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I used to be on the side of no college, but as someone who almost dropped out and decided to finish I'll give you the following advice: I have many friends who
by d33lio 6y ago
I used to be on the side of no college, but as someone who almost dropped out and decided to finish I'll give you the following advice:
I have many friends who have arguably more successful careers in tech, they did not finish college. However, they are also incredibly talented and driven people (more so than me in many cases). If you don't finish school or don't have formal education know that there will always be certain forms of "high risk" or "critical" work that no amount of effort will qualify you for in the eyes of the people hiring you. Outside of that, the world is your oyster. But know that the lack of a degree will put you in the back-seat for raises, new jobs, and always be used as leverage AGAINST you. The reason I finished college was I knew I wouldn't have the drive / energy to always go up against this and knew that I'd never be okay knowing that something like that could've closed an unknowingly large number of doors on my career or startup ideas. It sucks but it's reality.
Companies like Apple and Google saying they "don't care about education" really just means they're excited to have another reason to pay employees less.
- saagarjha 6y ago> Companies like Apple and Google saying they "don't care about education" really just means they're excited to have another reason to pay employees less. Interestingly, not having a college education will often get you passed over there.
- thewebcount 6y agoFor a junior position, probably. If you have 20 years of industry experience, but no degree, Apple, in my experience at least, couldn't care less. So long as you can do the work. I have several friends without degrees who work there. But they also didn't start there.
- d33lio 6y ago100% agree with this. However, a few years in college could for someone without a degree translate into 5-8yrs of underpaid drudge work. Pick your poison. Pick your pain.
- saagarjha 6y agoYes, of course. Trying to enter the industry without a software engineering degree is fairly difficult. If you have work experience, it gets much easier, and most people don't really care about your degree at that point.
- d33lio 6y agoIf you think that "trait" alone is resulting in a "pass" in a technical interview you either have a juvenile view of the industry or have just maybe been an intern?
- pmiller2 6y agoYou've misread. "Passed over" means rejected. You were reading it as "... will get you passed, over there."
- d33lio 6y agoAhhh, in that case I completely agree! Thanks for correcting me :)
- saagarjha 6y agoNo, I'm saying that even trying to get to point where someone will interview you is made substantially more difficult by not having a college degree.
- kyralis 6y agoThis is not universally true, as someone who didn't finish college and is at a FAANG. I can't even remember off the top of my head which of others of my colleagues didn't finish college, because it simply doesn't matter. There's more than enough evidence from the quality of work that people do to produce a rough ranking for who might get tapped for critical/high risk work; who went to college simply doesn't play into it in the least. That said, if you didn't go to or finish college, it's entirely incumbent upon you to fill the holes that you likely have in your knowledge. If you managed to get hired despite some glaring deficiencies in certain areas, then you're going to be in the bucket of people who get picked last for critical projects. That has nothing to do with your degree and everything to do with your skills, though.