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Discussion on: Do You Need a Computer Science Degree to Be a Developer?

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gonzalezanguita profile image
Jose Tomas Gonzalez

Internet is a vast ocean of information that nowadays can teach you anything, but as wide and deep it is, finding the correct knowledge gets very tricky.

A computer science degree or software development degree are designed to teach the correct parts of that knowledge. Everyone can learn to code (it's amazing!) but what about coding with a maintainable structure? As grinch as i must sound right know, the idea of CS or SD degrees is to teach you how to solve problems efficiently, write clean and scalable code that is cheap to maintain over the years.

I'm not saying that you MUST get a degree, but that it does makes a difference in companies were money is being invested. With time it will be more difficult to compete with CS professionals as the amount of them is growing every year.

But of course, if your intentions are to work on small projects and not fully dive in into the world of software development it may be a waste of money to get a degree.

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Fernando Schuindt

Can't people learn "maintainable structure", "solve problems efficiently" and "write clean and scalable code that is cheap to maintain over the years" outside the academy?

Many of the best software developers I know learned how to do it (proper) completely outside it.
We do have great books in the topic. :)

Cheers.

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gonzalezanguita profile image
Jose Tomas Gonzalez

Of course! I didn't meant that it was not possible, sorry for the misunderstanding.

My comment aimed at the point that the learning curve is completed while you are obtaining a degree vs working on projects until you have learned everything. Companies usually will prefer experienced people.

One never stops learning, CS degree will not teach you everything but it gives you a great time advantage, it condenses everything you should know and what to look for when learning new stuff.

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Mike Oram

Time advantage? CS takes 3-4 years, it's possible to learn how to write clean, secure, scalable, maintainable code in a matter of months.