

Ask HN: Is there a ceiling for developers without a degree? - vargas84

Do developers without a degree have a ceiling in terms of career advancement? Does a degree matter more in some industries than others? Does the size of a company correlate with how much importance is placed on a degree? Also, have developers without a degree been able to transition into technical, product, or business leadership  roles?<p>A lot of questions, I know :). There is a good deal of talk in tech about how to break into a dev position with either no education or from a different background - my question is about how life looks 10,20,30 years from that point. I&#x27;m hopeful the HN community can provide valuable insight!
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onion2k
The opposite - a degree becomes less and less relevant as you gain experience,
both in technical skills and management.

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caw
Yes the degree gets less relevant, but there are companies who will require a
degree to get above a certain level. These are probably larger companies where
HR sets a lot of requirements. If you want to/end up working at one of these
companies, they may offer a degree program.

Smaller companies won't care, or would be able to waive any such requirements
they had.

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rubiquity
I've experienced this before. I was contracting at a senior level for a decent
sized company. They tried to hire me a few times and the offer was actually at
a lower level of seniority. I asked them about this and their reasoning was
that their HR department only lets non-degreed individuals go so high. I
wasn't interested in joining full-time anyway, but it was interesting to see
nonetheless.

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debacle
Having a degree is only really relevant to a subset of the industry that
revolves around things that are really difficult to learn outside of a
university. There are some companies that wont hire you without a degree, but
I find they are the minority.

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mindcrime
_Do developers without a degree have a ceiling in terms of career
advancement?_

No, since you can always start your own company and make yourself CEO.

Assuming you legitimately do have the skills, temperament, patience,
$WHATEVER, you can literally go as high as you want. That is not, of course,
to suggest that it is easy. I know, I went this route myself, and I can
definitely attest that it isn't easy.

 _Also, have developers without a degree been able to transition into
technical, product, or business leadership roles?_

I think some guy named Bill Gates did OK for himself. And some dude named
Zuckerberg...

