Re:Pay in Oil Fields, Not College, Is Luring Youths in Montana
by randomdata on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @12:02PM
(#4969907)
The UK must be fairly unique in this regard, because in North America companies are just happy to hire anyone who can open a text editor for programming jobs. Not even Google, who once was quite vocal about hiring only graduates of top universities, can concern themselves about your education anymore. There are just not enough people to even start to be choosy.
Since I am not familiar with the employment landscape in the UK, I am going to have to take your word for the satiation there. However, since this article is US-based, I do not feel that your picture paints the employment situation in the US in the proper light. Formal education does not have that kind of relevance on the western side of the pond.
In my experience in the UK it really depends on what you are applying for, here the biggest companies tend to pay the best salaries and the biggest companies don't tend to like (for example) self taught developers.
If you look at job listings here for programmers a degree will be a requirement for more than 50% and they won't waive this because you have an impressive github.
Another big plus for having a degree is that it makes getting a VISA easier thus giving more options. Also there is also the advantage that by being in college/uni you will meet people who have the "right background" which can help in job search.
For example the father of one student in our CS class asked his son to tell him who the best 10 programmers in that year were and more or less hired them on the spot at graduation.
What I am saying in essence though is not "get a degree" vs "don't get a degree" but rather that saying "don't get a degree because you will be $X richer in 4 years time" seems like a rather weak argument.