Re:Ask HN: How important is a degree?
by Jemaclus on Friday June 07, 2013 @01:34PM
(#5840301)
My dad once told me "A degree is a ticket to an interview" way back when I was in high school, and my professional life for the last 8 years continues to bear that out.
A degree does several things for you:
1) Shows that you are trainable
2) Shows that you can follow direction and instructions, complete tasks on time.
3) Implies that you have knowledge of a wide variety of topics
4) Implies that you have expertise in at least one topic.
In my professional opinion, your major doesn't matter -- I personally have a theatre degree, but I'm a senior software engineer for a large corporation.
If you don't have a degree, you need a portfolio. It's not a dealbreaker to not have a degree, but you'll have to prove the above things in some other way. You'll need to prove that you can learn enough in a few weeks to get up to speed with my team. You need to prove that you can follow my directions and complete tasks on time. You need to prove that when I ask you to do something you've never done before, you can figure out how to do it (like research in school). You need to prove to me that you know what you're talking about. You don't have to know everything, but you should know enough that I know that you won't fuck things up.
Also, keep in mind that job listing "requirements" are for ideal candidates -- their IDEAL candidate will have a CS degree, 3-5 years of experience, expertise in X language, and so on. If they need to hire someone soon, they'll often settle for a little less than the ideal. For instance, if you're super good at X language and have been using it for 4+ years, then they may overlook the fact that you don't have a degree. Or if you have a Masters in CS focusing on cloud architecture (I just made that up), and the position is a DevOps position, then they might overlook the fact that you're only 6 months out of school.
A degree does several things for you:
1) Shows that you are trainable 2) Shows that you can follow direction and instructions, complete tasks on time. 3) Implies that you have knowledge of a wide variety of topics 4) Implies that you have expertise in at least one topic.
In my professional opinion, your major doesn't matter -- I personally have a theatre degree, but I'm a senior software engineer for a large corporation.
If you don't have a degree, you need a portfolio. It's not a dealbreaker to not have a degree, but you'll have to prove the above things in some other way. You'll need to prove that you can learn enough in a few weeks to get up to speed with my team. You need to prove that you can follow my directions and complete tasks on time. You need to prove that when I ask you to do something you've never done before, you can figure out how to do it (like research in school). You need to prove to me that you know what you're talking about. You don't have to know everything, but you should know enough that I know that you won't fuck things up.
Also, keep in mind that job listing "requirements" are for ideal candidates -- their IDEAL candidate will have a CS degree, 3-5 years of experience, expertise in X language, and so on. If they need to hire someone soon, they'll often settle for a little less than the ideal. For instance, if you're super good at X language and have been using it for 4+ years, then they may overlook the fact that you don't have a degree. Or if you have a Masters in CS focusing on cloud architecture (I just made that up), and the position is a DevOps position, then they might overlook the fact that you're only 6 months out of school.