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I'm not learning anything in university. Should I drop out?

Rusev · 2016-12-18T05:15:32

What's up bros. I need advice because I'm really stuck here, I can't decide what to do. I'm currently a second year student in university, and I'm paying 9000 pounds every year. The problem is that I'm not learning anything at all at university. I don't say I'm smart and all-knowing, there is always someone smarter, but I can learn anything I want to, if I spend enough time on it. Now, the first semester is almost over, and I missed like 80-85% of the lectures. I just can't make myself go to lectures, I always know most of the stuff, or know how and where to find it when I need it, and I recently stopped going to lectures at all. I calculated that I pay 24£ every hour, doesn't matter if it's a lecture or a practical, it's 24 pounds per hour. And every time I miss a lecture I feel really bad, because I will actually have to pay for something that I don't use, I pay for lectures and I don't attend them. And even on the lab practicals where we write some code, the PhD students are weak, and most of the questions I ask them, they can't answer, "I don't know about that, you can ask dr./prof. whoever" and I need to wait 1 hour until I can get the lecturer to come to me, because we are like 100 people in a group and everyone wants to ask something. And sometimes I really hate myself for missing lectures, because there are people that live a lot worse than me and work 8+ hours every day, and I'm too lazy too even go to lectures. But I just can't, it is so boring, I can't stand it, I prefer to wash dishes for 1 hour, at least I will get paid. I'm really contemplating on whether I should drop out and just work something so I can pay my stuff, because my parents won't even talk to me. I don't feel bad that I'm not learning anything there, I learn enough on my own, I feel bad that I'm paying to not learn anything. And most of the lecturers are so boring and unmotivated, and I'm not productive, because I do stuff I don't need. ( making need-finding studies, interviewing people, parsing linux ext2 filesystem to open one stupid file, etc ). And I'm kind of too perfectionistic when I do stuff I don't like. I don't know how's that called, but when I really hate to do something, I put more effort into it because I know it doesn't come naturally to me and I consciously prioritize it in order to get a good mark. And the result is that I spend more time doing that instead of the stuff I like.(wtf is that?) I don't know how to tackle that problem. Seems like there is no problem, I know everything, I get the highest marks, everything is cool. But I still feel bad about it almost every day. Is the problem in me, maybe I'm doing something wrong, or thinking in the wrong way? :huh: Thanks a lot for reading this and sorry for wasting your time.

Games Career Development Business

Started by Heelp December 02, 2016 04:13 PM

125 comments, last by GeneralJist 7 years, 6 months ago

Brain

19,059

December 12, 2016 11:49 PM

If these people are so busy, do they stop to take a shit once in a while?

Has the time for that toilet visit been properly recorded on your time sheet? No really I had a boss who insisted we log every second and micro managed my time like that. It sounds to me though that perhaps they're a small company without a separate hr department and reading cvs and portfolios takes time away from production. It's much the same where I work now and that's not gamedev. If it isn't an immediate business need, it gets back burner'ed...

Remeber that in a lot of cases hiring an intern will actually cost a business money even if they don't pay a wage. An intern still must be supervised and have a mentor, while someone is supervising and mentoring an intern they can't do their normal work or will do so in a reduced capacity. Hiding an intern is an investment hoping to be paid back in the future once you have real skills, and can also be a risk. Because of the risk they don't hire many and won't hire just anyone they're looking for an aptitude to learn without consuming too much mentoring time.

Hope this helps!

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Heelp

1,688

Author

December 12, 2016 11:58 PM

Okay, if I'm some HR guy, and I don't want to bother myself at all with giving personal feedback because I don't feel like it or I'm really busy, I would just send a 5-6 bullet points as an overall feedback for everyone that didn't qualify. Just 5-6 points for everyone. 50 seconds max. Something like:

1. Most of you didn't have any side projects that they did in their free time and we value this a lot/whatever.

2. We prefer such and such games 2d/3d, finished/unfinished, unity/opengl/whatever.

Just a few hints would be really helpful. I don't say that they are obliged to do it. But it can do a lot more positive things, just by taking 1 minute of their time to give people feedback.

Brain

19,059

December 13, 2016 12:08 AM

Yeah that bugs me too. Even a single click canned auto response is better than no response at all which is just plain rude but unfortunately the hard truth of job searching in any industry. Don't let it discourage you because it's not any reflection on you or the quality of your portfolio usually, just "the way the world is"...

It could also be that the company doesn't want to risk responding with anything negative due to the legal concerns of doing so. For example where I work now it's policy to never provide references positive or otherwise because of past issues it has caused. It's a shame really that a few litigious people ruin good things for the majority...

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Heelp

1,688

Author

December 13, 2016 01:02 AM

Now that I think about it, they probably haven't even taken a look at my resume, because there was a question "Have you been referred by one of our employees" and I said no.

Maybe they had like 6+ guys that have answered yes, and they were the only ones that had their resumes looked upon.

frob

46,238

December 13, 2016 01:10 AM

It isn't because they are cold-hearted or because they don't have time.

If they write "We didn't pick you because x", a large percent of people will reply, "I have x here and here and here! Hire me anyway!" Some may demand another interview so they can prove they have the thing, others will call and otherwise make themselves a nuisance.

Even more critically, a small percent of people will find a way to turn it into a lawsuit. "You said it was because of X but it is really because of {protected status}."

Sometimes when you are new to the workforce if you follow up with the rejection letter asking how you can do better, some companies will respond. This is more common in smaller companies.

Generally in the real world when sending out job applications about half send an automated reply that they received it and you never hear back, about half send a canned response that your application was reviewed and you were not selected, and a small percentage want to talk to you in an interview.

yaustar

1,022

December 13, 2016 10:52 AM

Okay, if I'm some HR guy, and I don't want to bother myself at all with giving personal feedback because I don't feel like it or I'm really busy, I would just send a 5-6 bullet points as an overall feedback for everyone that didn't qualify. Just 5-6 points for everyone. 50 seconds max. Something like:

It's also a legal thing. It's far safer for the company to say nothing than something that they could be potentially be liable for.

Edit: Ah, frob covered it already.

Steven Yau
[Blog] [Portfolio]

samoth

9,833

December 13, 2016 11:21 AM

Even more critically, a small percent of people will find a way to turn it into a lawsuit. "You said it was because of X but it is really because of {protected status}."

With that in mind, don't you find the world we live in perverse?

Like, hiring someone is a kind of non-compelling, entirely optional thing. It's within your self-fulfillment. Most individuals never hire any other person in their entire life (if you don't count "hiring" a plumber or getting your car repaired). It's your decision whether to hire someone at all, or who to hire, or who not to hire. At least, you'd think it is!

But if you don't hire someone, and you are kind enough to tell them why they weren't your choice, you can actually be dragged to court... now I wonder when Apple will realize that they can sue you for damages if you don't buy their products.

yaustar

1,022

December 13, 2016 11:54 AM

But if you don't hire someone, and you are kind enough to tell them why they weren't your choice, you can actually be dragged to court

Yes but at the same time, we have anti-discrimination laws for a good reason and employers should be held accountable.

Steven Yau
[Blog] [Portfolio]

Heelp

1,688

Author

December 13, 2016 12:03 PM

bros, sending to big companies doesn't work. I decided lower my aim. :mellow:

There are 358 game studios in England, I will spam to every one of them. Goal is to get feedback from somewhere. :cool:

But I will do that in the summer because first I need to improve my portfolio. Life sucks.

yaustar

1,022

December 13, 2016 12:17 PM

UKIE's game dev map https://gamesmap.uk/#/companies and gamedevmap http://gamedevmap.com/ should help in that respect.

Steven Yau
[Blog] [Portfolio]

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I'm not learning anything in university. Should I drop out?

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