There's a specific case in France, where most developpers I know don't have a proper "CS degree" but have a more generalist "engineering diploma". I can even s

There's a specific case in France, where most developpers I know don't have a proper "CS degree" but have a more generalist "engineering diploma". I can even speak for myself. I didn't learn to code at school much , did some bash and C here and there but that was not the point of my study. We mostly had math, physics and electronic-oriented courses and more precisely in my case a lot of telecommunication courses. Still, for a first programming job, engineers (as in those with an engineering school diploma) are often preferred to people with a CS degree, which did a lot more programming that we did. I would guess that it mostly has to do with the reputation of both the schools and the students from there. When it comes to STEM, engineering school is seen as much more prestigious than studying in a university. Young people with higher grades wishing to make a career in programming more often than not tend to choose the former over the latter - even if it means less focused courses. And yet having said all that, I wouldn't say that french developpers are worse in any way than developpers from other places. Even if most of us learn to truly program at our first job. I'm not at all saying that a CS degree has no point, but as long as you have the minimum knowledge about the field when starting, it's very efficient to learn on the job the specificities.