

How important is a degree in CS? - samdunne

A lot of companies now have something along the following in their listed requirements:<p>BA/BS in CS or related field, or equivalent experience desirable. In lieu of degree, relevant skills or equivalent experience.<p>That example is from Google Ireland.<p>So how much better than someone with a degree do you need to be? Or are most jobs out their based entirely off merit and not off a piece of paper?
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rprospero
I'll go against the prevailing wisdom here and say get the degree. My roommate
lost his job two years ago. Despite having eight years of industry experience,
it's been impossible for him to find a job. ANY job.

He got a phone interview with another company. Everything was going fairly
well until the interviewer asked where he went to college. Bob said he didn't
have one, though he had done an equivalent job at his previous employer. The
interview ended right there. Bob tried to get a job at a call center. Bob had
three years of experience at an IT helpdesk and was a personal friend of the
manager at this new firm. Wouldn't let the manager bring Bob in for an
interview since Bob didn't have a B.S. Desperate for work, Bob applied for a
receptionist position. He got back a form letter saying they required at least
a masters. To try and make rent, Bob started advertising as a baby sitter. In
the very first phone call he got from a parent, the parent asked what Bob's
degree was in and ended the interview immediately afterwards.

Granted, these are the lowlights of a two year streak of seeing Bob get
screwed by his lack of a degree, but you need to look at it from the
perspective of the corporations. We've all seen plenty of individuals graduate
from college programs without the competence to wipe themselves. So, if the
people who PASS are that stupid, what kind of idiot do you have to be to fail?

Granted, if you're starting your own business, it won't matter one whit.
That's what Bob is doing now, since the job market is impossible. But you
should go get the degree if you want the option of getting hired.

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davidxc
Just curious. Is your roommate a programmer? If so, has he tried applying for
freelance jobs?

I would think that if he has eight years of industry experience, he could
probably pick up an in demand skill like Rails and get freelance work.

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rpedela
I guess it depends. The most important thing is knowing the basics. Usually
someone with a CS degree knows them. I have found very few self-taught
web/mobile developers who can answer questions about complex data structures,
threading, etc. Knowing that stuff helps you build more efficient, less buggy
software. I would personally recommend a CS degree because it will force you
to learn the boring, yet important, stuff. And it will make it a lot easier to
find a high-paying job.

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voidlogic
Without a C-S degree, your burden of proof that you know your stuff will be
much higher. Its a great experience and you will learn a lot of un-hip stuff
that will be very helpful to you later (for example C, how
OSs/semaphores/compilers/threading actually works, etc). Not to mention all
the gen-eds that I believe make people better critical thinkers and members of
society.

Without a degree you just be will be a another guy who (stereotypically)
flings Ruby and JS and doesn't know what big O notation means (or why and when
it matters) or what the difference between a interpreted, compiled and JIT
compiled languages. Unless you make a big name for yourself, your name will be
first to throw out along with the other non-degrees for any position with more
than 10 applicants.

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unimpressive
Full Disclosure: I'm just some kid on the Internet, in case my handle didn't
clue you in.

I think that even if you forgo a degree you should endeavor to learn about
theoretical computer science and mathematics. A good education (in whatever
form you manage to get it) should be intellectually enriching, even if you
rarely use it. (Though if you really understand it, I doubt the sentence "you
rarely use your knowledge relating to concepts like algorithmic complexity or
formal verification." will remain true for long.)

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_mathematics>

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FellowTraveler
If you need to hire 2 people, and you have 200 resumes, the first thing you do
is throw out all the ones with misspellings and without a degree.

Other than that, the degree isn't that important, compared to the skill-set
and work history.

The pure ability can be gained just from Google, Wikipedia, and practice at
home. So can all the theoretical knowledge.

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daniel-cussen
Put yourself on the other side of the coin. Companies say they need to ask for
a Master's to get candidates with Bachelor's degrees. Maybe, take it with a
grain of salt.

