How important is a degree in CS?

[samdunne]

A lot of companies now have something along the following in their listed requirements:

BA/BS in CS or related field, or equivalent experience desirable. In lieu of degree, relevant skills or equivalent experience.

That example is from Google Ireland.

So how much better than someone with a degree do you need to be? Or are most jobs out their based entirely off merit and not off a piece of paper?

[rprospero]

I'll go against the prevailing wisdom here and say get the degree. My roommate lost his job two years ago. Despite having eight years of industry experience, it's been impossible for him to find a job. ANY job.

He got a phone interview with another company. Everything was going fairly well until the interviewer asked where he went to college. Bob said he didn't have one, though he had done an equivalent job at his previous employer. The interview ended right there. Bob tried to get a job at a call center. Bob had three years of experience at an IT helpdesk and was a personal friend of the manager at this new firm. Wouldn't let the manager bring Bob in for an interview since Bob didn't have a B.S. Desperate for work, Bob applied for a receptionist position. He got back a form letter saying they required at least a masters. To try and make rent, Bob started advertising as a baby sitter. In the very first phone call he got from a parent, the parent asked what Bob's degree was in and ended the interview immediately afterwards.

Granted, these are the lowlights of a two year streak of seeing Bob get screwed by his lack of a degree, but you need to look at it from the perspective of the corporations. We've all seen plenty of individuals graduate from college programs without the competence to wipe themselves. So, if the people who PASS are that stupid, what kind of idiot do you have to be to fail?

Granted, if you're starting your own business, it won't matter one whit. That's what Bob is doing now, since the job market is impossible. But you should go get the degree if you want the option of getting hired.

[davidxc]

Just curious. Is your roommate a programmer? If so, has he tried applying for freelance jobs?

I would think that if he has eight years of industry experience, he could probably pick up an in demand skill like Rails and get freelance work.

[spizzo]

>So, if the people who PASS are that stupid, what kind of idiot do you have to be to fail?

This doesn't account for the possibility that someone couldn't or didn't attend college.

[rpedela]

I guess it depends. The most important thing is knowing the basics. Usually someone with a CS degree knows them. I have found very few self-taught web/mobile developers who can answer questions about complex data structures, threading, etc. Knowing that stuff helps you build more efficient, less buggy software. I would personally recommend a CS degree because it will force you to learn the boring, yet important, stuff. And it will make it a lot easier to find a high-paying job.

[voidlogic]

Without a C-S degree, your burden of proof that you know your stuff will be much higher. Its a great experience and you will learn a lot of un-hip stuff that will be very helpful to you later (for example C, how OSs/semaphores/compilers/threading actually works, etc). Not to mention all the gen-eds that I believe make people better critical thinkers and members of society.

Without a degree you just be will be a another guy who (stereotypically) flings Ruby and JS and doesn't know what big O notation means (or why and when it matters) or what the difference between a interpreted, compiled and JIT compiled languages. Unless you make a big name for yourself, your name will be first to throw out along with the other non-degrees for any position with more than 10 applicants.

[unimpressive]

Full Disclosure: I'm just some kid on the Internet, in case my handle didn't clue you in.

I think that even if you forgo a degree you should endeavor to learn about theoretical computer science and mathematics. A good education (in whatever form you manage to get it) should be intellectually enriching, even if you rarely use it. (Though if you really understand it, I doubt the sentence "you rarely use your knowledge relating to concepts like algorithmic complexity or formal verification." will remain true for long.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_mathematics

[FellowTraveler]

If you need to hire 2 people, and you have 200 resumes, the first thing you do is throw out all the ones with misspellings and without a degree.

Other than that, the degree isn't that important, compared to the skill-set and work history.

The pure ability can be gained just from Google, Wikipedia, and practice at home. So can all the theoretical knowledge.

[daniel-cussen]

Put yourself on the other side of the coin. Companies say they need to ask for a Master's to get candidates with Bachelor's degrees. Maybe, take it with a grain of salt.