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I have an associates and did a stint with Amazon. That comes with a caveat. I interviewed for a senior software engineer, and got placed as a system engineer. W

I have an associates and did a stint with Amazon. That comes with a caveat. I interviewed for a senior software engineer, and got placed as a system engineer. With an understanding that I'd move to software within six months. That never came to pass, and I found it was due to my lack of education. I had been in the field for ~7 years at this point and was a team lead / architect for the past ~2 years. So yes it can be done just be careful on your expectations. If you're in the Seattle area. There is a crack the coding interview meetup. Probably in other cities. Tailor the resume to their needs. Then knock the algorithm and big o questions out. I spent about a year studying to land the role.

halfnibble 8y ago
That's kind of disheartening. I want to be a software engineer. I love writing code.
- cityzen 8y ago
  So write code! You don't need to work at Amazon or Google to be a software engineer. I've been independent my whole career and I'm working on multiple things that aren't mired in bureaucratic nonsense. The more code you write on your terms the more you can understand how long things take. You can identify opportunities and build or improve on them. Edit, from another HN post about Tim Cook saying you don't need a degree: Cook also added that about half of Apple's US employment last year was made up of people who did not have a four-year degree.
  - user68858788 8y ago
    He's hiring a lot of non-devs lately. When I look at the new hire emails for software devs I see a lot more master's than bachelor's - none without a degree. That's anecdotal though, so it might just be my department.