Posts by envygeeks

Original Post by spirochete:

I am firmly planted in the NOT a corporate climber camp. I hate the games. I don't understand many peoples' desire to manage more and more people. The mere thought of it makes me light headed. I mean I guess someone has to be managers so might as well be the people who get off on it.

Me? I am spirochete: company of 1. I love my job (recruiting) and I do it on a contract basis without being under a contract company (someone who gets paid by the company and then they pay me). I chose when I work, who I work with and where I work.

I'll never be some fancy manager lady but I can say I run my own business, even if that business is managing one lowly employee: me.

 

PS: keep the CS degree. Very high demand but I have to tell you, be prepared to ALWAYS be keeping yourself up to date. Take six months off of reading and learning and POOF you're obsolete. You have to love it to be good at it. My husband is a developer and he's always learning or reading something. ALWAYS. That's why he's successful

That's not true at all.  CS is a foundation of many studies, including graphics design or computer graphics, AKA 3D design.   Can't generalise the entire field and it's specialties.  Your husband is a programmer, hopefully he went as far as Software Engineering, but either way, this is why he has to update himself, but not every 6 months.  His learning is by choice, not by necessity. Unless he programs websites, and even then it's not so often unless it's by choice, not necessity.  His reading is general refreshing because there is a lot to know if you know multiple languages.  Most people don't have the retention to remember everything from C# to C++ or Assembly (if he knows Assembly) and many others.  Ask him how much of Java he actually remembers from college.  Books just help him remember :p.

On the main posters end and the latter half of the statement above, successful and big-time career are subjective.  What is successful to you?  You could very well make 300K+ a year solo if you know what you're doing.  Her husband is successful yes, but not as successful as he could be if he majored in Computer Engineering and minored in Computer Science allowing him to go into deeper aspects and wider aspects of the computer industry.  As a developer, unless he is either a Senior programmer or Freelance his job is the first to go too.  They'll rid of a developer before they do an Engineer because an Engineer can program most likely, can a programmer Engineer is the second thing.  Developers jobs are quickly headed over seas sadly. So that ends up leaving you with the notion that, well, computer science degrees are in high-demand as subjective.

I would vote for the latter half of Engineering too, Control or Computer if you're interested in Computer Science as both pay 5x as much (if you're good at what you're doing) and 2x as much entry level.  You're looking at the difference between being an Administrator and Chief or an Administrator and, well, a Senior Technician in a large scale data centre.  College professors make nothing compared to real-world work if you're good.  Your parents might be pushing you that way for stability.  As even though Engineering degrees are in High Demand, our careers are often on the line until we get high up.

That's not true at all about being less stressful, actually, in all honesty, it's more stressful till you get higher up.  This industry shant be compared to the average office job where the peeons only do certain things.  In this industry you are pushed to the max till you can push your max onto other people.

Remember, lots of things are subjective and only you can decide what you truly want to do and what your speciality will be.  Even if you get a general computer science degree, just like a doctor who has a general degree, you have to chose a speciality, and that's in the end that decides your goal, your pay and your greatness (this is subjective).  And while Computer Science degrees are in High Demand, they are looking for specific studies in Computer Science to push as high-demand.

In this industry there is no such thing as laid back unless you make nothing a year and work for a nothing company.  You might see pictures of googles buildings with all the play-toys, but little do you know, those are there to relieve stress because this industry is so stressful a lot.  Companies are worrying more and more about the well-being of their employees because this industry is so stressful and they want to make sure that things aren't so stressful in certain aspects.

Out of all the careers, ours is the best, we may live a stressful life, but damn if we don't get the best technology first, damn if we don't have the fanciest chairs, damn if we don't have the fanciest buildings with the fanciest furniture to keep our lifes that little bit less stressful.   I know I may come off as saying you'll live a stressful life, but it's not really all that stressful once you see all the perks companies give you to aliviate a lot of the stress you'll go through.

Original Post by luvpenny:

Hi guys!

Just woke up, from six long hours of sleep.  For me, that's about the most I can sleep in a night ever.  Usually its four...  I rarely have trouble falling asleep, but usually I wake up early - WAY too early and can't fall back asleep.  Like if I go to bed at eleven I'll be up at four.

Apparently this is a pretty common problem, so I was wondering if anyone else has troubles sleeping?  Do you have any tricks or advice for me?  

Thanks in advance!!!!!

Well, have you talked to your doctor? Before you assume it's insomnia or even a problem for you, I would talk to your doctor and ask for a specialist.  The reason being is, are you having normal sleep patterns? N1 -> N2 -> N3 -> N2 -> N3 -> REM is an example.  If you aren't reaching REM and NREM stages this is a sign of trouble in your sleep.  Otherwise you have a normal sleeping pattern and your body feels rested so it is waking itself that or it's you waking yourself up thinking you can't go back to sleep.  Remember, we control our sleep patterns by willed behavior as well as with other things.

A study by the University of California, San Diego showed that people who lived the longest reported only sleeping 6 hours a day, while the national sleep institute says you should get 7-9 hours of sleep a night.  Doctors will vary on opinion.

Do you drink (and not drink as in Alcohol) before you go to bed? I would try not to drink anything for at least an hour or two before bed.  Do something calm before trying to sleep.  The best way is to sit in bed with the TV on low low and watch something boring, make sure the TV turns itself off.

Don't excersise 5 hours before bed, this can impact sleeping patterns as well.  Many don't realise that.  Don't eat so close to bed time, no "midnight snack".  The types of foods you eat can impact your sleeping as well.

Many people think they need things to sleep but over time they don't realise how unaware it makes them while sleeping as well they don't realise that it can effect their sleeping, things like: TV, Music, Light, Noise. 

On the subject of the person who says they think it's not the caffeine: Do you smoke, do you eat candy? Do you drink alcohol? Do you eat regularly? The improper diet mixed with proper excersise can effect sleeping as well.