Comment by thefourthchime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thefourthchime | Hacker News Reader

TL;DR; Didn't go to college, at first people thought it was a liability, but after working my way up people are blown away.

Here is my experience:

Dad got a masters in Math, couldn't get a job, became a Taxi driver and then took 6mo of community college and got a job writing BASIC in the mid 1980s.

Dad didn't encourage me to go to college, I was a bad student, but taught myself coding and really liked it. Had a C average in high school.

Got a job at the small company my dad worked at, got paid $7 an hour, then $14 an hour the next year.

Decided I needed to go to college to really make it, put my resume out for fun. Got an offer for $65k to work at Microsoft via a recruiter. This was in 1998.

Been working since, learning, making contacts. I make $180k with bonuses now at a Fortune 100 company, I could work into upper management as many have, but I like coding, hate email, hate meetings. I have a Director title.

When people hear that I don't have a college education they are blown away.

That's a great story - you obviously have a natural talent for coding. But it's still difficult to assess the counterfactual: Perhaps if you had gone to college you would now be earning $250k with bonuses at Google?

Shit, maybe if would make more as a country singer. I play a little guitar too.

In seriousness, maybe; but unless I'm a real genius, not likely. The route for me to make a lot more money is in management or startig my own business, both I've never had interest in. College is unlikely to change that.

Doesn't work in Medicine, Law and host of other fields which require hard core "physical assets" (tangible) things to teach for which includes dissecting stuff, attending patients, arguing cases etc.,

In coding all you need to learn is a PC and some connectivity. That;s all.

The only conclusion we can draw from your experience is that in coding/ software self-taught path can take you to places. But, cannot be generalised for all college going.

Without a degree the job market is a desert, since the hr filters ignore your resume. I have met many people with degrees who have less understanding and ability. But that paper always buys them an in, I don't have.

That's b.s. If you contributed to a creditable open source project you'll blow paste the guys with degrees.

It took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out "blow paste" was a typo. Thanks for brightening my day with accidentally colorful language.

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