How to study alongside a full-time job as software developer and publish new apps at the same time — with all the ups and downs

After my bachelor’s degree in computer science, I started working full-time, but after a few months I already asked myself if that was all there was to it. Besides the regular work with 40 hours per week I started a distance learning course. Before the end of the regular study period I got my master’s degree and published five different apps.

Maybe you are facing the same decision right now and wonder if a part-time study makes sense. Or maybe you are in the middle of it and think about quitting because you want to focus on your private software projects or the job is too demanding. Maybe you read this article until the end and find a good way to do everything at once: a job, personal projects, a college degree and a good work/life balance. And so that this might work out better, here are my learnings.

Why should I study part-time — I am already working?

That’s a fair question. Here’s a little list of what studying will get you.

Pros

• Broadening your horizons: You can deal with many different topics which — if you are honest with yourself — you would never have touched after work. My courses were e.g. cryptography, entrepreneurship, databases, UX, mobile application development, security techniques in communication networks, artificial intelligence, coding of multimedia data (Okay, I really didn’t like that last one 😖)
• you shouldn’t have any financial problems, because you work part-time
• a part-time course of study is a good argument in salary discussions, because you train on a weekly basis
• it should be fun for you because you get to learn something
• you get to know other computer scientists, who become friends in the best case. Especially one fellow student has always inspired me 🙇🏻‍♂️
• many people smile at scientific work and say that it is not necessarily suitable for real life in industry. I see it differently: After a degree course, you can critically deal with content, work out positions and make well-founded statements about the impact of decision A or B. This is a skill that is indispensable… especially in the free economy.

Of course there is also the downside.

Cons

• You pay for the fun. Depending on whether your employer supports you and whether you attend a private or state university, you have costs. But: After tax relief (thanks to Germany) my studies did not cost more than an upgraded Macbook Pro 2019.
• Your new currency is time. You have very, very little of it and you should think very carefully about what you use it for.
• There’s always pressure. Whether it’s the weekend or you’re on vacation, it doesn’t matter.You’ve got deadlines for homework, you’ve got exams to study for, you’ve got other tasks to do. You still have the regular lectures and, depending on the situation, full-day events on weekends. If you don’t study, you work. There were really only a few moments when I could really put my feet up.
• Be aware that you will renounce beautiful things: festivals, parties (you don’t have time for a hangover), meetings with friends, weekend trips…
  Of course you don’t give up on everybody, because time out is important. But you give up a lot.
• Studying requires a lot of discipline and staying power.

I don’t want to sugarcoat it: studying on the side can be stressful. In addition, there are influences which can massively reduce stress or, unfortunately, also greatly increase it. Therefore it is advisable to think about the following beforehand:

Five influences: family, employer, finance, free time and partnership

1. Family
   If it’s more stressful, just nestle down with the family if you can. That way you won’t have to worry about food and housework.
2. Employers
   The employer should encourage you to study on the side. I don’t mean that he’s forced to support you financially. But the work culture should be supportive! Colleagues have often helped me too! If the employer or the supervisor is not at all pleased about a part-time study, I would think about a change…
3. Money
   Of course, you can’t conjure up money. But it’s tiring to think about debt in the exam phase or while studying. Think of a plan for financing your studies.
4. Time-outs
   Take some time off. As already mentioned, the time slot is generally short for leisure time. But if you have some, leave the laptop closed and relax.
5. Relationship
   If you are in a relationship and/or already live together, make the decision together. Your partner will also have less of you. I repeat again: Time is always short.
   If your partner is behind you, then studying is much easier.

So what now? How should I invent private software products on the side?

You would think that studying is like running a marathon. Mine was set for four years. Three courses per semester and a year for the master’s thesis. But the difference to a marathon is that you don’t get tired after a while, on the contrary: your expertise grows and you can use it.

Because an immense synergy is created.

Synergy: concentrated energy for the joint fulfilment of tasks

• You will use the wide range of experience gained during your studies in your job and in your projects.
• The specialist knowledge from the job helps you to work on your studies more professionally.
• You can use source code from private projects for your work or studies.

Here are six points, what I mean specifically:

1. In my course ‘Product Management’ I wrote an essay about User Story Mapping. One day later I used what I learned for a private project.

Everything a little more improvised than in the office — but it worked

2. I had several courses on user experience, human centered design and graphic design. I applied the learned methodologies directly to my app.

First app layout from long time ago

Next version…

new layout (far from perfect, but my turn)

3. As a mobile developer I was interested in microservice architectures. So I wrote a project paper about it. I got the exam, a server application for an app and in my professional life terms like message queues, proxies, API gateways and dockers are much more than just buzzwords.

4. I like working on private projects with friends. Cause this feels so not like work. We cook together or go for a bike ride. We talk about architecture, API design, UX, marketing, etc. If you code together, you are much faster when someone is sitting next to you.

5. Works clean and planned. You are willing to finish quickly and produce bad code. This always comes back to you and is no fun. I can highly recommend the books Clean Code and Clean Architecture by Uncle Bob or Sustainable Software Architecture by Carola Lilienthal.

6. Take the courses that interest you and that will help you advance professionally. In the company we needed a second android developer. So I took the course Mobile Application.

General assistance

• You have little time, organize yourself by Trello or another ticket board of your choice. This will push your tasks forward.
• Have passion: This feeling to create something must come from somewhere inside (haha what a phrase). If it is not there — that is not bad. But do not stress yourself that you have to meet any expectations!
• Have fun! (Of course, never everything is fun. But everything should be at least 80 percent fun 😬)

Conclusion

I’d do it all over again. I doubt if that approach works for you one-to-one. But maybe the points I’ve raised will inspire you and help you get things back on track.

There’s this one question you should ask yourself: Do I really want to learn a lot of new things, and am I willing to limit my life for years to come? If so, then have fun with all the ups and downs. It’s worth it.

If not, are you still satisfied? If you can answer this with yes, then everything is good. 🙂
If no: See previous question.