
Should I earn a degree just so that I can get a job in Silicon Valley? - conwy
A little background: I&#x27;m a 32-year-old Australian software developer. I have about 10 years total full-time experience, mostly in front-end development (HTML, CSS, JS and various frameworks) and the .NET stack (C#, SQL Server).<p>I&#x27;m largely self-taught (been programming since around 12), with a few bits and pieces like vendor certifications, community college, a graduate certificate in interaction design and a few very minor side projects.<p>I&#x27;ve long yearned to work in the Valley with some of the brightest minds in programming, design and business.<p>Due to not having a full degree, I don&#x27;t qualify for any US work visa. If I wait a further 2 years, until I have 12 years of full-time experience, then I will qualify for the E3 Visa.<p>However, from what I&#x27;m seeing and hearing, it seems the most Silicon Valley companies require full degrees in Computer Science or similar before they will hire someone as a developer.<p>I&#x27;m considering doing either an online degree with a lesser known university or an &quot;in person&quot; degree with a more prestigious university. Either option will cost me around $30k Australian dollars. It&#x27;s a fair amount of money, but I consider it an investment in myself and I can definitely afford it. However I would like to find out first whether I&#x27;ll actually need the degree, before embarking on it.<p>So yeah, do you think I need a degree to get a reasonably well paid software development position in the Valley?<p>And does it matter a lot which school the degree was from? Is it crucial that the degree is from a top-100 school? Or would it be just the same as from an obscure (but fully accredited) online school?<p>Many thanks ahead of time for your advice.
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conwy
In response to one of the responses (that seems to have been deleted) that's a
really good point about doing it out of interest.

I think I am interested in the fundamentals of this field, at least enough
that I've been reading some of the books and papers in my spare time. If it
was just a matter of interest and curiosity, I guess I'd just keep up the
reading, which I can do for free anyway.

But I would only invest in a degree if I thought it would boost my earning
potential in the Valley. Otherwise it seems better to just keep working full-
time, maybe do some short courses here and there.

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arcdigital
You don't need a CS degree to get hired - 12 years of experience is more than
enough. Most companies will hire people without CS degrees if they have the
experience and can prove it. Just ignore what the job description says and
apply anyways.

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conwy
Thanks, will give it a go then.

