Comment by platevoltage | Hacker News Reader

Comment by platevoltage | Hacker News Reader

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Thank you for your response.

I'm not really interested in specific companies. I'm really NOT interested in FAANG type companies. I have however seen many listings where I was like "this fits my knowledge and interests perfectly other than the degree requirement"

- While I'm interested in the paper, I absolutely love learning everything I can about computers. I'm super neurodivergent, and have trouble learning things I'm not interested in. Gen Ed is why college didn't work out for me 20 years ago.

- There's always going to be jobs that require specialized degrees. I understand that. I just don't want to have my resume thrown in the trash when I apply for an entry level front end web dev job.

- Totally, I'm not terribly interested in university jobs, and this seems like the worst time ever to work for the government

- Doesn't apply to me, but I appreciate you sharing your experience.

- Thats true, but I'm in no place to actually go sit in a classroom right now.

I don't regret getting a degree fwiw. My degree was 100% focused on math and comp.sci. (not in North America where they force you to take other subjects).

If you have 20 years of experience I wonder if there are options for you to have that recognized towards a degree or even to get accepted into a Masters program (where presumably you'd have to make up some required courses but still).

I definitely don't have 20 years of experience. I did learn some HTML when I was 14 and made a geocities page though. It had animated GIFs and everything. I even made some stuff with Macromedia Flash ;).

I see. I assumed. It's hard to give generic advice since everyone's situation is unique. One thing is you can try just taking a few courses. You could consider studying something completely different. Or you can use the vast resources online to learn something new (e.g. Coursera?) and see what you think.

AI could be changing a lot of what we do as well.

I wouldn't spend time and money on something that's iffy. A real science bachelors degree is at least 3 years of fairly hard work. You could do that part-time over a longer period. That's not going to necessarily make you a great programmer - a lot of that is just doing it and learning. Which you don't need a degree or a bootcamp for. But it's going to be somewhat limiting not to understand the "science" part, how much depends on the specific role.

I work with someone who got a diploma, got hired, is doing great, and also going back to school to finish his degree part-time. I also studied part remote part on site to finish the courses I needed while having a full time job and other responsibilities. It's tough but doable.

I feel like I should clarify. I am currently working part time on a contract basis for 3 different companies. I'm also running a small SaaS.

I'm at the point where if there is a tool or technology I need to learn to solve a specific problem, I can do that in a reasonable time amount of time.

My post was to see if getting a degree is worth it in an age where they are becoming more important to get past the recruiter than they were 5+ years ago.

Wow lol are you me? Flash 5 was my jam back when i was 12.

Also i noticed your tube related username (i assume). I used to manage a guitar shop and done a little work on tube gear but mostly stuck to pedals and stuff (much safer)

> If you have 20 years of experience I wonder if there are options for you to have that recognized towards a degree

Isn't what those scam "universities" do? Sell you a diploma based on your "life experience"?

Point being, a degree awarded like that may not have any value.

> Point being, a degree awarded like that may not have any value.

If it gets your resume past the process that filters out applicants without degrees then I’d say it has value.

"this seems like the worst time ever to work for the government" - might be some satisfying and important opportunities in 4 years time sorting out the most horrendous mess. (assuming you guys actually get to choose someone different then ;) )

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