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I got into tech without a CS degree and I know a lot of other people who have. If you had trouble getting your foot in the door, it's probably because of somet

I got into tech without a CS degree and I know a lot of other people who have. If you had trouble getting your foot in the door, it's probably because of something else. > Software development is in no way a meritocracy, and companies see us as interchangeable components with very little intrinsic value as SV workers are finding out in droves. That's just not true. Interchangeable cogs in a machine don't get paid several hundred thousand dollars a year. If you want to see what being interchangeable really looks like, work in the food service industry.

dajtxx 4y ago
I've been a developer full time for 35 years, since I was 16 years old. I've led teams, I've been a systems architect, I've never been fired. I can program in Java, C/C++, Python, COBOL, asm of various flavours. I've written crypto software, ERP systems, remote sensing systems, BI systems, dev tools. I have never got paid close to several hundred thousand dollars a year, and I have always had trouble getting through the HR degree filter until the last couple of years when I finally got my CS degree. You could be right, the problem is me. I don't have enough contacts due to 15 years of fully remote work and spending too much time at my previous job, and I don't want to flog myself any more because I'm in my 50s. But I am certain my career has suffered greatly by not having that piece of paper 'proving' to HR I know what I'm doing. And yes, I am bitter about it ;)