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#jobs-discuss
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2021-10-11
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Mateusz Mazurczak08:10:37

What is your opinion on cs college degree for someone with professional experience?

Mateusz Mazurczak08:10:55

A little backstory I've dropped out of college to have more time for software development and I found it slowing me down to go to classes, have to do constant context switching, often finding better materials/teachers online. Also, I never have been asked about my education after I had work experience. But a good friend of mine recently started part-time cs college (even though he has masters in law and few years as a developer), as he was scared that he would have a hard time being respected/hired for the same compensation as developers with cs degree.

p-himik08:10:46

Some companies require it or find it important to have one, some don't. In my experience, only around 10% care about the education on par with the actual experience. My advice for your friend would be to figure out what the potential employers are and to just write them that question, whether they would consider education as something important. No need to be busy with all the guesswork, let alone spend who knows how much time on something based on that guesswork.

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Christian Pekeler10:10:28

In my 25 year career, my CS degree hasn’t been of interest to any employer, and when hiring others I’ve never cared much about their degree either. However, the degree enabled me to move to new countries since immigration authorities do care about these kind of credentials when deciding on granting work permits.

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Heather15:10:29

I don’t have a CS degree, but I have a math degree and it was only useful for getting my first job and passing the “CS degree or equivalent” requirement. Haven’t needed it since. If you have experience, I don’t think it’s as important.

vemv17:10:27

I guess it can help it if you're aiming for a very specific kind of job, otherwise most jobs are just glorified CRUD or crappy microservices with no attention whatsoever to what CS has to say about distsys I'd take it as a journey of learning, not as obtaining qualification. You can always start small e.g. pick a subject from one of those Self-taught CS course s you'll find on Github, see if learning theory is something you enjoy

seancorfield19:10:45

Employers cared about my BSc (Math/Comp Sci) for my very first job only. Once you're a few years into your career, your degree is irrelevant -- unless you're applying to one of those companies that, for whatever bizarre reason, still make it a hard requirement for screening resumes (I think it's a stupid practice but I believe at least some of the FAANG companies have this in place still -- probably just to filter the overwhelming number of applications they get?).

seancorfield19:10:57

Once someone has ~5 years work experience, I don't even look at the education part of their resume...

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marciol17:10:39

Depending on where you come from, if you want to get a Visa, could be important to have a degree certificate.

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