4 ms·

Do it! I was a self-taught developer for about 8 years before I finally decided to go back to school. I talked myself out of it many, many times. Then right bef

Do it! I was a self-taught developer for about 8 years before I finally decided to go back to school. I talked myself out of it many, many times. Then right before covid, I decided I wasn't getting any younger. So I literally sat down with an intro to algebra book and took it from there. I'm 42 now and just graduated with my BSCS degree. My only regret is not doing it sooner. Did it do anything for my career? I don't know yet, but what it did do is show me that I can accomplish my goals when I focus. I learned a lot about a subject I love and am an all around happier person for it. Now I'm not waiting anymore and will be moving onto my MS immediately. Don't think let yourself talk you out of something you want.

overclk64 4y ago
I see. I'm glad you've done it. Congratulations! Now I badly want to do it, too. :) Sometimes, I see people talking self-taught programmers down because of their lack of formal training. Have you experienced that earlier?
- cwdegidio 4y ago
  I did actually. At one place I went from a average dev to a lead over a 3 year hard grind. My team merged with another and I ended up with a guy that was in his early twenties, recent CS grad, and no real world experience outside of the 3 months he was with the team that we merged with. As soon as he found out I had no degree the sh$& talking started. Loved to take digs at me, questioned every decision I made. It was bad enough that I nearly left the field. But that was one of the motivators. Just having someone like that made me wake up one day and think “I’m never going to treat someone like that in this industry and I sure as heck am not going to give anyone else the reason to do it to me again.” There are teams out there that don’t care as long as your a good team member. But sometimes you meet that one person that has a giant chip on their shoulder.

overclk64 4y ago

I see. I'm glad you've done it. Congratulations! Now I badly want to do it, too. :) Sometimes, I see people talking self-taught programmers down because of their lack of formal training. Have you experienced that earlier?

cwdegidio 4y ago
I did actually. At one place I went from a average dev to a lead over a 3 year hard grind. My team merged with another and I ended up with a guy that was in his early twenties, recent CS grad, and no real world experience outside of the 3 months he was with the team that we merged with. As soon as he found out I had no degree the sh$& talking started. Loved to take digs at me, questioned every decision I made. It was bad enough that I nearly left the field. But that was one of the motivators. Just having someone like that made me wake up one day and think “I’m never going to treat someone like that in this industry and I sure as heck am not going to give anyone else the reason to do it to me again.” There are teams out there that don’t care as long as your a good team member. But sometimes you meet that one person that has a giant chip on their shoulder.