* Christopher Howard
I'm at something of a crossroads, and I'm hoping to get a bit of free career advice. I really enjoy programming with Haskell (and a few other exotic languages), and was hoping I could eventually make a living in that sort of field. Not rich and famous, necessarily, just enough to get by comfortably. I'm trying to decide, however; should I go back to school, finish my B.S. and pursue a Masters in CompSci? Or would the time (and money) be better spent aggressively pursuing volunteer work for companies, hoping to eventually get the experience and contacts that lead to a paying job?
To be honest, I don't really want to go back to school, because I learn a lot faster (and more economically) on my own. However, I'm not sure which path is the fastest, and safest, approach to an actual paycheck.
(Also, I'm something of a die-hard FOSS purist, if that affects the discussion at all.)
If you have some money to cover your expenses, consider learning by contributing to open source software. Compared to an academic career, you'll have a more "real" goal of making good software (instead of publishing papers). Also, this experience will be much more relevant for your future job. Compared to work for companies, you can choose more challenging, interesting and innovative tasks that most companies can offer. And the code quality will often be higher in open source than in companies. Roman