[eruii]

Skill is irrelevant here. In this particular case a degree is more or less a matter of provenance. Poster's profile likely fits North Korean devs looking for work, too.

It doesn't matter how skilled I am, no country will let me cross their border without a passport. I can sit around and treat it as a personal slight, but that will do zilch for my situation.

In your case it might be best to focus on finding a local (or semi-local) branch of a multinational business to work for (where you can work in person). That will become that provenance.

[rly0nheart]

I appreciate the passport analogy, but I think the comparison to North Korean developers is misplaced. My work is entirely public and verifiable. I have years of commit history on GitHub. Ben Boyter, who shared this post, has worked with me directly. The people I've worked with can vouch for me without any problems at all.

The "provenance" exists. Companies just don't look at it because they filter on credentials first. As for working locally, there are very few tech opportunities in Zambia that pay a living wage. That's part of why remote work seemed like the solution, but it requires getting past the same filters

I understand the concern about verification. I just wish the bar for verification was "look at their public work" rather than "do they have a degree from a recognisd institution."

Also, you didn't have to make it sound like I'm/might be a security risk. That kind of sentiment isn't helpful when the evidence to verify me is already public.