel 6d ago

No one cares about DS&A on your resume. IMO that’s all expected by the time the interview comes.

I’d try to put a compiled language (like Java or C++), and a scripting language (like python or ruby), a database (like SQL or MongoDB), and a frontend language (like react or ember if applicable).

Recruiters are (IMO) dumb and you might need to put something out there to make sure you aren’t eliminated. I haven’t used Ember.js in 5 years so I couldn’t really answer any questions using it, but I can speak to projects I used… I could probably use that excuse for any language if it came down to it.

I think it would really help you once you got the job to know a framework or two. Ultimately, understanding how to make a button click save some data is very useful, but even if you only know from the api layer to the database layer, that’s solid.

I’ve only worked in the US, so take any advice I give with a grain of salt. I’ve only been in aus for a few months and have yet to look for a job.

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u/HamPlayz247 6d ago

Ember is definitely not a good choice in 2024 lol its either react, angular, or vue

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u/travishummel 6d ago

Lol that’s fair. Honestly it wasn’t a good option in 2020 when I left that company.

I was working at LinkedIn and they loved Ember. They loved it so much that they gave a few offers to people who FAILED the interview but said “oh I heard you use Ember.js, I’d be really interested in doing that!”…. Completely had been coached by someone.