> You don't want to start arguing that lacking a degree is not a big deal.

If 'having a degree' is a 'big deal' for the company, it's probably not the best place to work anyway.

But what that question might uncover is that the interviewer is concerned that because you lack a degree, you might lack some CS background. That's a valid concern that you could refute by talking about how you've learned a lot on your own.

I was watching "Roadkill" the other day. On the show a couple of mechanics try to pass themselves off as bumpkin mechanics muddling through fixing cars. But every once in a while they'll slip up. For example, one of them said the engine was behaving in an adiabatic way. This is a term one only learns taking a college level thermodynamics course.

It's hard to fake having an engineering education, and if you have one it should show in an interview whether or not you have the degree.

The term also comes up in meterology, for instance Chinook winds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind

Which I learned because I'm curious, not because I have a degree in anything related.

I watch hot rod shows and read hot rod magazines and books. (What can I say, I'm a motorhead.) Not once before have I ever seen any reference to thermodynamic jargon, which is why that word jumped out at me.

I watched Gordon Ramsay pretend to be a beginner chef on some TV series too. Despite slipping up numerous times, teaching chefs don't discover him.

Why? Because impressions matter and will frame you as "X", until you strongly challenge and overthrow that initial impression.

Out of curiosity, do you recall any more context around referring to an engine (combustion engine?) in terms of adiabatic process? I'm just a bit puzzled how this might come up in relation to a car.

It was in the context of the radiator being clogged and unable to dump the heat.

"An adiabatic process occurs without transferring heat or mass between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings. Unlike an isothermal process, an adiabatic process transfers energy to the surroundings only as work."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_process

Wasn't looking for the definition, having studied thermodynamics as an undergrad, just surprised that a nonfunctional cooling system might be cast in such terms. Like, you don't start by noticing the engine's increased thermal efficiency as a stepping stone to realizing the radiator isn't getting hot or the water pump is failing to pump.

> You don't want to start arguing that lacking a degree is not a big deal.

True. What I usually do is point out the amount of hours it would take to get a PhD on average, and compare it to the number of hours I've spent furthering my education and honing my craft. It is in fact more time spent than it would take to obtain a PhD.