If it helps, I do have a degree in mechanical engineering but am working in software. For all its problems, a Github portfolio is a very good way to show what you know.
Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
31–40 of 92 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#32I got a graduate position earlier this year in an ad-tech company, coming from 10 years in a completely unrelated industry and without a degree (I'm 33 and in the UK).
I worked through some Codecademy courses, developed my own site and blog and got to grips with things like Ad-Sense to get a feel for the ad-tech side of things. I pushed my self-taught achievements and motivation in my CV as well as my 10 years prior in a stable corporate environment.
I had to take a pay cut to get my foot in the door, but within 6 months I was picked for another team and was back up to my old salary. I'm now in tech support, but not IT specific (it's more APIs, datafeeds, SQL and site debugging). I get plenty of exposure to the underlying company tech and there are a lot of avenues for advancement in the future so I'm really happy I made the career jump.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#33I know two people who are excellent programmers and have stable jobs. One of them started a Math degree, but dropped out after the first semester. The other one has a degree, but in Philosophy.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#34Yes. I actually spoke about that recently http://blainsmith.com/articles/tedxalbany-the-master-of-my-f...
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#35I'm a self-taught programmer, started aged 10. Didn't go to university because by the time I'd finished school I'd had enough with education and I'd already started getting freelance work.
That was nearly 20 years ago now (I'm 38), and in that time I've worked as a developer on 3D graphics engines, real time physics engines and core tech in the games industry (for about 10 years, one project with Shigeru Miyamoto!), and then left that to start my own medical software company (8 years ago).
I now employ developers. And whilst I don't ignore the 'qualifications' section of a CV/resume, I really don't see it as remotely vital. I'm far more interested in whether you have a passion for the job, past projects etc.
So yeah, it's possible to get a tech job without a degree. Some places will insist on it. But they're not the places you want to work.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#36I'm technically a high school dropout (one gym class shy; they required 4y and I didn't have a chance to get third-party credit for those, unlike other classes,...), as well as an MIT dropout. (I dropped out of HS to go to MIT early, then ran out of money and couldn't pay for MIT, and also had a chance to do an anon ecash startup if I dropped out, so rather than doing ROTC, I did the startup, and never submitted any paperwork to the HS on the degree.
It's never really been an issue. I variously say "some high school", "some college", and "some grad school" (due to later classes...) on demographics forms, depending on context.
I still vaguely want to get something purely for immigration-points reasons in various countries. There are European programs at ICL and LBS to get an MBA without reference to undergrad; there are exceptional cases where one can get into a PhD program without reference to undergrad. To finish undergrad itself would have a high time cost (since it's been so long, potentially 2-3y, especially if I wanted to do aero or nuclear eng, and would need to refresh heavily on calc/physics), but maybe.
Startups generally don't care for any individual role, but it might influence the overall arc of your career.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#37I have been programming since I was 10. I finished high school at 14, entered a semester of college at 16 I then dropped out promptly (with straight A's) because I found the material to be boring and inaccurate. One teacher was seriously telling students there was no reasonable need for a computer to ever have 64mb of ram. (Perhaps I might of made a different choice had I chosen something besides a rural community college).
In any event I was disillusioned with the whole college experience and started taking on quite a bit of contract work, and over the next decade started/participated in 5 startups. I intentionally chose challenging projects at the edge of my comfort zone to gain experience and build real-world problem solving skills. During this time I built a wide network of connections which gave me the ability to do contract work for several well known companies and exposure to a wide range of technologies and problems.
Since documenting some of these experiences on my resume/linkedin in detail a few years ago, I have never had a problem getting salaried jobs or contracts making more than most of my degree-holding peers and getting frequent new job opportunities to consider.
I have also been a hiring manager more than once, and have always interviewed people based on their ability to solve real world problems with an actual editor and access to google. I tend to gravitate towards companies that test new applicants this way as well. Companies that dismiss me based on my lack of formal education, I dismiss as well. Companies that judge on paper instead of skill probably lack the diverse workforce I wish to be a part of.
As an added story, I have a friend that applied for Google without a degree. He was denied. He actually contacted them back asking why he was dismissed so quickly. He was told it was because he lacked a degree. The end. He had the balls to push back insisting he is capable of doing the job and has plenty of experience. The recruiter relented and pushed him up to the next stages... and he got the job.
You don't need a degree, but be prepared to network a lot, have a healthy amount of confidence, and be willing to push back against dismissive recruiters. I won't say which path is better, because that depends on the individual... but I can say skipping college to focus on real-world experience was one of the best personal choices I ever made.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#38I have one semester of college, in which I took psychology and political science. I've worked as the lead network architect for a large ISP, as a developer and then lead developer of a network security tool, as a security researcher (I have a pretty decent cite record and a fun list of universities with courses that have taught papers I wrote), as a 2-time startup founder, the first of which was VC-funded, as a lead…
I found calculus tricky until after I had read Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle. Once I knew why there were two different notations and had a bit more of the history behind it, I found it a lot easier.
I often think history departments should get more involved in the other subjects taught at school so that you get a bit more perspective on why things are they way they are.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#39I have a BA in a social science and have worked as a software engineer for mega-corps, government and startups. Some companies like to filter by degree, but I generally wouldn't want to work for those companies anyways.
The only way it has held me back is specialized fields, like machine learning, would be hard to get into without at least a masters.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to get a tech job without a degree?
#40[deleted]