3 ms·

Interesting question. I think the first obstacle would be HR. I'm not an HR person, but my guess is that a lot of them would pre-screen resumes without a degre

Interesting question. I think the first obstacle would be HR. I'm not an HR person, but my guess is that a lot of them would pre-screen resumes without a degree. So that may limit you to really small companies and/or places where you have contacts that can root for you. The next hurdle would be a dev interview. Here, it's not whether you have a CS degree, but whether you understand concepts you would learn in CS courses, like runtime complexity. You need to be able to make it through a typical whiteboard interview (see Cracking the Coding Interview.) I think that with hard work -- networking, something to demo, some study of algorithms/data structures to get you through the interview -- one can overcome all of that, but it will take work. Your other option is to found your own company. The founder of the last place I worked only had a HS diploma.

rfnslyr 13y ago
I've completed 3 years of a useless degree that just has big fancy course names that make it look like we actually did things. Reality: Course material from the early 90's, professors just email us wikipedia links and test us on diagrams and random crap from the internet. It's really really bad. 2 semesters at this school I can fit easily into one month of self study :| Should I just put relevant coursework + how much of the education I completed? (3 years). I have an absolutely abysmal GPA so I'm wondering if its even worth throwing on the resume at this point.
- itsybitsycoder 13y ago
  I don't understand; what was your intended purpose in attending this school if you're not learning anything and not accomplishing something you can show to an employer? If you can easily learn 2 semesters worth of material in a month, why is your GPA abysmal?
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    There was a lot of pressure to attended college immediately after I finished high school. I was not in the right frame of mind and it was never my goal to attend school. I knew since before high school what I wanted to do. I thought I could stomach it for the first year, it got worse the second year, and finally in the third I was mentally suffering so bad I couldn't do it anymore. The combination of guilt and stress was not good.
    - runawaybottle 13y ago
      It sounds to me like school has been somewhat traumatic for you. Digging yourself into a hole in college is very mentally distressing, but it happens to a lot of people. I think giving serious consideration into taking a break from college is very reasonable under those circumstances. With that said, with no degree/experience, you absolutely have to build up a solid portfolio, fast. A semi competent front-end dev can get his/her foot in the door slicing sites, aim lower to build up experience. Do it for a year, but spend nights/weekends working on projects for your next job (a year or two down the line). Then try to ease school back in with evening classes. I'd recommend that you don't tell potential employers you're taking a break from college. Try to highlight that money is becoming an issue, and you need full-time work, but are taking classes part-time (register for a class or two per semester). There is a crowd of devs that don't have a degree, or don't have a CS degree, and are doing ok, but I generally find this breed to have a good deal of grit. It'll definitely be stressful in your first few years.
tptacek 13y ago
On the other hand, if your application is being screened by HR at all, you're doing it wrong; you want a hiring manager sponsoring your process before you ever talk to HR.

rfnslyr 13y ago

I've completed 3 years of a useless degree that just has big fancy course names that make it look like we actually did things. Reality: Course material from the early 90's, professors just email us wikipedia links and test us on diagrams and random crap from the internet. It's really really bad. 2 semesters at this school I can fit easily into one month of self study :| Should I just put relevant coursework + how much of the education I completed? (3 years). I have an absolutely abysmal GPA so I'm wondering if its even worth throwing on the resume at this point.

itsybitsycoder 13y ago
I don't understand; what was your intended purpose in attending this school if you're not learning anything and not accomplishing something you can show to an employer? If you can easily learn 2 semesters worth of material in a month, why is your GPA abysmal?
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  There was a lot of pressure to attended college immediately after I finished high school. I was not in the right frame of mind and it was never my goal to attend school. I knew since before high school what I wanted to do. I thought I could stomach it for the first year, it got worse the second year, and finally in the third I was mentally suffering so bad I couldn't do it anymore. The combination of guilt and stress was not good.
  - runawaybottle 13y ago
    It sounds to me like school has been somewhat traumatic for you. Digging yourself into a hole in college is very mentally distressing, but it happens to a lot of people. I think giving serious consideration into taking a break from college is very reasonable under those circumstances. With that said, with no degree/experience, you absolutely have to build up a solid portfolio, fast. A semi competent front-end dev can get his/her foot in the door slicing sites, aim lower to build up experience. Do it for a year, but spend nights/weekends working on projects for your next job (a year or two down the line). Then try to ease school back in with evening classes. I'd recommend that you don't tell potential employers you're taking a break from college. Try to highlight that money is becoming an issue, and you need full-time work, but are taking classes part-time (register for a class or two per semester). There is a crowd of devs that don't have a degree, or don't have a CS degree, and are doing ok, but I generally find this breed to have a good deal of grit. It'll definitely be stressful in your first few years.

tptacek 13y ago

On the other hand, if your application is being screened by HR at all, you're doing it wrong; you want a hiring manager sponsoring your process before you ever talk to HR.