How many % did you actually learned at college?

I have been wondering, since colleges mix up subjects like english, math, etc. With the actual technical course related subjects...

How many percentage of you actually know right now, is from the learning at institution?

Is it bearly 20%-30%? Or more?

Because i have been hearing from lot of working people, many say they learned a lot while working and self studying at home than college courses.

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Comments

Priston

I went to community college and that has provided me with a great foundation, about 70% of the classes I took were technical courses. I've been working in the IT field for around 3 years now and most of what I'm learning now is the stuff I didn't pay much attention to in college.

Of course it's a lot more motivating to learn something when you have people relying on you to get the job done. In college no one's relying on you so it's a lot easier to slack off.

philz1982

I have a Business BS. The only courses I still reference are English, Finance, and Strategic Management. Everything else, not so much.

Cisc0kidd

A lot of College is learning how to learn and becoming a well rounded individual. It also proves to a company you can set a goal and achieve it while doing tasks that may not be your favorite.

Shdwmage

5-10% at most. About the only thing I actually picked up from college was good documentation practices.

aftereffector

I learned how to study, how to write professionally, and how to manage my time and work with deadlines while in college. The trivia that I still remember from my history courses is almost irrelevant.

Zartanasaurus

I pretty much forget most of it after the class is over, especially gen ed classes. I was trying to get good grades not become a Jeopardy contestant. I took classes on Unix, Novell, Java and C++ and barely remember a thing outside of the very basics because I haven't used it since.

iBrokeIT

Most BS degrees you spend a lot of time taking Gen Ed courses and learning theory. So the answer to your question is yes, you will need to spend time outside of your college course work developing your IT skills.

If you want to get into IT and hit the ground running you need to be doing a relevant work study, summer internships or part job to get value work experience in the field. If you graduate with 0 work experience, certifications or 0 industry contacts you did it wrong. An IT degree alone is not a golden ticket to a +50k/yr job out of college.

puertorico1985

College for me was mainly about learning foundations, not necessarily learning anything technical. While I did learn about networks/programming/security, most of what I know now I learned on the job.

I would say less than 10%

sj4088

Almost everything technical in IT I know I learned from my 13 years working in the field on the job. 13 years equal phd, lol.

anoeljr

Out of all the courses in college that I took, the class I reference most would be English. I'm always trying to better my writing skills.

pinkydapimp

aftereffector wrote: »

I learned how to study, how to write professionally, and how to manage my time and work with deadlines while in college. The trivia that I still remember from my history courses is almost irrelevant.

This. Ill add that even though i was comp sci, i learned how to think logically and problem solve. Add to that the strong foundation of computer knowledge from courses like assembly language. I learned a ton and it allowed me to be very flexible with my career choices.

UnixGuy

Impossible to put a %. My degree was extremely challenging, and it gave me the confidence of knowing that I can tackle ANY challenge I face. The background I have in electronics, electrical engineering, Hardware design and programming somehow make me feel comfortable around any new hardware, you know? I'm not intimidated by any challenge.

ramrunner800

The amount of things I specifically learned in a college classroom that I use in my everyday working life is relatively low, but if you think the point of going to college is to learn a set of facts you will take to the workforce, you have a fundamental misconception of what college is designed to teach. If college taught job skills then companies everywhere would be run by PhD's.

There are two things that you should aim to walk away with from college. The first is the ability to think/learn. Most people don't have an appreciation for the fact that the ability to think is something that is taught, because it seems like something anybody can do. I work as an analyst right now, and I can definitely attest that it is a skill that must be taught and nurtured. The second is the ability to communicate effectively with other people, which is a skill that most people lack. The development of these skills is a large part of why colleges include so many classes that are seemingly irrelevant to the field of any particular degree.

College should provide you with the skills to go out into the world and find opportunities and learn new skills. If you are going into it with the expectation that your class work is going to teach you what you need to know in a job, then you need to reassess if college is really the right option for you. There may be better alternatives for how to spend all that time and money.

lsud00d

I had 0 computer-related classes in college. I started the intro C++ course but the format was terrible (tests consisted of writing a program on a blank piece of paper) so I dropped that.

As others have stated, I learned interpersonal communication, empathy, writing, along with cognitive concrete/abstract thinking and analysis. Soft skills will often take you further than technical aptitude and ability, but when you combine all three you have the winning combination.

hellolin

I am learning how to juggling between school and work and deal with a 80 mile round trip commute during rush hour, what am I learning in the school is less important than how to deal with the stress and manage all that comes with work and school and balance everything out.

Akaricloud

In college I figured how how I learn information best, how to effectively communicate with people, how to manage projects involving groups, how to manage my time and most importantly I learned methods of critical thinking that can be applied to every aspect of life. What percentage of this do I use? - 100%.

The real value of college isn't the random facts that you memorize during your courses.

MrBishop

I don't know if a lot of the material is really related to what is performed on the job. I would say that certs have helped a lot because they focus exactly on the equipment you would be working on in a networking environment. I would have to say the Cisco academy has help quite a bit in the transition to real work because things will start to click and make more sense when you see it live. The purpose of the degree for me was to get a job because it's required for many of the IT positions. I continue on with my studies because there's so much competition to land a good job, so go as far as possible.

Params7

10%. That 10% being some tech stuff I picked up. Really nothing much at all. Perhaps some experience doing group presentations?

datacomboss

Being a 19 year veteran of IT, I would say at least 60% as the writing, analysis and reasoning skills I learned through my composition/literature, calculus, statistics and physics courses have carried me a lot farther than the COBOL, Pascal, FORTRAN and computer operations courses I took in the late 80s.

hellolin

datacomboss wrote: »

Being a 19 year veteran of IT, I would say at least 60% as the writing, analysis and reasoning skills I learned through my composition/literature, calculus, statistics and physics courses have carried me a lot farther than the COBOL, Pascal, FORTRAN and computer operations courses I took in the late 80s.

The java programming courses are really helpful in that purpose, had to switch my mind from fully subjective to objective, was a big task for me, but once I understand the concept of OOP it made everything else like networking seems to be so much easier, and understanding how technology works as a whole