71–80 of 246 posts
Yes, it will help. There Will eventually be an employer that wants you to have a degree in cs to have a high-level CS job. At the same time, the world is full of intelligent, successful engineers who don't have a CS degree. And there's another separation between people with any kind of degree and people with some kind of degree doing programming.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In reading some of your responses to other posts I wanted to add that I'm answering the question realizing that you don't have a degree of any kind. Having a degree normalizes you to people with limited time or imagination - the upside is you spend far less time having to explain or prove your value. Getting a degree now is also a commitment to stop doing things the hard way. :-) A degree in something is a minimum, a…
I probably should have been more clear in my original post that I don't have a degree. Sometimes I forget that "a degree in something" is really the bare minimum for anyone to take you seriously. I specified a CS degree because what else would I do?
> Is this a bad idea? Is this a good idea? Is this necessary if I want to be employable in the future? I wish anyone could really tell you. I mean, I sure don't know, and I've been a hiring manager in SF for years. I've done countless interviews, read countless resumes, all that. I can tell you what I would do if I were trying to bootstrap my way into the industry, though: 1. Do something difficult and unusual in tec…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. So far the iterative approach has been working out. I haven't really tested the waters in a while. I just wish that "single line" wasn't such a deal breaker.
It is indeed unfortunate, and for what it's worth I think you are not the person people are generally trying to filter out by requiring a degree, given your skills and track record. So you probably would benefit from meeting more people in the industry in person. It also sounds like you've made good choices so far in getting your new career started. I hope you get everything you're going for.
In the AAA games industry, a portfolio speaks much louder than a degree. Junior software engineers with five simple, well-coded games (such as Asteroids, Lunar Lander, etc) on GitHub stand head and shoulders above people fresh out of university without a portfolio in the recruitment process. Senior software engineers with experience developing large AAA titles are in much higher demand than those with a PhD in game s…
In my own experience, it is true that a portfolio really helps you stand out. Recruiters often ask for your GitHub profile or blog.
However, I've found that recruiting really differs based on studio size. Indies tend to take what the can get, often forming a ragtag team of people with various levels of education and experience. AAA studios, on the other hand, are very discerning when it comes to programmers. They often won't give you a chance unless you either have solid experience or a university degree from a university they know is up to par. That's because there are so many talented programmers who really want to work in AAA
As someone who has interviewed candidates for a FANG company in the distant past I can't say that degrees matter, but I can say that people I interviewed with degrees generally did better. There's a hidden bias in that this is only people who got through recruiters and recruiters are their own filter. Strong referrals usually guaranteed a phone screens. I think previous experience at a major competitor in the same ti…
> Many of the best co-workers that I remember had physics degrees. In fact, it was so pronounced I personally consider a physics degree to be a top tier signal of programming ability, but that's my own personal prejudice. You're basically just using it as a proxy for general intelligence, the _average_ physics major's IQ is around 130.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes sense. Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm involved in several projects, as well as being the sole developer for a SaaS that I co-own (I make exactly 0 dollars from it right now). I have to solve all kinds of difficult problems, which excites me to no end. I can see how I could have the same demoralizing experience you did. In my bootcamp, I got a D on my portfolio because I didn't follow directions. I'v…
Similar experience here but slightly different as I went to a top tier uni, but was also a decent coder before I started college. There was a lot of 'theory vs practice' snobbery where the former was emphasized above all, to the point of absurdity. Get ready to learn the secret knowledge of academia CS like that that functional languages are secretly the solution to everything - especially purely functional - no vari…
I do like electrical engineering. I'm a huge Arduino-head, and am currently working on an embedded device for a client. The hardware design was relatively simple, but I have way more to learn in that area.
I started my professional career without a degree a long time ago. I did a few years of Comp.Sci. (and math) but didn't finish. I then finally got the extra credits to finish years later so I'm a proud bachelors of compute science (it did feel good the decades ago when I completed it). Once I had real experience getting a job was not a problem. That said, getting some specific job at a specific company might be hinde…
Thank you for your response. I'm not really interested in specific companies. I'm really NOT interested in FAANG type companies. I have however seen many listings where I was like "this fits my knowledge and interests perfectly other than the degree requirement" - While I'm interested in the paper, I absolutely love learning everything I can about computers. I'm super neurodivergent, and have trouble learning things…
If you have 20 years of experience I wonder if there are options for you to have that recognized towards a degree or even to get accepted into a Masters program (where presumably you'd have to make up some required courses but still).
It's complicated. I work at a "target" software company (competes with FAANG on prestige, but not literally FAANG). I interview candidates for senior+ roles, approximately one per week. By the time a candidate gets to me, I read their resume only for icebreakers/small-talk, and I couldn't care less what their resume says otherwise. But, I also happen to know that our internal recruiters, who are the first line of scr…