
Ask HN: Better approaches to finding dev jobs that don't require a degree? - 666lumberjack
At the moment I&#x27;m just opening each ad in turn and scrolling to the point where they list requirements to look, but it&#x27;s quite tedious and I feel like someone must have solved this problem already - either with a dedicated tool&#x2F;site or with a magic search term that makes it easier to filter them out.<p>Edit: Extra detail I wasn&#x27;t sure would be relevant - I am looking in the general London area. Have ~1 year professional experience as a frontend developer but would ideally like to transition to backend development if I can (have some hobby&#x2F;side-project experience in other things and have programmed small projects for eightish years on and off).
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onion2k
Ignore the requirements and apply anyway, especially if you're applying to
smaller companies. If you're a good candidate they _will_ break their own
rules.

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Pete-Codes
I've found this as well. I used to never apply to jobs if I didn't meet every
criteria and then I just realised, well what do I have to lose by applying?

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jamesmus
How much experience do you have? I have always assumed that when a job ad
lists a CS degree as a requirement that there's an implicit 'or equivalent
experience' clause that applies. I don't have a degree of any kind and I don't
think I have ever been asked. Maybe it's different over here (in the UK),
though.

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666lumberjack
~1 year of experience. I am also in the UK fwiw, probably should have put that
in the OP.

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jamesmus
I started out about 25 years ago and I suppose all I can do is to reiterate
that nobody has ever asked if I have a degree. I don't really have a good
handle on what the IT job market is like for people who are less experienced,
TBH, so whether that information is actually useful or not I don't know. I
still think it's worth applying anyway. I have worked in places where job ads
have gone out for the same role I was already doing and after reading those
ads I would have come to the conclusion that I was not qualified to apply.
Basically my take is that people love to load those ads up so that they look
impressive. When I interview what I want to know about a candidate is: are
they smart and can they get stuff done? Anything else is secondary, really.

Location is probably a factor too. I am based near London and there are a
_lot_ of dev jobs around here. If you are regional then that may not be the
case.

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gshdg
Fwiw, degrees were rarer in the software candidate pool 25 years ago, and
become increasingly irrelevant as your career progresses. Once you hit about 5
years of experience, the amount of attention anyone pays to it nosedives.

These days, getting those first five years is harder, though. Because of a
combination of a glut of juniors on the market plus a culture where it’s
increasingly common for employees to stay only a year or so, which makes it
less worthwhile for a company to invest in training juniors.

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potta_coffee
I don't have a degree, most of the jobs I've had have required one. Usually if
I'm strong in one or two of the requirements, I'll apply and hope for the
best. It's really a numbers game anyway.

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Pete-Codes
Hey man, I'm working on a solution to this! It is annoying to go through a job
description and the very last mine is 'Must Have CS Degree.'

You definitely don't need a degree these days. You can check out some folk
that are doing great without one: https//www.nocsdegree.com

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drakonka
Most tech jobs don't require a degree, even if they say they want one. I'd
apply anyway if you think you can do the job.

