Yeah, without a doubt. Some of the best devs I've worked with don't have degrees. I have a CS degree, and in my own personal view, I think that a degree is ext

Yeah, without a doubt. Some of the best devs I've worked with don't have degrees. I have a CS degree, and in my own personal view, I think that a degree is extremely helpful. With that being said, your average degree doesn't teach you how to be a great developer, nor should it. Programming is a vocational task, and while there is a ton of theory that can help you out, there is no substitute for experience. With that being said, a lot of people on here say that a GitHub profile will help you get hired. I'm not so sure, especially when you're dealing with your typical non-tech company looking to hire a developer. The underlying idea that experience trumps education is valid in the workplace. I've worked with Oxbridge graduates that can't write code for shit, and UWE graduates single-handedly build great tools being used by millions every day. Where I disagree is with the idea that a few small projects on GitHub can show that you work well on large projects, or as part of a team. The only thing that can reliably do that is experience, and naturally you won't get to flaunt the code you've written for a previous employer. If you want to move to the US, get some paid work in Russia. It doesn't need to be ground-breaking, or even a huge project; something you can write on your CV/Resume that says "I've written code professionally". My advice is everything in moderation. Get enough education. Write enough open-source code to show that you can write something non-trivial. Get enough experience to show that you are capable of working as a professional developer.