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I studied finance and logistics despite the fact that I had been programming since grade 6. I have no idea why. So when I started working in finance the ball d

I studied finance and logistics despite the fact that I had been programming since grade 6. I have no idea why. So when I started working in finance the ball dropped that I actually wanted to be a programmer. Well trying to become a software developer with no relevant qualifications and only a grade 6 award for programming in Pascal is difficult, especially when you are located in South Africa. Luckily I worked for a fortune 500 company that would do anything to reduce employee turnover except pay a decent wage. So I leveraged off that and got them to move me horizontally into more and more technical roles automating what I could and just getting involved in as many technical things as possible.

danielbarla 10y ago
I'm also in SA, and although I can't comment from a personal level (have degree), I don't think we have it as bad as some other countries in terms of degree snobbery. Sure, it will definitely lock you out of many large corporations at an HR level. But many more are just hungry for developer talent, and wouldn't think twice about hiring those without a degree. If it was up to me, I'd hire anyone who a) shows a lot of interest in programming, and b) can actually back that up in some fashion. Sadly it's often not up to us techies, so it's definitely a disadvantage if you don't have one. (Come to think of it, I've worked with a dev at one of the big 4 banks who didn't even have a matric / grade 12. There may have been some protectionism in the initial hiring, but nobody batted an eyelid after that since he was a very good developer.)