I’m not sure how comment notification works here, and whether you will auto-see what I say in other comments, but I am considering a career in software, but not as a programmer necessarily. I want to be more of an administrator/motivator, but I’m floundering in the dark as to how to go about gathering the necessary skills. Hence, I sort of defaulted to more school, since in Montreal university is really cheap. I’m still figuring things out :)
I want to be more of an administrator/motivator, but I’m floundering in the dark as to how to go about gathering the necessary skills.
Well, then I reiterate my comment about what mathematics background you really need: All the more so. You don’t need calculus to be a programmer; there’s mathematical intuition and there’s “coding intuition”, and both are built up by practice but they are quite different skills. And a manager needs even less to know the mathematical details.
So, you may be stuck with calculus classes due to the course structure of your school, but if at your current level you can struggle through and get acceptable grades, I suggest that your marginal unit of effort is likely better spent coding. (If you’re looking at a fail, or at insufficient preparation for a tougher course next year, that’s a different question.) And I strongly suggest that you do not want to take courses labeled “computer science”, except perhaps a very introductory one to cover data structures and big-O analysis; you want “software engineering”. Possibly the courses you are taking as prereqs can be reconsidered in light of this.
I’m not sure how comment notification works here, and whether you will auto-see what I say in other comments, but I am considering a career in software, but not as a programmer necessarily. I want to be more of an administrator/motivator, but I’m floundering in the dark as to how to go about gathering the necessary skills. Hence, I sort of defaulted to more school, since in Montreal university is really cheap. I’m still figuring things out :)
Thanks so much for the post.
Well, then I reiterate my comment about what mathematics background you really need: All the more so. You don’t need calculus to be a programmer; there’s mathematical intuition and there’s “coding intuition”, and both are built up by practice but they are quite different skills. And a manager needs even less to know the mathematical details.
So, you may be stuck with calculus classes due to the course structure of your school, but if at your current level you can struggle through and get acceptable grades, I suggest that your marginal unit of effort is likely better spent coding. (If you’re looking at a fail, or at insufficient preparation for a tougher course next year, that’s a different question.) And I strongly suggest that you do not want to take courses labeled “computer science”, except perhaps a very introductory one to cover data structures and big-O analysis; you want “software engineering”. Possibly the courses you are taking as prereqs can be reconsidered in light of this.