Study leetcode and system design. That's enough.
What do you mean by system design?
Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
81–90 of 170 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I remember a time when online certificates was an anti signal. I have never interviewed someone with many certifications and thought the person would be a good addition to a team, and I have never worked with someone who has many online certifications and thought they are good at the things they are certified in.
I have over 100 Coursera/edX/Udacity certificates and work on the bleeding edge of tech (AI). MIT's Underactuated Robotics got me into the first cohort of Udacity's Self-driving Car Nanodegree. I think you are shooting yourself in the feet if you plainly reject people like me who just want to keep learning new things.
I mean this in the nicest way possible. I genuinely have nothing agaisnt you and this is as far as I know the first time i've ever read one of your comments.
You appear unsufferable. If i was in charge of deciding whether or not to hire you, I would not, based on this comment.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#83Dude I got into a FAANG company with no CS degree (or any other degree). Unless you're going into research, where is PhD is almost required, they'll hire you based on your skills.
Same. Self taught as a child (like OP). Offered a job at a FAANG twice, and took it the second time.
YMMV. I self taught as a child as well and gave up trying to crack FAANG. I still enjoy my less blingy current role.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I remember a time when online certificates was an anti signal. I have never interviewed someone with many certifications and thought the person would be a good addition to a team, and I have never worked with someone who has many online certifications and thought they are good at the things they are certified in.
I have over 100 Coursera/edX/Udacity certificates and work on the bleeding edge of tech (AI). MIT's Underactuated Robotics got me into the first cohort of Udacity's Self-driving Car Nanodegree. I think you are shooting yourself in the feet if you plainly reject people like me who just want to keep learning new things.
there's a difference between certs as a signal and certs as actually learning something
the former tend to be the type that list as many of those 100 certs as they can on your resume - I assume you're the latter and actually tailor mentioning those to very relevant / the best of the best
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, a full genuine undergrad CS degree from Harvard is nearly an anti-signal...
Seems even in this thread there are many without any certificate nor formal education. Would it be possible to explain how that is happening?
I have a formal CS education, although I've hired a bunch of people without. I'm just saying, a Harvard CS degree tells me either you're extremely bad with money, or you (or your parents) are more interested in social signalling than a thorough education.
You also seem to be missing that the content associated with the certificate can be fine, but the validation process broken enough that the certificate per se (and therefore listing it on a resume) is worthless.
(I prefer to hire based primarily on work samples or a take-home project.)
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#86Yes, I worked in FANG and one of my pals didn’t have a degree yet was highly regarded in the company. What really matters is what you know and whether you can execute…
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#87Troll much
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#88Not FAANG, but I've hired and worked a number of people over the years without CS or related degrees. I have no problem with it. I don't think that the degree will help you get the job, as long as you can get an interview.
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#89I worked at a FAANG company. My co-worker hadn't graduated High School. I recommend applying and grinding leetcode if you aim for a SWE role. Two years SWE experience is enough for them to give you an interview with a cold application through their job board in my experience.
I remember watching that Freakonomics documentary on Netflix a decade ago. One of the authors mentions "not getting a HS degree is an economic death sentence". I guess times have changed.
I doubt anyone bothers to ask or check about a HS diploma when hiring for software engineering. I don't recall ever being asked about it. So everyone probably just assumes the person has one until they start telling people otherwise.
But let's be real, not having a HS diploma, for most people, means that they can't progress to the next level - no college, no military, and probably no skilled trades. So it is kind of an economic death sentence. The exceptions are if you are extremely smart and talented (and if you are, you can get a GED with almost no effort).
Re: Ask HN: I'm a SWE without a CS degree. Will online certs help me get into FAANG?
#90You don't need a CS degree and you don't need certs once you've established yourself. I've been in SRE or SRE-adjacent roles at Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, and now a quant hedge fund (the first three in the US, the last in London). My only degree is in English lit. Your hardest step is getting into your first job with good name recognition in the tech industry. For this, your best bet isn't certs, it's networking --…
How did you learn stuff for working in such companies? I always assumed you need a lot of math and theory to work in finance.
Math and theory would be more important for a dev job, parent commentor is doing SRE.