[oortlieb]

I interned at a defense contractor a couple of years ago. Their entry level position required either a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or four years of programming experience. Higher levels were similarly structured -- they considered four years of experience to be essentially equivalent to a degree.

While I don't agree that four years of programming == degree, for their business, it pretty much was (I would argue that the experience was more important in this case). Most of their programming team was made up of long-time engineers turned C++ coders. Come to think of it, out of a pool of four interns, three of four were CE people they were asking to do application development.

The nicest thing I see about having a degree is that it gives you an "objective" measure of your value relative to other applicants. Its considered safer to hire someone with a degree because, hey, some college has given them credentials! You can convince people you're smart by being sharp in an interview and having an impressive portfolio, but for a true programming job where innovative thought isn't really necessary (it wasn't at this place), I see a bias towards people with degrees because its seen as low risk.

Full disclosure: I have a CS degree.