Who needs vacation?

shannn

Netherlands2891 Posts

July 11 2011 13:29 GMT

As the title can suggest I am currently having summer vacantion for approx. 7 more weeks.
Past week my summer vacantion started after having a long college year.
I'm now in my 3rd year of college and after summer I'll be going to my senior year (do I say that correct?) to graduate for a degree in CS.

So I have 7 weeks of summer vacation left and I decided that I shouldn't be slacking like just have fun and go on vacation. I realised that after college I will either go to university to specialise in something more specific for CS or I will be deciding to go work for a long period of my life.

And I currently think that I'm not ready for it yet as my I'm unprepared.

So I decided to use my vacation to work to earn money and learn at the same time.
I've been reading the iPhone Developer's Cookbook to learn how to develop applications for the iPhone. I'm really liking it so far and with all these various applications the possibilities are endless as far as my imagination goes :p

I've set up a 7 week project in which I'll be doing various stuff (like how to draw in PS, learn objective-C, how to plan and setup deadlines) and combine them all to use in 1 application.
I haven't set up a high goal as I've already had experience with projects from school by being the project leader and it has taught me quite a few things.

Currently my schedule this summer looks like about 50 hours a week of work and 4 hours a day (for a total of 28 a week / 196 hours in summer vacation) to spent on learning and developing new skills (mentioned above).

Somehow I don't have any bad feelings about sacrificing my summer vacation to spent on these things.
I will still play starcraft in the vacation although it will not be so much as you'd expect (an hour or so max each day if I'm in the mood). But watching GSL/GSTL/MLG will still take place though as that's usually in the evening (I have premium tickets) :p

I wonder if anyone is doing similar things (learning for school / future possible work) and what they think about this (about me or you).

All of the above has taught me that I shouldn't have slacked so much in highschool xD damn the teachers for being right LOL!

[N3O]r3d33m3r

Germany673 Posts

July 11 2011 14:16 GMT

ehm i wouldn't do that. you'll get burned out easily when you do nothing but work in your summer and then the last year i ncoollege will be extra hard work.
why not balance it out? i think the learning of new skills is more beneficial to you and is definitely a good thing, rather than the 50h of work per week.
you won't be able to learn much if you do the 50h a week in the summer.

just do some other , less paying job but enjoy summer and learn your new skills

shannn

Netherlands2891 Posts

July 11 2011 14:42 GMT

On July 11 2011 23:16 [N3O]r3d33m3r wrote:
ehm i wouldn't do that. you'll get burned out easily when you do nothing but work in your summer and then the last year i ncoollege will be extra hard work.
why not balance it out? i think the learning of new skills is more beneficial to you and is definitely a good thing, rather than the 50h of work per week.
you won't be able to learn much if you do the 50h a week in the summer.

just do some other , less paying job but enjoy summer and learn your new skills

Maybe I forgot to add that my job is webdesigning. I'm usually coding in PHP so learning something like objective-c isn't that farfetched from my part-time job

It's easy money (15 euros/hours) for what I'm doing and it isn't such mental stress tbh

But thanks for the heads up

[N3O]r3d33m3r

Germany673 Posts

July 11 2011 14:49 GMT

oh ok thought it was just a summer job unrelated to your field. ;p
well then, cut down the time you are trying to laern something new. i guess you are leaping forward by just working too ? since it is your field, not driving cabs or working in a restaurant