As some other people have mentioned, one area it _could_ matter is if you are ever looking to work in another country and need to apply for a work visa.
Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
101–110 of 246 posts
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#102Degrees don’t matter in most cases. Distinguish yourself by doing the work and displaying it and talking about it. Everybody is having a hard time finding a job. If you get a degree, you will do all that work and simply be competing with 100,000 other people who also have degrees and also want work. I compete with them without institutional education. Although at my stage of career no one ever asks about my education…
Appreciate it! This is the path I'm working on right now.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#103In 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…
Speaking as someone in the games industry, I disagree with your take on portfolios. For reference, when I graduated college back in 2015 I had a portfolio of games, a successful and reasonably popular game mod and a bunch of relevant classwork. None of that even mildly got my foot in the door at any gaming companies, big or small or otherwise. Also of note, many software companies force you to sign an assignment of inventions agreement or a declaration that says you will not work in anything remotely related to software in your free time, which heavily restricts your ability to add to your portfolio.
What did help me however, is that I got a job at a smaller company working on software and then leveraged that professional experience into a job in the industry. That initial job I got was because of my computer science degree.
The importance of a CS degree was the stuff I learned across the degree, not stuff that was necessarily directly CS-related. Physics and math classes for example I did horrifically in as well, but those concepts I picked up have been useful to have in my toolkit.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#104I also don't have a CS degree and took the bootcamp route, but I have found very much that companies really do only care about what you know. It was difficult to get the first offer, but since then it's not been a problem at all. I have had multiple jobs and offers from startups to FAANG companies and the only reaction that I have ever gotten from telling people I did a bootcamp and switched careers in my early 30s was positive.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#105I can't speak to whether an online degree is worthwhile. What I can say is that the more you fill out your resume with work experience, the less the degree will matter to non-FANG employers. I suppose it depends on the kind of programming that you do, but not having a CS degree hasn't held me back at all. By this point I've got over 16 years of experience I think, and I don't even bother listing much about my educati…
I guess I should have been more clear in my post. I don't have any degree.
You don’t have a degree at the moment but in three to six months you can have a CS degree if you think it’s worth your time. It’s been done in three months.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#106In 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…
I'm a fellow game programmer from Sweden. My experience is a little different. I've worked in everything from indie to AAA and been part of recruitment on the AAA side. 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 fo…
That is true but do they discern based on degrees?
I found that AAA studios will pick someone with game shipping experience and some good code examples on GitHub over someone with a university degree 9 times out of 10.
The degree does matter a bit more in AAA, especially R&D roles. These studios actually have some R&D to do. But for other roles and other company sizes… does it truly matter in Sweden? I mean, wouldn’t a decent portfolio (including just a list of titles they worked on) jump anyone to the front of the shortlist, ahead of degrees but weaker experience?
That’s been my experience.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#107In 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…
Speaking as someone in the games industry, I disagree with your take on portfolios. For reference, when I graduated college back in 2015 I had a portfolio of games, a successful and reasonably popular game mod and a bunch of relevant classwork. None of that even mildly got my foot in the door at any gaming companies, big or small or otherwise. Also of note, many software companies force you to sign an assignment of i…
My experience was very different. But I did start in the games industry as a contractor working for abysmally poor pay. If you take a portfolio with actually decent programming skills, and flush self-worth down the drain along with labor protections, I think it’s very possible to get the foot in the door.
Unfortunately, the self-worth, poor compensation and no protections part is key in how a lot of people make it into games, and get their first games shipped. Beyond that, it’s easier.
I’m not saying this is a good or bad way to enter the industry, by the way. I have a strong opinion on it, but it’s outside the scope of what I wanted to share.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#108There's a story that goes: A man was tasked with hiring an employee. He got hundreds of resumes. His friend looks at the stack and asks him "how are you going to decide among all those?" The man grabs half the stack, throws it in the garbage and says "Simple, I don't hire unlucky people". Degrees matter when employers don't have the time and/or ability to make a reasonable decision for every candidate. They need ways…
Yes in this world of AI in everything, hiring tooling that is dog shit is the reason someone should go to college? I'm not commentating in where you're right or wrong, just want to point out what an utterly horrid reality.
Come up with a better system and you will be rich.
"Better" should be scalable, measurable, objective etc.
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#109[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?
#110I am in a position where I am a key decision maker in hiring for IT and also help in vetting resumes for other department/functions. In a nutshell:
Get that degree.
There are plenty of reasons (working in a team, demonstrated ability to organize, hit timelines, etc etc), but the single most important, IMHO, is that it will restrict your ability to grow in the company; HR have all sorts of talent and high potential mapping tables, and all the mid-top spots have degree/professional certification requirements. It would take a very special reason to get an exception, and what you've written wouldn't qualify.