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100% possible to be a self-taught software engineer. I have hired many over the years. The hardest part is breaking into the industry, but once you have some ex

100% possible to be a self-taught software engineer. I have hired many over the years. The hardest part is breaking into the industry, but once you have some experience and references the degree doesn’t matter for many high paying companies (although FAANG and academia might disagree). When I interview ICs it is a very free flowing conversation. When there is a lull I will jump to a new subject. I will just start asking things and keep going deeper until I exhaust your knowledge. “What is the command for listing directories in a terminal? Name a flag you can use - what does it do? How do flags actually work anyway? Do you know any libraries for CLI parameter processing? Ever heard of argc and argv? How do you think those variables are mapped into memory of the forked process?” I go on and on and on. If you just become obsessed with computers and software engineering and put in some years of effort you can beat what school charges you for. Plenty of MIT and Brown and Harvard grads don’t know fuck all about software development. Credentials are a signal for sure but that is all they are.

piperswe 4y ago
I concur - I'm completely self taught (my special interest has been computing and software development my whole life) and the first job was the hardest. Now that I have work experience on my resume, nobody asks anything about my education background (or lack thereof), and I've gone from getting an occasional response to applications to consistently getting responses to most of my job applications.
emodendroket 4y ago
FAANG doesn't disagree, or at least some of them don't. And to my mind that makes sense, because their rigorous interviewing process should give them confidence in their hires, regardless of credentials.
- sidibe 4y ago
  That's the flip side of the interviews that everyone here complains about. Lots of people working there couldn't get a tech job elsewhere, but these places don't care much at all about resume (for lower levels) once you start the interview process.
- LtWorf 4y ago
  FAANG hiring process: "we cancel your flight to USA and instead will do the interview on skype at night" I held ok until midnight, then I was just too tired and just told the interviewer there was no point and I went to bed.
pjmlp 4y ago
In many European countries it isn't, as being Software Engineer is a proctected title, can only be used in legal contexts if the admission exam was taken, and the university was reckognised by the state as providing a proper Software Engineer degree.
- emodendroket 4y ago
  I imagine they can give you some other title and have you program computers.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Yes, hence why when one doesn't want to pay for the final exam or monthly payments, or has the resposabilitie to sign legal documents with liability, gets to be called Software Developer, Programmer or similar. Still doesn't go around the fact that universities need the approval for teaching the said degrees.
- mgliwka 4y ago
  Do you have an example for Software Engineer being protected in Europe? I haven’t encountered this and did not find any references. For example in Germany, the German title „Ingenieur“ is protected, but carrying the title Software Engineer is fine.
  - lta 4y ago
    In France (and Italy afaict), the "engineer" title is protected. You can have the function but won't have the title of you're not from a sanctioned engineering school. That being said, nobody cares about it in CS expect for government and very large companies which will use it against you in salary negotiation.
    - 908B64B197 4y ago
      > You can have the function but won't have the title of you're not from a sanctioned engineering school. My understanding was that is was true throughout the French world (so French speaking Canada does this as well)? And that the curriculum for Engineers was more rigorous than other disciplines (there's a strong emphasis on math, you have to do some economics and so on)?
tayo42 4y ago
> academia might disagree I thought teaching might be a good laid back alternative income. Now schools consider you without a degree. My path into tech has been really hard without a proper cs degree. Even after my first and second jobs I had a real hard time. I found my way through ops/DevOps/sre I almost switched careers multiple times
hahnchen 4y ago
> The hardest part is breaking into the industry, but once you have some experience and references the degree doesn’t matter for many high paying companies How to do this?
- channel_t 4y ago
  Learning the technical skills and interviewing a lot.
gorbachev 4y ago
I interview a fair amount of candidates for open roles at my company. I have never looked at or asked about how they learned the skills needed for the job.
schwartzworld 4y ago
I can confirm. Now that I'm on the inside, I'd go so far as to say that my being self-taught is a boon, not a hindrance.

piperswe 4y ago

I concur - I'm completely self taught (my special interest has been computing and software development my whole life) and the first job was the hardest. Now that I have work experience on my resume, nobody asks anything about my education background (or lack thereof), and I've gone from getting an occasional response to applications to consistently getting responses to most of my job applications.

emodendroket 4y ago

FAANG doesn't disagree, or at least some of them don't. And to my mind that makes sense, because their rigorous interviewing process should give them confidence in their hires, regardless of credentials.

sidibe 4y ago
That's the flip side of the interviews that everyone here complains about. Lots of people working there couldn't get a tech job elsewhere, but these places don't care much at all about resume (for lower levels) once you start the interview process.
LtWorf 4y ago
FAANG hiring process: "we cancel your flight to USA and instead will do the interview on skype at night" I held ok until midnight, then I was just too tired and just told the interviewer there was no point and I went to bed.

pjmlp 4y ago

In many European countries it isn't, as being Software Engineer is a proctected title, can only be used in legal contexts if the admission exam was taken, and the university was reckognised by the state as providing a proper Software Engineer degree.

emodendroket 4y ago
I imagine they can give you some other title and have you program computers.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Yes, hence why when one doesn't want to pay for the final exam or monthly payments, or has the resposabilitie to sign legal documents with liability, gets to be called Software Developer, Programmer or similar. Still doesn't go around the fact that universities need the approval for teaching the said degrees.
mgliwka 4y ago
Do you have an example for Software Engineer being protected in Europe? I haven’t encountered this and did not find any references. For example in Germany, the German title „Ingenieur“ is protected, but carrying the title Software Engineer is fine.
- lta 4y ago
  In France (and Italy afaict), the "engineer" title is protected. You can have the function but won't have the title of you're not from a sanctioned engineering school. That being said, nobody cares about it in CS expect for government and very large companies which will use it against you in salary negotiation.
  - 908B64B197 4y ago
    > You can have the function but won't have the title of you're not from a sanctioned engineering school. My understanding was that is was true throughout the French world (so French speaking Canada does this as well)? And that the curriculum for Engineers was more rigorous than other disciplines (there's a strong emphasis on math, you have to do some economics and so on)?

tayo42 4y ago

> academia might disagree I thought teaching might be a good laid back alternative income. Now schools consider you without a degree. My path into tech has been really hard without a proper cs degree. Even after my first and second jobs I had a real hard time. I found my way through ops/DevOps/sre I almost switched careers multiple times

hahnchen 4y ago

> The hardest part is breaking into the industry, but once you have some experience and references the degree doesn’t matter for many high paying companies How to do this?

channel_t 4y ago
Learning the technical skills and interviewing a lot.

gorbachev 4y ago

I interview a fair amount of candidates for open roles at my company. I have never looked at or asked about how they learned the skills needed for the job.

schwartzworld 4y ago

I can confirm. Now that I'm on the inside, I'd go so far as to say that my being self-taught is a boon, not a hindrance.