I have a Arts degree. I spoke with someone with prior experience at NASA. From what he told me, I would say their SWEs have backgrounds "diverse, but still very same". They come from many degrees, but they're all STEM degrees.
Assuming they don't have strict degree requirements, I could lay out a job path that goes from local web shop (I'm mostly a web developer) to local web & app shop. At this point I get to add Java to my resume for Android. Even though Android is going away from Java it will be years before it stops being used.
After 1-2 years of java experience I'll likely be more applicable for a lot of good software engineering jobs and on fairly equal footing with someone with a 4-year degree. I might still have that barrier of entry with JPL, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Now let's go to the other option, getting a more appropriate degree. I would like a second 4 year degree, perhaps in ECE or CS to complement my Art degree.
A lot of people also want to get another degree, but that's easier said than done since some options become harder and some become easier when you are in your mid 30's like me
I have no SO and no kids, so potentially I can be very mobile, but the lack of a job offsets that. How do you set aside years of time for another full degree, with a small support network, and prevent myself from living on the streets? I don't have any friends or family that I know of that'll let me life rent-free for years. I also have to consider if I have to return to the life of working a humbling service job. I'm not in my early 20's anymore so I can't be as flexible and open with part-time jobs and living arrangements.
I am curious - do countries with free or very cheap higher education see as big of a divide between those with 4 year degrees and those without?
You still need to pass the interview hazing, and structurally you won’t be “inducted” the same way new graduates are. But if you have prior experience most of these companies will take a look. Even recruiters contact people without degrees. In particular, back when Laszlo Bock was in charge of recruiting at Google he’d routinely say they hired non-graduates because none of their interviewing metrics appeared to have a strong correlation with employee success.
In LA, it's JPL, SpaceX, Hulu, etc. I've applied at all these for jobs with twenty years experience and my resume doesn't last an hour in their system. Even had a previous job in aerospace at Rockwell.
IMHO post-high school education should refactor to become more like a trade school system. 95% of the educational programs offered in university have little or nothing to do with real world job duties. For the few excepts (medicine, engineering, etc), the curriculum's are essentially split into theoretical knowledge and practical experience already (med school/residencies, lectures/internships, etc). I think that all colleges should become job training programs. Model it after already existing trade school programs where you spend two years split between real job experience and class room learning. This would give employers access to lower-cost labor in exchange for real-world experience.
Is online self-education delusion? Yes and no. A completely self taught education will never be held up to the same esteem as a 4 year degree. It's a bad filter, and I question any company who hires based on degree/no degree alone, but it's the filter that we've been trained as a society to use.
The quality of online education can be the same if not better than standard university. The difference rests on the education seekers ability to learn.
Online self-education is delusional in the fact that it is not a quicker/easier track to employment. But that's a symptom of a broken educational and workforce system, and not of online-education.