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Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick

Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

rgbrenner 8y ago
Programmers account for 1-2% of jobs. Sadly there are a great many careers where a degree is required. Many of those probably don't need a degree, but the number of jobs requiring it has grown, in the same way the number of jobs requiring licensing has grown.
- redleggedfrog 8y ago
  1-2%? For some reason that seems high to me. Certainly one out of every 100 people I meet aren't programmers.
  - rgbrenner 8y ago
    US workforce is 160m IT occupations: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/... 'Computer programmers', 'software developers' and 'web developers' will get you to 1%. I think wpdev_63's message applies to some additional IT positions than just programmers, so I think 1-2% is about right.
    - user5994461 8y ago
      IT is much much wider than software developers.
Kephael 8y ago
It's very difficult to start your career at leading companies such as Google, Facebook, etc without going to a reputable school.
- IMTDb 8y ago
  That's why you usually do not start there. Google might require a degree, but your local hairdresser does not ask for one as long as you can create his website. Then move your way up from there. After several years recruiters will be more interested in your experience, projects and contributions than your non existing degree. EDIT: other options include working at startups/smaller companies, contributing to open source to get social validation of your abilities, learning some skills through coursera/online courses, ...
  - Kephael 8y ago
    That's absurd, you're much better off going to a reputable school, working hard, grinding leetcode, completing internships, and then getting a $150k+/yr TC job to start. You'll come out far ahead by going to a good school. If you're able to start at Google while you're still in high school, that's a different story.
    - drb91 8y ago
      This seems like a rather expensive way to experiment whether you’re well suited for something and like it.
    - prolikewh0a 8y ago
      I have plenty of friends that dropped out of College with no degrees and now work for large tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. It's not really tough to come in as an E1 and work your way up, especially if you have a great GitHub/Gitlab and possibly experience as a dev at another smaller company. I see a lot of women coming in as E1's off of those 12 week software engineer bootcamps as well.
      - nemothekid 8y ago
        There's a difference between dropping out and not going at all. There are plenty of "elite" dropouts at FAANG.
danaur 8y ago
a fair number of companies require that an individual has a degree or is working on one in order to work in their programming or engineering departments. Typically people who get around these requirements have a strong network which is not necessarily easy unless you were transitioning to programming from another profession.
hrktb 8y ago
Fun fact: some countries will make it pretty hard to enter as knowledge worker if you don’t have a degree (in some case they won’t even care which degree, you just need one from an official university) That’s one specific case, but there’s miriades of other super corner cases.
fzeroracer 8y ago
A basic bachelors degree in computer science opens a lot of doors if you want to work abroad. That said if a recession hits there's gonna be some really, really nasty side effects as the predatory student loan industry destroys a large amount of the workforce.
harlanji 8y ago
I agreed for most of my career. As a Senior Eng in SF it seems that contiguous experience and prior credentials are king, to the point where my side projects haven’t come up in interviews in years.
mynameishere 8y ago
No idea where this guy is coming from. Most companies absolutely require a degree, and most companies absolutely won't bother look at your side projects. .... On the original topic, I went to an extremely cheap school and could not figure out where the money was going. It seemed like they must have been paying the professors $800/hour or something, with all the money involved. Of course they weren't. They were just pissing it away. With what college costs, a student should be able to have a private set of teachers in the manner of royalty--but then you wouldn't have those lovely dormitories they tear down and rebuild every few years.
Delmania 8y ago
For a Silicon Valley startup, sure. Most companies outside SV won't look at your resume with some form of CS or SE degree.
walshemj 8y ago
Are you sure back when I left school (uk) maybe in 2018 not so much. Also many other countries have much more stratified systems and degrees are mandatory

Reminder: Your future employers care more about side projects and experience than some writing on a piece of paper. You don't need to go to college to be a kick ass programmer.

rgbrenner 8y ago

Programmers account for 1-2% of jobs. Sadly there are a great many careers where a degree is required. Many of those probably don't need a degree, but the number of jobs requiring it has grown, in the same way the number of jobs requiring licensing has grown.

redleggedfrog 8y ago
1-2%? For some reason that seems high to me. Certainly one out of every 100 people I meet aren't programmers.
- rgbrenner 8y ago
  US workforce is 160m IT occupations: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/... 'Computer programmers', 'software developers' and 'web developers' will get you to 1%. I think wpdev_63's message applies to some additional IT positions than just programmers, so I think 1-2% is about right.
  - user5994461 8y ago
    IT is much much wider than software developers.

Kephael 8y ago

It's very difficult to start your career at leading companies such as Google, Facebook, etc without going to a reputable school.

IMTDb 8y ago
That's why you usually do not start there. Google might require a degree, but your local hairdresser does not ask for one as long as you can create his website. Then move your way up from there. After several years recruiters will be more interested in your experience, projects and contributions than your non existing degree. EDIT: other options include working at startups/smaller companies, contributing to open source to get social validation of your abilities, learning some skills through coursera/online courses, ...
- Kephael 8y ago
  That's absurd, you're much better off going to a reputable school, working hard, grinding leetcode, completing internships, and then getting a $150k+/yr TC job to start. You'll come out far ahead by going to a good school. If you're able to start at Google while you're still in high school, that's a different story.
  - drb91 8y ago
    This seems like a rather expensive way to experiment whether you’re well suited for something and like it.
  - prolikewh0a 8y ago
    I have plenty of friends that dropped out of College with no degrees and now work for large tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. It's not really tough to come in as an E1 and work your way up, especially if you have a great GitHub/Gitlab and possibly experience as a dev at another smaller company. I see a lot of women coming in as E1's off of those 12 week software engineer bootcamps as well.
    - nemothekid 8y ago
      There's a difference between dropping out and not going at all. There are plenty of "elite" dropouts at FAANG.

danaur 8y ago

a fair number of companies require that an individual has a degree or is working on one in order to work in their programming or engineering departments. Typically people who get around these requirements have a strong network which is not necessarily easy unless you were transitioning to programming from another profession.

hrktb 8y ago

Fun fact: some countries will make it pretty hard to enter as knowledge worker if you don’t have a degree (in some case they won’t even care which degree, you just need one from an official university) That’s one specific case, but there’s miriades of other super corner cases.

fzeroracer 8y ago

A basic bachelors degree in computer science opens a lot of doors if you want to work abroad. That said if a recession hits there's gonna be some really, really nasty side effects as the predatory student loan industry destroys a large amount of the workforce.

harlanji 8y ago

I agreed for most of my career. As a Senior Eng in SF it seems that contiguous experience and prior credentials are king, to the point where my side projects haven’t come up in interviews in years.

mynameishere 8y ago

No idea where this guy is coming from. Most companies absolutely require a degree, and most companies absolutely won't bother look at your side projects. .... On the original topic, I went to an extremely cheap school and could not figure out where the money was going. It seemed like they must have been paying the professors $800/hour or something, with all the money involved. Of course they weren't. They were just pissing it away. With what college costs, a student should be able to have a private set of teachers in the manner of royalty--but then you wouldn't have those lovely dormitories they tear down and rebuild every few years.

Delmania 8y ago

For a Silicon Valley startup, sure. Most companies outside SV won't look at your resume with some form of CS or SE degree.

walshemj 8y ago

Are you sure back when I left school (uk) maybe in 2018 not so much. Also many other countries have much more stratified systems and degrees are mandatory