3 ms·

That's a good point. I think it's slightly different for SWEs though because most (all?) who don't have a degree must be good at self education in order to be e

• commandlinefan 6y ago
  > must be good at self education This is a common (and, I suppose, understandably so), but mistaken HN trope: that developers who went to college learned how to program from their professors whereas the non-college types are the scrappy, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps autodidacts. In reality, I've never even heard of anybody who's completed a CS degree (or any other degree) who works as a developer who didn't also learn independently exactly the same way people who didn't get a four-year degree did. The CS curriculum seems to expect this and instead of focusing on the things that you can realistically learn on your own, focusing on the things that you're probably not going to come across on your own.
  • minikites 6y ago
    >instead of focusing on the things that you can realistically learn on your own, focusing on the things that you're probably not going to come across on your own This is an excellent point. Almost nobody has an idea of the true depth and breadth of most subjects or how to sequence that learning.
  • mssundaram 6y ago
    But I mean in terms of a degree as a heuristic for employability, a non degree candidate needs to be much better at self directed learning the stand out. I.e. there are plenty of CS grads who are terribly unqualified but will get the job because of their degree