| Yes and no. Do startups accept self-taught programmers - definitely yes. Do companies in general accept self-taught programmers - yes. Do large fortune 500 companies accept self-taught programmers - generally no. There are exceptions to this rule. If you're self-taught and have done something amazing, like created your own programming language used by thousands of programmers, or you've got years of experience in some area thats hard to find experts in, like realtime systems programming then they'll make exceptions and you can get in. If you want to work in R&D you're going to need a PHD, the only exception here might be in startups. But aside from the big players, you can almost always substitute experience over education. Given two programmers, one with 3-4 years experience and the other with a bachelors degree and no experience, its actually the case that exp will trump education just about every time, especially on general programming positions and in the startup community, where all that matters is what you can do and have already done. Overall though, do yourself a favor and finish up your degree, you'll always have the advantage over candidates that don't have one. |