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Discussion on: What are your impressions of your self-taught co-workers?

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Self taught here, people told me nobody would give me a job without a degree so I enrolled in college and to me the classes were a joke because I already had learned a lot on my own.

As you said people invest in their crafts in all fields, some more than others that's what makes a great software developer.

Not knocking on CS graduates, if I could go back and do it again I'd go to college instead of the Navy but of course I wouldn't have the knowledge of today lol.

To add I really don't think most college students know what they want to do at that age and that's the reason why they are not invested, at least most anyways.

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vivecuervo7 profile image
vivecuervo7

I'm finding similar while studying in a bootcamp. While I'm patching a few gaps in my knowledge due to being self taught, the course content is incredibly slow and very basic. I find the questions I ask seem to annoy the other students due to them being very technical.

Foot in the door though? Check. Have a job lined up for when the course finishes - certainly something that wouldn't have come around if not for the formal education.

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elmuerte profile image
Michiel Hendriks

people told me nobody would give me a job without a degree

This is the main reason to get a degree, to get a foot in the door when you apply for a job. HR would simply filter you from the stack of resumes, even if you were an expert in the field.

The other thing you (should) learn from a degree is problem solving skills but also some academic principles. These are difficult to pick up when self-taught, as you would probably skip the materials which discuss these. I say "should" as these subjects do not always get the attention they need, especially not in the non-academic programs.

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

For me it was a different experience. I already had problem solving skills when learning programming. I also had technical training from the Navy that paid good money. So there wasn't much motivation to force me to get a degree.

I learned programming out of pure fun for years, and my current employer took a look at my github and other interesting things I've programmed without anyone asking me. And now been offered a job as Software QA. Surely it would have been easier with a degree, and I understand that. I still want to get my degree since I still have veteran benefits hopefully with this stable schedule I now can.