Wind the clock back fifteen years and I was in school, just finishing my GCSE's and moving into sixth-form college (high school). Let's just say I wasn't the ideal pupil, I ended up finishing college with an attendance record of just over 50% and barely scraped through my exams.
I had spoken to numerous career advisors who had all told me the exact same thing, "you need to go to University". At the time I couldn't comprehend that actually I was being pushed down a route towards a four-year degree that would cost maybe £30,000+ on a subject I didn't even know I wanted to pursue.
I didn't know what I wanted to do in the future, and didn't want to walk down a path I wasn't 100% sure about.
Not going to University went down badly with my college tutor. I have bad memories of having to stand up in front of my peers and answer why I wasn't going down that route. Of the five people (including me) in my group who originally said they didn't want to go, I was the only one come to the end of the year who hadn't changed their mind.
Needless to say, University / College is a good idea for some people, however, for others, it isn't a smart choice. I know so many who have got a degree but work in a dead-end job and are up to their eyeballs in debt.
So you might say this is a topic I feel quite passionate about. Here are the reasons I don't think a degree is necessary to become a developer in 2019:
👩🎓 Resources and Learning
There are so many online courses out there to help you become proficient in programming. Most of which are completely free. Even ten years ago, most of these weren't around or at least weren't developed enough to be useful.
If you apply yourself and keep to a strict learning schedule as you would if you were in education, then you could arguably make quicker progress than if you were in school (that brings me to my next point).
Being able to learn on your own terms is also a powerful thing. I know for a fact I am no good in a classroom environment and learn much better by building and doing. If you discover your learning style, you will flourish.
⚛️ Specialisation
Degrees often cover Computer Science as a broad subject and don’t often cover new and emerging technologies and frameworks. They stick to a curriculum that is already been created. If you have taken any courses n Udemy you will know that they are constantly being updated with the emergence of new tech.
Being hyper-focused on one technology, be it JS or Java or Python... You will make progress much quicker if you focus on that one language and keep up to date with tech.
⚒ Experience
It’s possible to gain the necessary experience to get a job working freelance or on open source projects. Most job adverts will ask for “degree OR relevant experience”. If you are able to display you have worked on open source or freelance, a lack of a degree won’t be a problem. It is actually more preferable to have a candidate that has worked on these projects that someone that hasn't.
🤝 Soft Skills
Working other jobs give you soft skills that you wouldn’t pick up from being at college/university. That experience is an extremely valuable asset to any developer, especially when applying for jobs.
Client facing ability from working in a store, time management from working in an office environment... It's all incredibly valuable.
📝 Job Applications
Degrees will only carry you so far through a job application.
If you can present yourself as a better investment to the chosen company by preparing and researching what they are looking for and then tailor creating your approach to your chosen company you will be much more effective.
To put that clearer, and to highlight the fact that there are other important aspects of a candidate, what would you rather have... Someone WITH a degree who comes across in not a particularly professional manner, or someone WITHOUT a degree who has the same technical ability who is professional, passionate and motivated.
...
The purpose of this article is not to bash degrees. I know that they offer someone a broad depth of knowledge over computer science foundations and advanced topics that potentially a non-educated person isn't going to have. For some people, they are definitely the right path.
What I am saying is that you shouldn't feel pressured to get a degree or even be put off of applying for jobs if you are a self-taught programmer. I work in a company that has many Masters graduates and even PhD graduates, yet I don't feel held back by my lack of formal education.
Top comments (22)
I work alongside people who did 4/5 year apprenticeships in software engineering. They got the equivalent of A levels and usually a degree equivalent. All without debt at the end and all with real work experience and a network.
I regret not going down that route, but its hard to do something that you had no idea existed. When schools performance is based upon how many people go into higher education, thats where everyone is pushed.
I think a degree is important, it demonstrates experience of planning, organisation, an ability to learn and foundation knowledge. Im not convinced that going the standard school => uni => work route is the best way though.
That's exactly right, providing options for those who need them rather than just trying to make their records look good should be paramount.
Definitely, apprenticeships are a really great thing. I live quite close to Vodafone, and I know their apprenticeship schemes are fantastic yet competitive to get in to. I think looking back I would have liked to have done something like that.
I agree with what you are saying. Is my post right for those who are 16 and looking to jump into the world of dev work, probably not? I would for sure recommend someone in that position to do a boot camp or an internship or an apprenticeship before applying for whatever jobs and certainly not feel pressured into going to University. However, I speak to a lot of people who have come from careers elsewhere looking to get into technology and are considering going back to school. That is not necessary because the life skills make up for it.
As far as front end, web design is concerned I don't think degree is necessary. But people should stop advocating next generation to be illiterate with no knowledge in science, history, maths. I mean we want mars robots or missile guidance systems to be coded by 8th std dropout with bad math and physics to be a developer working on such project? Not a healthy preaching.
I was a decent student at uni. Passed everything (not excelled) but I never really tried. Went to university because I had no other option like I couldn't comprehend not going.
I hated it. I consider it a waste of 4 years and probably screwed me out of about 7 years of potential.
I eventually got a crappy job in a call centre and got promoted to Tech Support. In there I got my first taste of coding and 3 years later I'm building software for Building Societies and Banks.
University will never teach you passion and that's all you really need.
Skilled developers are just too hard to find to worry about whether they studied Western Literature or Biology.
Sure, a college degree is an indication of persistence and determination. So are lots of things that don't take four years and cost tens of thousands of dollars that go to pay for other students' sports equipment and coaches.
I've worked with some computer science graduates who were insanely smart. They learned a lot in college. Nothing was going to stop them. They would have learned anyway. A lot of smart people come out of colleges, but a lot of smart people go in.
If you want to be a software developer, odds are that a college will sell you a very expensive combination of what you don't need and what you already have.
100% with you on this, I skipped uni - and even dropped out of college as I found the BTEC in Software I was taking was so generic I could have done the software design in my sleep - hmmm how do I make a pizza shop their jazzed up TODO list "Pizza ordering app" with no Database/Persistence in Visual Basic 6 - sorry long time since college - while in my spare time I was already earning ~£1k a month by creating apps for android which had just been released and was offered a commision for toolstation - although unfortunately due to pressure from parents I tried and dropped out of A levels so didn't have the time needed to create what in those days would have earnt me up to £80k - biggest regret.
My first real job in IT was as a Senior Software Engineer (Literally I started as Senior)
Most businesses want to see something that stands out rather than the generic degrees everyone else has, most of which only teach the basics, my wife did a degree in software but can't write more than
int main() {writeout("HI") // intentional invalid syntax and non-C standard lib function
}
However I am now self-employed and have had times where I feel there should be a core subject in enterprise & legal introduced at compulsory GCSE level to give people the option incase they don't want to do the same as everyone as there was a lot I was a little unprepared for when it came to learning laws, employment rules, bookkeeping, accounting etc.
Everyone learns different and it's about time the gov.uk woke up-to that especially at a time we need more enterprise's made in the UK to replace all the services we offered the EU - my 2 pence not going to start a political flame war.
I may be on the hunt for a UX designer soon and if you don't have another job I would happily employ yourself or someone without a degree as often we haven't been trained to think inside of a box, or in the same manner as a lecturer.
this is not meant to be an attack on those who do choose to get a degree, its just not how I wanted to do it and everyone learns different
The question is not about whether or not to go to university, but to realise that a degree will not magically equip you with all that is necessary to start a great career. Both paths - university and self-taught - will require a lot of mental strength and discipline to succeed and to get the most out of it.
You're mentally strong and disciplined? Congratulations, you'll likely find your way, no matter what. ;D
Everyone should ask themselves why they want to pursue a degree. If the answer is "I'm insecure about my abilities" or "I don't know what else to do" then it's almost guaranteed to be not of much value.
You can drag yourself to uni every day, are demotivated, do only as much as strictly necessary, and in hindsight it will appear like a waste of time. Rightfully so! You can put in everything you can, find yourself a mentor, build a network, actively compare the formal education to the software ecosystem in the "real" world (internships, part-time work, etc.), and leave uni with a strong understanding of your abilities and how to develop them further. (Two simplified extremes; it's a spectrum, granted.)
If someone is already a self-taught programmer, then I agree with your advice 100%. The main take-away here is that nobody should ever feel pressured to spend 3-4 years of their life just to tick a box on a hiring checklist.
However, if I may suggest an improvement to your article, I'd put the "The purpose of this article" paragraph to the very top.
I completely agree that a formal degree is not needed for most dev-jobs.
University is more about social status and socialising.
You're learning how to behave in academic circles.
Other academics will prefer you over somebody self-taught.
They like you because you went through the same or similar struggles, and you pass that gateway with your masters or PHD.
This has nothing to do with the quality of your code.
University = More money and influence down the road.
I highly recommend to get as high a degree as possible.
You don't need it, but it makes your life so much easier.
BUT, as Front-End-Dev without a CS-degree, please allow me one plea:
Dear CS-grad, please spend your brain-cycles on saving the world, not on npm-install.
I wrote my first piece of software in 1987 at the ripe old age of five. 32 years later, I'm a Senior Engineer / Cloud Architect and run a side business. I quit college and only had a single semester of debt. I wouldn't do anything differently.
If you have the inner drive, you can make it as a developer without a degree. No question.
There are a lot of good things to be said about school, but for $100k or more? You're likely not learning that much. The many years of self study are way more valuable than a four year degree.
Teach yourself. Practice. Write useful things. Learn about the business world, one of the many things you won't learn at school. Do side work. Contribute to open source. Do these things and you'll be ahead of most people who have a degree, in less time and with less debt.
This problem seems to be universal. University has courses that have little alignment to what's required by the industry. Thats probably because the process that's required to have a course included in the syllabus is rather lengthy, you first have to get a consensus among officials and staff, followed by staff training then make it part of the syllabus. I have been part of a few syllabus review commitees and I remember recommending Ubuntu and Drupal to be included, only to be told that its difficult to get trainers! This approach to setting syllabus creates a deep void in learning, epsecially essentials of computer science like Databases, Algorithms etc. To address this several institutes have sprung up in this part of the world, offering short term courses that teach you MySQL, PHP, Python etc but then these institutes are driven by commercial considerations. They offer courses on subjects that create the most noise on Social Media. I was recently flodded with a lot of resumes from freshers who have done courses in Blockchain, AI and ML! As an enterprise application firm all that we look out for is people with full stack skills and a good knowledge of engineering processes like using GIT alas its a quite a struggle to identify and get the right talent considering that each college spews out about 500 students in computer science and related subjects.
As an experiment we have been working with a few colleges to allow their students to do their internship starting from their first year of technical education. We hope to see these initiatives bear the desired results four years from now.
Don‘t feel held back.
I started studying CS and I found it boring. I still own a degree in economics, but that’s as mostly due to meeting my (at the time future) wife and wanting a little to impress her (not lacking behind).
I still was able to land my first job after graduation as a software developer. I admit, I had quite a lot of luck. I was writing an evaluation about a technical solution and my future team lead came by and asked me, whether I can code. I said „yes, but no C++ yet, but that’s just syntax“.
I got the job right after graduation, changed to a consulting firm after about a year. (I was open about that right from the start.) And I am now working at a former customer earning about twice as much as 10 years ago. And others are saying I am quite good at it.
So to make a long story short: It is quite possible to make living of coding without having a degree in CS, as long as you are passionate about it and you are willing to learn. But I guess that is also necessary with a degree as well.