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My lack of degree has never been relevant in my 12-year-long coding career, I have never had issues getting jobs I want and often seen them choose me over someo
by lostgame 7y ago
My lack of degree has never been relevant in my 12-year-long coding career, I have never had issues getting jobs I want and often seen them choose me over someone with a degree.
Side projects, my obvious passion for coding, and eventually, of course, my experience got me where I’m at, making a triple-digit salary as a senior iOS developer at a major bank here in Canada.
I’m so very glad I avoided the horrors of student loans that half the people my age I know are going through.
I was able to see ‘higher education’ as the debt trap it was like I can see the sky is blue on a clear day.
At the age of 18, it was:
1) make $50k a year doing something I’ve been doing for ten years every day, know how to do well and love, or
2) go $50k in debt every year for four years paying to struggle through the school system - I hardly passed high school, the way school works just does not click with me or many others.
If you are a coder without a degree, even if it says a degree is required - just apply. This is how I got to work as an iPhone developer at LEGO, Winners, Universal Music, et cetera, until the list of these names became so notable they’d essentially be dumb to not at least look my resume over.
The other most solid piece of advice I can give - just keep doing side projects. If you’re going for your first job, an impressive side project is actually a way better way to get their attention than the dozens of people who will apply with degrees. It’s different, it will always be different, because you made it your way.
A degree isn’t anything unique, and is not actually any serious indication of actual programming talent. A degree in CS basically gives your potential employer the promise that you at least understand the fundamentals of computer science enough to slog it through school. Whoop-de-do. You meet the basic requirements and can even be considered.
Coded a custom instant messenger client while you were in your teens? Played around with ROM hacking, assembly language? Created a Mario fan game? Show them this.
You, your passion and your side projects are. I know this from the utmost experience - because those examples I just gave, I did all of, from the ages of 9-16, which got me doing web sites for real estate agents at 16, which got me working in software at Chase banks at 18. I’ve never looked back and watched my salary and experience grow year by year. :)
- Scoundreller 7y ago> iOS developer at a major bank here in Canada. Is it the one that forced me to upgrade their app to a version that didn’t support scheduled payments anymore?
- mav3rick 7y agoA lot of self taught programmers have gaps in knowledge especially when it comes to synchronization, how threading works, basic data structure and operation complexity on them. Whenever it's required they say "it's not required for web development". Of course I don't say this for all but many of them have this problem. Bootcamps don't help.
- Ancalagon 7y agoI have a degree, but this is such an over-generalized comment. Many degree-owners have those same gaps you talked about, and some self-taught devs do not. I can't comment on Bootcamps, mainly because there seems to be a huge range in quality of graduates from those.
- mav3rick 7y agoThe point is probability. The probability of someone having these gaps from a top 50 school is way lower than one without a degree.
- potta_coffee 7y agoI'd like to see the statistics that demonstrate the probability you claim.
- mav3rick 7y agoCan you also prove self learners are proficient in the same numbers as CS grads ?
- potta_coffee 7y agoI can't, but I didn't make the claim, you did.
- ben509 7y agoWhat do you need the statistics for? The people doing a degree studied the material under the guidance of an expert and had to demonstrate their mastery of the subject. Self-learners aren't doing that.
- tenaciousDaniel 7y agoI somehow did both. I spent a fortune on art school to be a painter, only to change course in my late 20's and teach myself how to code. So I don't have a (tech) degree to my name, but with all the associated debt. lol. However, I have luckily had the same experience as you. It's never held me back.
- lostgame 7y agoArtists are used to maintaining side projects. That’s possibly part of the thing? I swear, the side project thing is everything. Even with a degree, you should have a side project to differentiate yourself from the two dozen other people applying with a degree.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoMy lack of degree has been relevant, stopping me from getting a visa to work for an IoT company in New Zealand. I actually have an accelerated Masters (first-class honours MEng after 4 academic years instead of BEng + reapply and study 12 months for MEng). The case officer for my visa application still decided to deny my Work-to-Residence visa, because BEng is on his list, and MEng is not on his list. The degree didn't matter for the company or the interview, but immigration care a lot about paperwork like this. I guess you started in Canada and didn't try moving overseas.
- lostgame 7y agoImmigration is a completely different issue that I can't comment on. I was born in Canada.
- uwuhn 7y agoI feel like iOS development is especially lenient for degree requirements. Barely anyone learns Swift or dabbles with iOS while in school. I know that some places do offer specific iOS classes (e.g. Stanford), and some students will end up doing iOS internships, but the vast majority of students don't.
- papreclip 7y ago>At the age of 18, it was: 1) make $50k a year doing something I’ve been doing for ten years every day, know how to do well and love Many self-taught developers in the industry share this story. They didn't go to college, but they did invest thousands of hours into learning before entering the job market. Very different story than your typical bootcamp/udemy student, or a typical college freshman for that matter.