Going back to college, in particular for Computer Science, is always an option. There is such a lack of skilled professionals in the field that no one will turn away a competent candidate.
If you choose to go back for Computer Science, I would like to strongly suggest you are always keeping in mind "How am I going to get a job." I don't say this because it is necessarily hard to get a job as a Software Engineer, but rather that many undergraduates ignore their GPA and internships and just assume they will get a job when they graduate. Doing well in your classes and leaving your professors with a favorable impression of you also helps during the job hunt.
Also, make sure you are attending an accredited university with credits that can transfer to other universities. Not that you need to worry about transferring, but make sure you are attending a quality institution with a degree employers will take seriously (e.g. not ITT). Keep in mind that you don't need to pay an arm and a leg for such a degree either.
Finally, on a somewhat unrelated note, have you talked to a doctor about anti-anxiety medication? I know several people who had anxiety problems that manifested as a nervous stomach. They are on anti-anxiety meds now and doing fantastic. I am absolutely not a doctor and this may not be relevant to you, but just thought I'd bring it up.
Initially, I would be attending a regional extension of a well-respected accredited university.
Regarding the anxiety, even after I had my UC under control, anxiety and worry were still a huge problem in my life. I think this was because, even when I was in elementary school, I would worry and have panic attacks just thinking about the possibility of having a flare-up. I really can't underscore enough how this way of thinking dominated my life up until a couple years ago. Realistically, I believe that the toll this disease took on me was more damaging psychologically than physically because of the limits I placed on myself out of fear.
All of the listed factors also apply to marriage. While I am single, it seems like marriage is HARD all by itself. It takes time, effort, communication, and patience. Adding a start up on top of this is going to make it more difficult (although I would never say impossible).
What's more, running a start up is a formative experience that will likely change you. It would be challenging, though by no means impossible, to have a successful marriage while the character of the two people who form its basis are changing.
I wonder if this is more a symptom of having few women in the field of computer science / software engineering [1] than a lack of women who want to be founders [2]. It isn't too surprising when you consider only a small percentage of people in computer science decide to become founders, and then a small percentage of that pool ends up being women.
[1] I am assuming that most people in startups are computer science types. Which isn't entirely (or very) accurate. Certainly when you add in fields like design and business/marketing this really changes.
[2] Of course, being a founder doesn't require restricting oneself to starting a technical business.
I wonder if this is more a symptom of having few women in the field of computer science / software engineering
Women -- girls -- with talent and potential mostly leave the STEM track when they're twelve to fifteen years old. Looking for the cause of different quantities of company founders in factors that affect thirty-year-olds isn't going to address the biggest difference.
Looking at 14 year olds isn't going to help the 30 year olds who did stick with STEM and are here right now. It's great to help girls, but I have to wonder that that is so often the answer when grown women point out there are problems.
I think the bigger issue is GDP and GDP per capita for both Nigeria and Africa as a whole:
Nigeria GDP (PPP): $170bil
Nigeria GDP per capita: $1754
I can understand why e-commerce companies might just choose to blacklist an entire country. There isn't much of a financial incentive to expend the resources for that small of a market.
I am not trying to comment on whether this is justifiable or not, but that is the reality of the situation.
GDP isn't the issue with Africa and the number of Western companies that want nothing to do with the continent.
The issue is the governments like Nigeria are completely incapable of regulating what goes on inside of its borders. In cases like Nigeria, where the "419" scam is actually an measurably significant industry within the country, the scammers are probably in cahoots with the authorities.
Why does e-commerce work in the US? As a guy sitting in New York, how can I comfortably sell goods via the internet to someone in Hawaii or New Mexico? Fundamentally, it's because the US is a nation governed by law, and efforts to defraud are not acceptable.
I think the point on corruption and the rule of law is really significant. It goes beyond just e-commerce and into a whole economy. A government of men and not of law does not make for a thriving economy. If found these two maps on corruption and governance really interesting. They really speak to they trouble with doing e-commerce in Africa:
I don't know about China or Brazil, but India has done pretty well in fighting corruption lately. Of course, there's still a long way to go, but the progress so far is encouraging.
I understand what your saying, but I am not sure I agree (at least from the US perspective) that South America has been written off as a rounding error in the last few decades. I think we have been on a trajectory from the early 1990's (starting with NAFTA) and continuing into the early 2000's (with the start of CAFTA) to today where we are near ratifying CAFTA. The next step is a full South American free trade agreement.
I don't think US industry has ever dismissed South America as a rounding error. They get the huge economic importance it has. Rather, we've had some feet dragging from unions (and to a smaller extent a little xenophobia, but I think this is really really small when it comes to Free Trade Agreements). Give the US another decade or two and there will be a full on American Free Trade Agreement.
I respectfully disagree. We're not talking bananas and sugar, we're talking US companies being unwilling to make the effort to sell to people in other countries.
I worked on Terespondo, a search advertising company focussed on SA from 2002-ish to 2006. We were thirty dorks who happened to speak the language, and we captured 65% of a continent-wide market. Why?
- MS AdCenter didn't get multilingual support until 2008 or so.
- Google Adwords required a US credit card until 2004 or 5.
"There isn't much of a financial incentive to expend the resources for that small of a market."
While probably justified, it also leaves most of the country out of the growing trend towards global ecommerce, possibly encouraging more people to take up fraud as one of the few ways to make any money at all.
>As for them finding out, I don't know where you are at in the world, but in the US their is no way for them to find out unless you provide them with that information.
Professional networking tends to be a big factor when moving from job to job (this may be extremely different in startup communities). This tends to mean that as your career progresses, you have probably worked with 1 or 2 people at a prospective employer. Those people are generally asked about the perspective hire, including their estimates of what that person has made.
My thought on that would be using third party hearsay to terminate an employee on the grounds of lying (even if you proved their former salary in court) would put you in shaky legal standing for termination. A third party could not know your salary with any amount of certainty without access to confidential information at the former company that would put them in legal trouble for divulging at a new employer. I am in the states, so your millage may vary in other parts of the world on that fact.
I was thinking about this at the negotiation stage, before hiring occurs. I can't imagine that an employer would try this after the hiring stage.
As for salary information, there are other ways to know how much someone else is making without accessing "confidential information". You can find out socially (e.g. from them), knowing their performance combined with position, etc.
EDIT: It is worth noting that these are facts I consider when I am interviewing for a new job, not something I put into practice. I wouldn't tell my current employer this information about a perspective hire, nor would I as an employer ask for this information.
Right you are correct, I think we are speaking past each other and that may be my fault, I read somewhere in the thread about the risk of being terminated if the employer found out and my point was more to that fact.
But yes, you do run the risk of not getting the job for being perceived as lying. For me personally as a (small I employ 4 guys) employer, it would not amount to a hill of beans to me, if I found out a prospect inflated his salary.
I just have a hard time viewing it as lying in the traditional sense. Culturally we negotiate when it comes to jobs and if I asked someone to hand over information that would give me a strong advantage at the negotiation table, I would expect that information to not be accurate.
The only reason to ask that question is to strengthen your position at the negotiating table, so in effect the person asking is being just as dis-ingeniousness as the person inflating. To call foul on the other guy for trying to strengthen his position when the other side is doing the same, reeks of a double standard.
This is why good internships are so important while your an undergraduate in CS (or many other majors for that matter).
Depending on the university you go to, CS != Software Engineering. You don't encounter, and may not be even aware, of concepts like code reviews, build systems, or version control. By participating in an internship you are forced to address these gaps in your knowledge.
That being said, I don't think I would take away a single CS course I took as an undergrad and replace it with a course on software engineering practices. There is just too much strictly CS knowledge that is necessary for an undergraduate to learn.
If you choose to go back for Computer Science, I would like to strongly suggest you are always keeping in mind "How am I going to get a job." I don't say this because it is necessarily hard to get a job as a Software Engineer, but rather that many undergraduates ignore their GPA and internships and just assume they will get a job when they graduate. Doing well in your classes and leaving your professors with a favorable impression of you also helps during the job hunt.
Also, make sure you are attending an accredited university with credits that can transfer to other universities. Not that you need to worry about transferring, but make sure you are attending a quality institution with a degree employers will take seriously (e.g. not ITT). Keep in mind that you don't need to pay an arm and a leg for such a degree either.
Finally, on a somewhat unrelated note, have you talked to a doctor about anti-anxiety medication? I know several people who had anxiety problems that manifested as a nervous stomach. They are on anti-anxiety meds now and doing fantastic. I am absolutely not a doctor and this may not be relevant to you, but just thought I'd bring it up.