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by iteria
928 days ago
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This is absolutely wrong advice in this climate. Self-taught people have a massive survivor's bias. You _can_ make it without a degree, but having a degree greatly increases your chances especially at entry level. College is also not just about the paper, but the connections. I worked closely with a nationally renown robotistist and she gave me a recommendation for grad school if I wanted it (I did not. So burnt out by the time I got here). Does any self-taught person get to really do work with actual robotics stuff? I was exposed to so many more disciplines and ideas to get a sense of what I wanted to do along with make connections that help me in my career to this day over a decade later. I've had recruiters and interviewers tell me straight out that I got first pass because of the college I walked out of. This still happens after a decade. People say it's a hard market to get a job right now? I haven't noticed. Me and all my college friends snagged a new job in a month. I've never had a hard time getting a job. Ever. That's the power of a degree. It gets you pass HR filters and when there's a tie, people pick you first to try and that's powerful and compounds as time goes on. Being self taught is great when times are good, but it's very hard to get that next job when times are bad. I'd never recommend a 16 year old skip college. A piece of paper from a ho-hum state university still allows you into the stack of places with stupid degree filters. |
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That is true. It's also true irrespective of job and industry, but that isn't the point. If you want the greatest possible career mobility then earn that CS bachelor's degree and be a beginner developer forever who only follows trends. I doubt though, that is the advise they were looking for. If you want to make more money and have a career with real growth then absolutely do not do this. I am speaking from experience.
Their best bet at a real career with any real decision input is to get a graduate degree in CS or be self-taught with a different unrelated bachelor's degree that teaches communication skills. The best way to differentiate from other beginner developers is some combination of ability to write original software and to write with natural language. Its astonishingly staggering how badly most CS bachelors perform at these even well into their careers.