> Companies don't care about code that requires a CS degree, but they care about the author of that code having a CS degree, precisely because that makes him a

> Companies don't care about code that requires a CS degree, but they care about the author of that code having a CS degree, precisely because that makes him a replaceable cog When I was a hiring manager, the reasons why I only looked at CVs with a degree in a relevant field (CS or EE) were two. First, because it gave me some confidence that this person knows all of the basics that are required for the job, whereas a self-taught person may be missing big parts of the picture -- after all, they don't know what they don't know. The second reason is because it suggested that the candidate was willing to remain focused on a multi-year project even when some parts of it weren't "fun". I never saw anybody as a "replaceable cog". Even if they had the same degree, everybody is different, and each member brings different skills to the table. Your job as a hiring manager is finding whether a candidate will add significantly to the existing team or not. > If you want to fire a CS graduate you can just hire another CS graduate If it was that simple, we would simply issue an offer to every CS graduate we come across and would not bother interviewing them. Since this isn't at all how the industry works, it's clear that here's a good opportunity to re-evaluate your beliefs.