[techslave]

a fresh business degree at 35-37 yo is a complete waste of time. a business degree already has minimal value at 21 yo.

find what you’d like to do, and start doing it. someone somewhere is going to let you in as an apprentice or intern or similar. connections really help here — friends or folks from activities you do — but imho you just need to get started. anything will do, it’s just the first step on the road. so don’t be picky.

ok even if you disagree with that, no a fresh business degree is not a multiplier for CS experience.

[bruceb]

I have to agree somewhat with this. Unless you doing very specific business degree, such as accounting, in which you do really well, an you have talked to potential employers first who have some decent prospect of hiring you after you are done.

Do you know good programmers in your country, know how to run sprints and could lead a team that people can outsource to? Take a couple free MOOCs on the managerial side software development.

[loteck]

A degree is a hard requirement on many, many jobs. Your resume will never be seen by human eyes without it. What do you recommend people with bills and families do, to address this reality?

[cookiecaper]

Find jobs where the degree is not a hard requirement. However many may require one, I've never had trouble finding employment without one.

If you're targeting a specific employer known to have that policy, then yeah, you're SOL, but there's huge demand for smart, capable people out there. I know a lot of guys who got spurned during an interview process when someone found out they didn't have a degree, and they wear that as a chip on their shoulder, using it to justify spending tens of thousands of dollars along with 2+ years of evenings on night school, when they could just say "Well, bummer, guess it's not going to work out" and move on.

For some people getting a degree is the right choice and opens the right doors. Just make sure that you're one of those people before a few frustrating experiences are allowed to dictate the next 5 years of your life.