OT: University/College Questions Part V

[Harry22]

Started HEC at 24, worked hard got a BBA with an accounting major with a very good GPA. Got a job at Ernst&Young and am now in CPA school, a year away from the National CPA exam.

It's never too late too start. If you put your mind to it and work hard, you'll be fine.

In the process, met an incredible girl and got engaged.

Was it easy? No. Lost my mom to cancer halfway into my bachelor's and my dad is now also battling cancer.

What I'm saying is, be positive every day and work hard. Enjoy life and live it with no regrets from now on.

 

[Fazkovsky]

5 years of relevant experience for what?

Work. Relevant work experience. I wouldn't put too much stuck into it.

 

[Fazkovsky]

Started HEC at 24, worked hard got a BBA with an accounting major with a very good GPA. Got a job at Ernst&Young and am now in CPA school, a year away from the National CPA exam.

It's never too late too start. If you put your mind to it and work hard, you'll be fine.

In the process, met an incredible girl and got engaged.

Was it easy? No. Lost my mom to cancer halfway into my bachelor's and my dad is now also battling cancer.

What I'm saying is, be positive every day and work hard. Enjoy life and live it with no regrets from now on.

Yeah well meeting a girl was a priority for me and going to uni would have helped alot

 

[waffledave]

I got my original degree in 2008 in business and went on to work in finance. I never, not once liked my job and pushed hard to move up and get promoted because I was hoping my next position would be one I enjoyed.

I quit everything and went back to school at 30 to study something I actually enjoy. I left my career and stability (not to mention a near 6 figure salary) to take a shot at something I felt was right for me. Not at 26, at 30!

Being in school as a mature student, you treat things differently. I am going to complete this 3 year degree in 2 years, and I am in the top 1% of my faculty.

Going back for a degree isn't necessarily a 4 year commitment.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

Work. Relevant work experience. I wouldn't put too much stuck into it.

http://www.concordia.ca/admissions/undergraduate/requirements-mature-students.html

Having 5 years of work experience is not one of the criteria.

So yah don't worry about that!

 

[Lebowski]

I got my original degree in 2008 in business and went on to work in finance. I never, not once liked my job and pushed hard to move up and get promoted because I was hoping my next position would be one I enjoyed.

I quit everything and went back to school at 30 to study something I actually enjoy. I left my career and stability (not to mention a near 6 figure salary) to take a shot at something I felt was right for me. Not at 26, at 30!

Being in school as a mature student, you treat things differently. I am going to complete this 3 year degree in 2 years, and I am in the top 1% of my faculty.

Going back for a degree isn't necessarily a 4 year commitment.

That's pretty cool, and more or less what I've experienced as well. Except I gave up on finances and business before even completing my university degree.

Went ahead and got a professional degree in the meantime. Given the fact there's not much work in construction these days, I'm thinking of doing something productive in the meantime. I'm interested in both mining engineering and software engineering, but I won't commit to anything until I've made extensive research on either of them to really make up my mind. I think it's the mistake I made when I got into finances. Completed my business degree in a Cegep and just kind of went with the flow after that in university. I figured it was only logical to get a BAC from that point. Yeah... not my best decision.

What sucks for me is that I can't get into university right now as a mature student as I've been in the education system over the past two years, so to get into any kind of engineering program requires me to complete all the preparation science and math classes. Not that much of an issue as I can get them all done in a semester, but still a bit of a turn off knowing I could just leapfrog all that stuff and get straight into a program as a mature student.

 

[Fazkovsky]

http://www.concordia.ca/admissions/undergraduate/requirements-mature-students.html

Having 5 years of work experience is not one of the criteria.

So yah don't worry about that!

The MEP requires the successful completion of a minimum of 18 additional credits.

Jeez.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

The MEP requires the successful completion of a minimum of 18 additional credits.

Jeez.

Depends what you go into I guess.

I did engineering which is 120 credits. The 'extra' 30 was just them saying "please do your prerequisites first". Luckily I went to dawson at night beforehand and did all my calculus, physics and so on so when I went to Concordia they said..."Oh, you have one extra general elective to do, that's all"

 

[Fazkovsky]

Depends what you go into I guess.

I did engineering which is 120 credits. The 'extra' 30 was just them saying "please do your prerequisites first". Luckily I went to dawson at night beforehand and did all my calculus, physics and so on so when I went to Concordia they said..."Oh, you have one extra general elective to do, that's all"

I think my choice is pretty clear: Marketing. Btw I will be close to 27 in winter when I will apply. Anyways, we will see, I am applying for sure at least.

 

[Emanresu Wen]

I got my original degree in 2008 in business and went on to work in finance. I never, not once liked my job and pushed hard to move up and get promoted because I was hoping my next position would be one I enjoyed.

I quit everything and went back to school at 30 to study something I actually enjoy. I left my career and stability (not to mention a near 6 figure salary) to take a shot at something I felt was right for me. Not at 26, at 30!

Being in school as a mature student, you treat things differently. I am going to complete this 3 year degree in 2 years, and I am in the top 1% of my faculty.

Going back for a degree isn't necessarily a 4 year commitment.

What was your new degree?

 

[LyricalLyricist]

I think my choice is pretty clear: Marketing. Btw I will be close to 27 in winter when I will apply. Anyways, we will see, I am applying for sure at least.

I would suggest doing a minor if you could, doesn't hurt.

Other than that, do summer courses. Makes life easier to do that instead of packing everything in 2 semesters.

Good luck!

 

[waffledave]

What was your new degree?

Computer science

 

[Laurent]

Computer science

See you in a Hedge Fund in a year or two? Maybe Renaissance Tech

 

[TRG]

I think my choice is pretty clear: Marketing. Btw I will be close to 27 in winter when I will apply. Anyways, we will see, I am applying for sure at least.

Good stuff! Let's go!

 

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIII]

Computer science

Hey, I have a BCom (Finance Major) from Concordia (24 y.o.), and I'm intrigued about Computer Sciences.

I really like coding, but I'm not that good yet (taught myself some c++, java, python, html), and I think that some sort of CompSci degree combined with a Finance degree could land me a cool job maybe? Like a quant trader or something?

There is the MSc. Financial Engineering program from HEC.
http://www.hec.ca/programmes_formations/msc/options/finance/ingenierie_financiere/index.html

There's the Graduate Diploma in Computer Science from Concordia, which is equivalent to a bachelor in Computer Science; gives the possibility of a Master in Computer Science.
http://www.concordia.ca/academics/graduate/computer-science-diploma.html

Idk, there's probably more options out there for finance+coding, but what do you think?

-

Also, do you think a computer science graduate diploma would land me as many jobs (programming jobs, not in finance) as a bachelor in computer science?

 

[Fazkovsky]

I would suggest doing a minor if you could, doesn't hurt.

Other than that, do summer courses. Makes life easier to do that instead of packing everything in 2 semesters.

Good luck!

Thanks. I realized I have 13 credits from my minor in accounting back in 2010 at uqam. One being a marketing class. Because there was one intro class worth 1 credit. I will try to order the official transcript before applying might help. And I'm sure those classes I did in Dawson might help or even be credited

http://postimg.org/image/kuw93erqz/

 

[waffledave]

Hey, I have a BCom (Finance Major) from Concordia (24 y.o.), and I'm intrigued about Computer Sciences.

I really like coding, but I'm not that good yet (taught myself some c++, java, python, html), and I think that some sort of CompSci degree combined with a Finance degree could land me a cool job maybe? Like a quant trader or something?

There is the MSc. Financial Engineering program from HEC.
http://www.hec.ca/programmes_formations/msc/options/finance/ingenierie_financiere/index.html

There's the Graduate Diploma in Computer Science from Concordia, which is equivalent to a bachelor in Computer Science; gives the possibility of a Master in Computer Science.
http://www.concordia.ca/academics/graduate/computer-science-diploma.html

Idk, there's probably more options out there for finance+coding, but what do you think?

-

Also, do you think a computer science graduate diploma would land me as many jobs (programming jobs, not in finance) as a bachelor in computer science?

I wouldn't be able to tell you if the graduate diploma would allow you to get the same jobs or not... Better to ask an academic advisor.

If you can afford to do school full time, the bachelor's will take you like 2 years if you do summer courses. It's really not very long at all.

Algorithmic trading is definitely a possibility with a comp sci + finance degree, but you would have to research that sort of thing on your own, because the courses you take are either programming focused, or about the basics of computer science as a whole (number theory, theoretical computer science, algorithms, etc...). The actual applications of these concepts are up to you to figure out.

Personally, I am not sure how I would apply what I've learned thus far towards developing trading algorithms. That's beyond my level of understand, at least for the time being.

If you are passionate, and you like coding and math, this is a really good degree for you. I used to code when I was younger but came into this with almost no knowledge at all when it came to programming, except that I liked it as a kid. You will pick it up quickly if you are into it, and the neat thing about computer science is that your knowledge grows exponentially.

You learn Java, it makes it easy to learn C++ or any other language with object oriented concepts. You learn Prolog, and suddenly databases as a whole is easy to learn. You learn about theoretical computer science, and suddenly algorithms become much easier to write.

 

[QuebecPride]

Hey, I have a BCom (Finance Major) from Concordia (24 y.o.), and I'm intrigued about Computer Sciences.

I really like coding, but I'm not that good yet (taught myself some c++, java, python, html), and I think that some sort of CompSci degree combined with a Finance degree could land me a cool job maybe? Like a quant trader or something?

There is the MSc. Financial Engineering program from HEC.
http://www.hec.ca/programmes_formations/msc/options/finance/ingenierie_financiere/index.html

There's the Graduate Diploma in Computer Science from Concordia, which is equivalent to a bachelor in Computer Science; gives the possibility of a Master in Computer Science.
http://www.concordia.ca/academics/graduate/computer-science-diploma.html

Idk, there's probably more options out there for finance+coding, but what do you think?

I would suggest doing the Msc. in financial engineering. There are


Also, do you think a computer science graduate diploma would land me as many jobs (programming jobs, not in finance) as a bachelor in computer science?

I would suggest doing the Msc. in financial engineering. There are a lot of job opportunities for Quants and coders in the world of finance.

 

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIII]

I wouldn't be able to tell you if the graduate diploma would allow you to get the same jobs or not... Better to ask an academic advisor.

If you can afford to do school full time, the bachelor's will take you like 2 years if you do summer courses. It's really not very long at all.

Algorithmic trading is definitely a possibility with a comp sci + finance degree, but you would have to research that sort of thing on your own, because the courses you take are either programming focused, or about the basics of computer science as a whole (number theory, theoretical computer science, algorithms, etc...). The actual applications of these concepts are up to you to figure out.

Personally, I am not sure how I would apply what I've learned thus far towards developing trading algorithms. That's beyond my level of understand, at least for the time being.

If you are passionate, and you like coding and math, this is a really good degree for you. I used to code when I was younger but came into this with almost no knowledge at all when it came to programming, except that I liked it as a kid. You will pick it up quickly if you are into it, and the neat thing about computer science is that your knowledge grows exponentially.

You learn Java, it makes it easy to learn C++ or any other language with object oriented concepts. You learn Prolog, and suddenly databases as a whole is easy to learn. You learn about theoretical computer science, and suddenly algorithms become much easier to write.

I would suggest doing the Msc. in financial engineering. There are a lot of job opportunities for Quants and coders in the world of finance.

Thanks guys

 

[Fazkovsky]

I read a bit.and I think with a marketing degree, you can become a seo and sem specialist.

I've been.in Internet marketing since long and I never got to learn Seo. In those 3 years, I will try to learn it on my own and build connections. You won't be a specialist after doing a few weeks or month internship. My passion is online related stuff, I would rather learn seo than programming.

Seo is powerful and one of the main way to generate serious income online. Good stuff eh?

 

[waffledave]

I read a bit.and I think with a marketing degree, you can become a seo and sem specialist.

I've been.in Internet marketing since long and I never got to learn Seo. In those 3 years, I will try to learn it on my own and build connections. You won't be a specialist after doing a few weeks or month internship. My passion is online related stuff, I would rather learn seo than programming.

Seo is powerful and one of the main way to generate serious income online. Good stuff eh?

Well if you are serious about SEO you really need to have some knowledge in computer science. Otherwise you will be trying to get this stuff from books and by the time you read it, you're behind the curve.

 

[Fazkovsky]

Well if you are serious about SEO you really need to have some knowledge in computer science. Otherwise you will be trying to get this stuff from books and by the time you read it, you're behind the curve.

Yep I do, I know how to use Wordpress, I know some HTML & CSS. I will improve on that for sure. Anyways, I tried studying programming, I hated it to death. I see myself being intermediate in it to improve a website, not create everything from scratch.

I am outsourcing SEO right now for cheap, I can see already it's a lot of work and you must know your stuff. Those 3 years will be critical to learn it but 3 years is a long time. SEO involves doing : Onsite SEO,
Keyword Researching, Blog Commenting, Social Bookmarking Submissions, Social Bookmarking Submissions, Social Bookmarking Submissions ,Web 2.0 Submissions, Profile Based Link Submissions , Citations Submissions, Classifieds Submissions, CopyScape Passed Content Marketing, 2 Linkedin Content Marketing Image Sharing Submissions ,Inforgraphics Submissions Video Submissions ,Audio Submissions ,etc. That's a lot of stuff and the ones I will have to learn. Google had a big update in 2012 that affected a lot of businesses but those that don't target high volume keywords should be fine. Basically, I will have to learn how to use techniques to increase SERPS.

I have tried every other way in this education system, it's the only one that makes sense. The clock is ticking on me.

 

[waffledave]

Was at my school's career fair today. Went pretty well I think... I am graduating in June so I'm looking for opportunities. I had a few places interested in me purely based on my GPA (3.92) and some because of my business background. A few gaming studios seemed interested (which is where I would love to work, ideally), and even got an on the spot interview that I was not expecting, but I think I did pretty well (quizzed me on design patterns).

Really hope I can find a job once I am done.

 

[Mathletic]

Was at my school's career fair today. Went pretty well I think... I am graduating in June so I'm looking for opportunities. I had a few places interested in me purely based on my GPA (3.92) and some because of my business background. A few gaming studios seemed interested (which is where I would love to work, ideally), and even got an on the spot interview that I was not expecting, but I think I did pretty well (quizzed me on design patterns).

Really hope I can find a job once I am done.

If ever you're interested, apparently, Ubisoft will be looking for a bunch of programmers, starting this winter, to work in their new Québec city offices.

 

[HabsTown]

Was at my school's career fair today. Went pretty well I think... I am graduating in June so I'm looking for opportunities. I had a few places interested in me purely based on my GPA (3.92) and some because of my business background. A few gaming studios seemed interested (which is where I would love to work, ideally), and even got an on the spot interview that I was not expecting, but I think I did pretty well (quizzed me on design patterns).

Really hope I can find a job once I am done.

I really hope for you, I've been searching since march and not a single interview yet.

I have a masters degree in industrial relations with a GPA of 3,9 and I'm younger than the norm to get this degree (I'm 26, done at 25).

Good luck mate!