Yadyan Tiu on BS Computer Science

Name: Yadyan Tiu

Course taken: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Current Job: Web Developer, SEO specialist

Job responsibilities: Developing websites, creating supplementary programs, optimizing websites for internet search.

 

Why did you choose to pursue BS Computer Science?

Probably because I was influenced by my elder sister who also took the same course. I often saw her working on the computer, and I kind of got intrigued with what she was doing, so I thought trying it might not be such a bad idea.

For you, what was the most interesting part of studying computer science? What about the most challenging?

Creating algorithms. It requires a lot of analysis and hard work, but once you’ve figured out the best way to implement your ideas, the rest will come easy. Developing mobile applications was also fun. It offered countless of possibilities to explore and seeing the applications or programs you developed being used by other people was really fulfilling.

As for which is the most challenging, I think that was the system development part which we did for our undergraduate thesis. The goal was to come up with a useful but cost-effective program of our own, so it required a good deal of research and plenty of experiments in order to find the best and easiest way to do it. Things became a lot easier after we were done with that.

What kind of activities did you do when you were still a BS Computer Science student?

We used to do a lot of problem-solving activities when I was still in school.

For example, we would be given a scenario where someone has to do a specific task, but the problem is he doesn’t know how to. As computer science students, our job was to come up with a program that will help him carry out the task that he needs to do. What our instructors would do was give us the basic principles behind developing programs, then figuring out the rest of the process would be up to us. By doing that, we were able to build databases, set up computer networks, and develop mobile applications.

What were the things you learned from taking up BS Computer Science that you find very useful in your current job?

The basics of system programming. Some people tend to discount the importance of studying the basics, but in my experience, I learned that having a good foundation is important if you’re going to work on different platforms. Think of it as the framework of a structure; it might look bare without the finishing and trimmings, but as long as it’s there, you can easily add new parts as you go along — for as many times as you want.

What skills or attributes do you think would come in handy for incoming college students who are thinking of taking the same course you did?

Analytical and mathematical skills. Creating a program from scratch takes a lot of planning and analysis. You’d have to ask yourself plenty of things: What kind of program will benefit people most? How am I going to build it? How can I make it cost-effective? Will it run on all computers?

You’d have to come up with answers to things like those before you can even start. Sometimes, even with plenty of planning, errors cannot be entirely avoided, so you would need to figure out what went wrong, and what you can do to make things work. If you have a strong mathematical foundation, coming up with formulas to solve those problems would come easy.

Do you have any pieces of advice for incoming college students who are thinking of taking the course you did?

Do not underestimate the basics. You’ll learn how important they are as you go along. Also, never stop learning. Grab every opportunity to learn something new. The only thing that remains constant in this world is change, so you have to keep up if you don’t want to be left behind.

Do you think you chose the right course? Why or why not?

For the most part, I think yes; although I must admit, knowing what I know now, I could’ve probably pursued my original choice which was BS Civil Engineering.

Back then, I chose BSCS because it was the more practical choice, but after working for several years as a computer programmer, I can say that I really do enjoy my job.

Salary wise, it’s also not very bad. If your skills are good enough and you know where to look for jobs, you can earn up to double the amount other professionals earn. I guess my only regret is that I eventually realized that if you’re resourceful enough, you can learn a good amount of the things I learned as a BSCS student from studying and researching on your own.

That’s not saying that a BSCS degree is not essential, because there are plenty of companies that do prefer graduates of BSCS for certain positions, and there are also things that you might have a hard time studying on your own, but always take time to study your options. Sometimes, what you think might not be possible could actually have a workaround that you can use if you’d be willing to give it a try.