I was self-taught as well. Back in '82 I was an in-house illustrator at a children's book publisher. The company (now defunct) brought in Apple IIs in order to

I was self-taught as well. Back in '82 I was an in-house illustrator at a children's book publisher. The company (now defunct) brought in Apple IIs in order to do some house-branded educational software. I fell in love with the little machines immediately, even though I really had no exposure to any computers in high school or college (art school). The real software guys that were hired taught me 6502 assembly and off I went. I got my first job as a programmer in '85 doing Mac assembly (68000) programming. So much fun. That said, I have a huge amount of respect for CS grads. I have seen it. My background in algorithms is totally non-existent, besides what I've been able to pick up on my own. I've been at a disadvantage MANY times due my lack of formal CS/Math (my "formal" math edu stopped at plane geometry in HS!). Thankfully, I've always had good friends to help me through these issues, but it would have been a lot easier for me if I had had real training. Google is a huge help now that we no longer need programming manuals, as such. I have always gravitated towards the visual, GUI aspect of software development, which is probably not a surprise given my art school background. I really think that companies should keep open minds regarding education. It really takes all kinds of people to do what we do, especially at big, diverse companies. Being visually oriented and a capable programmer is a unique kind of background that can be used to great effect. Not all cookies are the same shape.