Not the above poster, but for me - I omit my degree from my resume, because in my mind it was so long ago as to be irrelevant. It's also a bit odd - I have a degree in "Letters, Arts, and Science" - a make-your-own major from Penn State.

My last two jobs the recruiters asked me if I had a degree - this came up AFTER they had decided to interview me and when they were entering me in to the system - the degree was just a field to fill in.

I can't say what impact having a degree has had on my salary, and I can't say how hard it would be to get those first couple of years of work experience without a degree (it didn't matter for my first job, but that was 19 years ago), but in terms of applying for jobs once you have experience, I've not seen it matter outside of a few jobs that inexplicably require "a" degree (of any kind).

Several of my friends in the field don't have a college degree, and they appear to be functioning well, but they are also painfully aware of the lack, which tells me it's a source of some stress, be that actual or just hypothetical.

Even better... My wife has a Master of Science, but not an undergraduate degree. That literally makes recruiters and hiring managers do double-takes.

Where did she get it? I've been trying to find a decent college that'd allow me to do the same thing.

Oxford’s M.Sc. Software Engineering will accept applicants with enough work experience in lieu of a Bachelor’s. Several of the University of London’s constituent colleges offer individual courses from Master’s degrees as individual professional awards or short courses (nomenclature varies) and successful performance will get you admitted to the Master’s proper. If you see a Master’s from U London and it doesn’t explicitly say it’s available to study independently as a short course you can still email them to inquire.

Oxford M.Sc. Computer Science https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/msc-softwar...

SOAS Finance https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/msc-softwar...

London School of Tropical Medicine, Clinical Trials https://london.ac.uk/courses/clinical-trials#entry-requireme...

Queen Mary University of London, MBA https://london.ac.uk/courses/global-mba

Ll.M. https://london.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-laws-llm

American University in DC. She completed the AU/NTL MSOD program. Not sure if they’ll do that for other programs.

It took her a while to find the program. Most wanted an BA/BS first.

I’ve been doing the same (omitting my degree). I really don’t know that mentioning my history degree with minors in French and philosophy are all that informative compared to just talking about what all I’ve done in the last 12 years as a full-time software professional.

In fact, mentioning a History degree might make someone doubt your ability to keep your code DRY...

I have no degree, I've done probably 25 tech interviews so far in my career, and I don't recall it having ever come up. I write "No formal post-secondary education" under the "education" section on my resume.

I've had companies ask for high school transcripts. What the heck.

That sounds like HR in those companies had way too much power.

me too! got an offer, then the background check company flagged my claim to a high school diploma. they asked me to provide official transcripts. hr threw its hands up. this was in june. turns out the district was overwhelmed with the year end work of graduations and such, and just shut off the phones for a couple weeks. luckily i had family working for the district and got a suitable copy. absurd.

That’s hilarious to me. I could maybe understand if an applicant graduated a year or two ago, and wasn’t in college. But for someone who graduated 20+ years ago? Come on.

I would walk away if I was asked for it, even though my grades were good. That's BS.