Software development is not the same as computer science. Despite the fact that many (most?) of us have CS degrees, I claim that it does a poor job of preparing

Software development is not the same as computer science. Despite the fact that many (most?) of us have CS degrees, I claim that it does a poor job of preparing for a careen in software development. As the name implies, CS is a science. Studying it, you're taught a lot of theory, with an aim toward doing what others studying the sciences do: become a researcher or a professor. A career in software development is actually an engineering job. We need to know about design and documentation, communicating with stakeholders by gathering requirements and writing specs, etc. This is a giant step away from what CS teaches us. I'd estimate that what I learned as a CS major in college (in '89) taught me maybe 50% of what I needed to know in my first job. And conversely, half of what it did teach me went unused in my job. So I think that to compete with the traditional path of education to a software development career, you don't have a very high bar to claim success. This may be why so many people I know in the field have completely non-technical degrees. Some of the best software developers I've worked with have been musicians.