Self taught programmer - 8 or 9 I started BASIC and was doing Borland C and C++ by the age of 14. By then I was into Web development and pivoted over to Javasc

Self taught programmer - 8 or 9 I started BASIC and was doing Borland C and C++ by the age of 14. By then I was into Web development and pivoted over to Javascript, php, and later Java and Objective C. I have no degree whatsoever and no qualifications in maths or CS. I've been in the business 12 years, although I do less development these days. I'll be honest - I couldn't tell you how you would design a compiler, or an OS (not at the 'hardcore' level you are talking about). If you asked me these questions in an interview I'd say as much. I'd also say that for web development I don't think it really matters and I don't feel I'm missing out on much. I'm certainly not going to go to university to learn them at the age of 29. I'm also not going to get a job at Google (not as an engineer anyway) but that frankly doesn't concern me. I don't feel it has hurt me in terms of my career although granted there are areas of the business I'm never going to cut it in (that's the case for all of us, however).