Hi #DEV community, I was wondering if having a CS degree is important/necessary?
A bit about myself:
I am new to front-end development and have been learning JavaScript for a few months now. Did some exercises from FreeCodeCamp's curriculum. I have been working as a Cloud Operations Specialist (AWS) for a year now.
Also have a diploma in Computer Networking.
So to advance my career, should I carry on the 'self-taught' path or go back to College/University.
I also did a poll on Twitter:
Oldest comments (4)
What are your careers goals? I think the importance of a (CS) degree depends on both the field you want to succeed in and where you are located.
I am really loving the Web-development so far and would love to get into a developer role in near future, not sure if it's necessary to have a degree to get into the software development field.
I'm student who has done several internships & work as a webdev on the side. Please keep that perspective in mind while I'll give you my 2cents.
It is definitely possible to enter the webdev field without CS degree. I've met several devs without CS degree and I don't study CS myself (my major is very similar to CS though). I've heard from more experienced devs they did feel like they had to prove themselves a little more from time to time but that's it.
I've seen similar success stories online within data science, infosec & mobile app dev.
If you are considering any other field within software development (robotics, graphics, OS, lots more) I would look into getting a CS degree because entering those software fields professionally without one or something related to the job (engineering, math or physics for example) seems pretty hard.
I hope this kind of makes sense 😁
Thank you so much! I have some better insights now and will give it a thought!