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Tangential question (which has been on my mind) related to this: I don’t have a CS degree. Background in something completely unrelated. But I’ve been able to

by drchiu 6y ago

Tangential question (which has been on my mind) related to this: I don’t have a CS degree. Background in something completely unrelated. But I’ve been able to make a living programming doing my own thing (bootstrapped online stuff). As a result, I never bothered to apply for jobs at established CO’s. For those who work in established tech start ups or tech companies, what proportion of your software devs have an actual CS degree vs self taught? And is there some glass ceiling as a result?

statictype 6y ago
It depends entirely on the company and their policies and strategy on hiring. FWIW, I can't even remember the degrees of the guys I've hired. Probably not even at the time I hired them.
throwaway158497 6y ago
Almost 100% of people that I work with, at a large email provider have a CS degree. That said, we don't discriminate at developer/team level. That's handled by recruiters and management :D CS degree from right places puts you on at a advantage. So, without a degree you will be competing with guys who had benefit of formal education. And that may seem like a glass ceiling if you don't interpret correctly.
gazelle21 6y ago
I work as a dev with an agency. I don't have a BS degree, went to a coding Bootcamp. I had a lot of places tell me my work is great, but without a degree, I wasn't a good fit. I freelanced for a year before getting a job. I think opinions of a 4-year degree are changing but older companies are still looking for that degree imo.
NwtnsMthd 6y ago
Most of our developers either have a degree unrelated to programming or hold no degree. Of our top three programmers, two are dropouts and one has a degree in physics. Two of them started with us having dropped out undergrad (unrelated), and the third we hired after decades of experience at other companies. The common theme I've found with all three is a passion for programming and learning in general. If they didn't do this as a job it would be their hobby, this is what makes a good engineer or developer. Forget the experience, if a person is driven they will learn what they need to know. But my viewpoint is skewed, there are only about 25 of us at our company.
moneywoes 6y ago
Can you talk about your path to bootstrapping successfully? Working on that but I'm lost.

by drchiu 6y ago

statictype 6y ago

It depends entirely on the company and their policies and strategy on hiring. FWIW, I can't even remember the degrees of the guys I've hired. Probably not even at the time I hired them.

throwaway158497 6y ago

Almost 100% of people that I work with, at a large email provider have a CS degree. That said, we don't discriminate at developer/team level. That's handled by recruiters and management :D CS degree from right places puts you on at a advantage. So, without a degree you will be competing with guys who had benefit of formal education. And that may seem like a glass ceiling if you don't interpret correctly.

gazelle21 6y ago

I work as a dev with an agency. I don't have a BS degree, went to a coding Bootcamp. I had a lot of places tell me my work is great, but without a degree, I wasn't a good fit. I freelanced for a year before getting a job. I think opinions of a 4-year degree are changing but older companies are still looking for that degree imo.

NwtnsMthd 6y ago

Most of our developers either have a degree unrelated to programming or hold no degree. Of our top three programmers, two are dropouts and one has a degree in physics. Two of them started with us having dropped out undergrad (unrelated), and the third we hired after decades of experience at other companies. The common theme I've found with all three is a passion for programming and learning in general. If they didn't do this as a job it would be their hobby, this is what makes a good engineer or developer. Forget the experience, if a person is driven they will learn what they need to know. But my viewpoint is skewed, there are only about 25 of us at our company.

moneywoes 6y ago

Can you talk about your path to bootstrapping successfully? Working on that but I'm lost.