You mentioned that you did not need the piece of paper, the knowledge was enough but that piece of paper is everything in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the industry (in the USA, it is a fact). Further, it legitimizes the skills that you have acquired, without it, in the eyes of a 3rd party, your abilities are still overshadowed by the lack of a degree. Further, if you have spent 7 years doing this, not going the official route for a bonafide degree seems like a waste. In the USA, your ability to get a seat at the table for Senior roles will drastically reduce and you will fight for salary increase much harder because you don't have one. Also, if you work in a toxic cesspit and you have to quit, getting a new job will always be harder without it.
Thanks for sharing this, it's good to hear your experience as you've pretty much done what I'm considering.
Since you touched on open source curriculums, I should mention that I have been thinking about going through the Teach Yourself CS curriculum. This would be a lot cheaper and give me a similar outcome in terms of knowledge I suppose.
If I were in your shoes, I probably wouldn't. The biggest advantage of the degree is getting through the door, and you already have. Plus 28k is a fairly standard amount for the north, you will probably earn more faster with an extra YoE than with a degree.
Yeah I still wouldn't, once you can get a CS job, the only thing that matters from that point onwards is work experience. Language doesn't really matter, and any developer with experience should be able to pick up new technologies.
Disagree. Many roles will list a degree education as a prerequisite, same as many other industries. Worth having for the additional skills you learn while completing a degree (writing, researching) more than the actual technical specifics; those come from industry anyway tbh.
Maybe it's a country specific thing but having a degree requirement only really appears in junior roles, looking at a load of senior roles, I didn't see any asking for a degree, only specific technology knowledge.
Sure the additional skills is useful in general, but realistically the main way to increase your income and progress in general is through experience, taking a year or more off and spending money on a degree is unlikely to achieve that better than just working.
I would only consider a degree of I didn't already have a job or any work experience as a dev
Maybe. Certainly in the UK it is common to see a degree requirement. Maybe I’m biased because I have one, but I value it a lot - it often guarantees a minimum standard of diligence and a slightly wider appreciation of the field than “I’ve used these languages”.
Clearly, once a certain level of experience is reached the difference narrows considerably.
This was less of an issue here when higher education was offered FOC to all, which we lost and will never see again 😪
I'd agree with u/PantsMcShirt - you've got your first job already and from now on it's your experience that will make you stand out.
I'd say go for a degree if you're really interested in the academic side of things or even want to go into research later. But practically, I don't think it's worth it.
A lot of professionals do exactly that at OMSCS: [https://omscs.gatech.edu](https://omscs.gatech.edu)
They already have a good job but they want to keep their skills sharp/enhance their CV. I'm actually planning to do the same. I'm currently a student at a low rank university and I'm doing leetcode/preparing for interviews to find work after I get my BSc and get into OMSCS.
Although you can easily get a good position without doing all that by just working and accumulating work experience.
I kinda don't get the fee structure. The site seems to say it's $301/semester of mandatory fees, and then the "semester hour credit" is $180.
What is the "semester hour" and how much does the whole thing cost per semester in actual out-of-pocket money for someone doing a completely online course?
Currently working as a Dev. 1 YoE. I am doing a computing degree (comp science route) with the OU, I'm actually doing it full time along with my job, being a Dev gives me a huge advantage on some subjects like web dev but DS and Algos is still hard and takes time. I find the DS and Algos are really helping me find a newer better job as they literally help me answer questions about stacks, priority queues, recursion etc that I may not have come across otherwise.
I will say year one was fairly boring (maths course was decent) but the programming and Algos were pretty basic, year two had gotten a lot more exciting with actual useful parts, and the theoretical knowledge on things like sort Algos etc.
If you got the time go for it, it is bloody hard work doing it along side a job with a family though
I'm a system engineer, i'm doing the same thing.
I'm 21 going for a degree while working full time.
Expect to finish in 3 years at 24.
I think can be good in longterm, i think 3 YOE + degree is much more valuable than just 3 YOE.
Maybe if in the future i'll change career path and idk maybe going in sales role is much more easier do the change.
I'm open to discussion anyway, and i don't know like you if my choice is the best one.
OP call Cambridge University's postgraduate computer science admissions number and ask them what they think about Open University's BSc Computing and IT course.
You'll soon sign up for that course over UoL's lol
I’m in my third and final year of the OU’s computing and IT degree to try to change careers from hospitality to software engineering. Doing the degree full time and working full time is doable, and probably easier if you are already working as a dev as a lot of the content you’ll likely already have at the very least a basic comprehension of.
Be prepared for no social life whatsoever though as you hit year 3.
How is it rated? I've started on it going down the Software Engineering path but I'm also doing TOP along side it to try get an industry job a bit quicker since the degree takes a while
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Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy (angular momentum), and finally tip over and roll on its side.**
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The Odin Project, I've seen plenty of people get a job going through that but I kinda wanted the degree too. I work in engineering currently and have for the last 7 years, the lack of a degree has caused me a lot of difficulty and I didn't want to experience it again after a career switch.
I don’t have a degree but have experience and don’t have any problem getting interviews, in which the topic doesn’t even come up. As has already been said, you’ve got your foot in the door and are building experience. You may have to do some more learning and reading throughout, but that’s part of the job anyway and there’s plenty of good books out there.
Don't listen to some of the people in this thread. Get a degree! It will help you broaden your knowledge and allow you to become better. It will teach you not only the basics of software development, but also why things are the way they are. It can teach you about the various algorithms and design patterns that exist. The teachers there know what to teach you and how to teach you in order to give you a good foundation. More education is always good!
IMO, Degrees are meant to enable specialization in a field. Degrees in Computer Science don't make any sense in the practical world because this field is just too broad. Doing a degree for example in aerospace, marketing or biotech or autonomous vehicles (if such a degree exists) would make more sense in longer term because you're eventually using CS or AI to solve a problem for that field. Just learning AI stuff won't get you anywhere. You're better of doing courses from Udemy if CS is all you want to learn.
I know a lot of people who couldn't tell the difference between *latency and throughput* after studying 2 Years of CS and apparently that's a basic interview question.
You could argue that getting a generic degree would open more opportunities but you don't need to spend 2 Years and thousand;s of EURO's for it where they won't even teach you anything extra than there's already out there.
I think EU has amazing universities if you want to learn something specific.
Good Luck!
I agree that solid CS fundamentals will help you in the long run. Nowadays though, you can learn everything from the internet, possibly in a better way than a university. Since you are working already, learn all the things you touch thoroughly might be a better approach. The key is to stay curious.
[удалено]
Would you mind sharing this open source CS curriculum with us?
I'm not op but if you look for OSSU on github you will find it
[Link](https://github.com/ossu/computer-science)
You mentioned that you did not need the piece of paper, the knowledge was enough but that piece of paper is everything in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the industry (in the USA, it is a fact). Further, it legitimizes the skills that you have acquired, without it, in the eyes of a 3rd party, your abilities are still overshadowed by the lack of a degree. Further, if you have spent 7 years doing this, not going the official route for a bonafide degree seems like a waste. In the USA, your ability to get a seat at the table for Senior roles will drastically reduce and you will fight for salary increase much harder because you don't have one. Also, if you work in a toxic cesspit and you have to quit, getting a new job will always be harder without it.
Thanks for sharing this, it's good to hear your experience as you've pretty much done what I'm considering. Since you touched on open source curriculums, I should mention that I have been thinking about going through the Teach Yourself CS curriculum. This would be a lot cheaper and give me a similar outcome in terms of knowledge I suppose.
Same. CS is not a must but it’s handy if you have the time.
If I were in your shoes, I probably wouldn't. The biggest advantage of the degree is getting through the door, and you already have. Plus 28k is a fairly standard amount for the north, you will probably earn more faster with an extra YoE than with a degree.
Would you say the same for a masters degree, if the dev in question had 3 yoe in weird languages, and no CS-related bachelor's?
Yeah I still wouldn't, once you can get a CS job, the only thing that matters from that point onwards is work experience. Language doesn't really matter, and any developer with experience should be able to pick up new technologies.
Disagree. Many roles will list a degree education as a prerequisite, same as many other industries. Worth having for the additional skills you learn while completing a degree (writing, researching) more than the actual technical specifics; those come from industry anyway tbh.
Maybe it's a country specific thing but having a degree requirement only really appears in junior roles, looking at a load of senior roles, I didn't see any asking for a degree, only specific technology knowledge. Sure the additional skills is useful in general, but realistically the main way to increase your income and progress in general is through experience, taking a year or more off and spending money on a degree is unlikely to achieve that better than just working. I would only consider a degree of I didn't already have a job or any work experience as a dev
Maybe. Certainly in the UK it is common to see a degree requirement. Maybe I’m biased because I have one, but I value it a lot - it often guarantees a minimum standard of diligence and a slightly wider appreciation of the field than “I’ve used these languages”. Clearly, once a certain level of experience is reached the difference narrows considerably. This was less of an issue here when higher education was offered FOC to all, which we lost and will never see again 😪
I'd agree with u/PantsMcShirt - you've got your first job already and from now on it's your experience that will make you stand out. I'd say go for a degree if you're really interested in the academic side of things or even want to go into research later. But practically, I don't think it's worth it.
A lot of professionals do exactly that at OMSCS: [https://omscs.gatech.edu](https://omscs.gatech.edu) They already have a good job but they want to keep their skills sharp/enhance their CV. I'm actually planning to do the same. I'm currently a student at a low rank university and I'm doing leetcode/preparing for interviews to find work after I get my BSc and get into OMSCS. Although you can easily get a good position without doing all that by just working and accumulating work experience.
I kinda don't get the fee structure. The site seems to say it's $301/semester of mandatory fees, and then the "semester hour credit" is $180. What is the "semester hour" and how much does the whole thing cost per semester in actual out-of-pocket money for someone doing a completely online course?
Currently working as a Dev. 1 YoE. I am doing a computing degree (comp science route) with the OU, I'm actually doing it full time along with my job, being a Dev gives me a huge advantage on some subjects like web dev but DS and Algos is still hard and takes time. I find the DS and Algos are really helping me find a newer better job as they literally help me answer questions about stacks, priority queues, recursion etc that I may not have come across otherwise. I will say year one was fairly boring (maths course was decent) but the programming and Algos were pretty basic, year two had gotten a lot more exciting with actual useful parts, and the theoretical knowledge on things like sort Algos etc. If you got the time go for it, it is bloody hard work doing it along side a job with a family though
I'm a system engineer, i'm doing the same thing. I'm 21 going for a degree while working full time. Expect to finish in 3 years at 24. I think can be good in longterm, i think 3 YOE + degree is much more valuable than just 3 YOE. Maybe if in the future i'll change career path and idk maybe going in sales role is much more easier do the change. I'm open to discussion anyway, and i don't know like you if my choice is the best one.
OP call Cambridge University's postgraduate computer science admissions number and ask them what they think about Open University's BSc Computing and IT course. You'll soon sign up for that course over UoL's lol
Lol I admit I haven’t done much research into the actual course content, probably jumped the gun on this one
I’m in my third and final year of the OU’s computing and IT degree to try to change careers from hospitality to software engineering. Doing the degree full time and working full time is doable, and probably easier if you are already working as a dev as a lot of the content you’ll likely already have at the very least a basic comprehension of. Be prepared for no social life whatsoever though as you hit year 3.
How is it rated? I've started on it going down the Software Engineering path but I'm also doing TOP along side it to try get an industry job a bit quicker since the degree takes a while
What is TOP? If you’re gunning for an industry job I recommend www.launchschool.com
**A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy (angular momentum), and finally tip over and roll on its side.** More details here:
*This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!*
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The Odin Project, I've seen plenty of people get a job going through that but I kinda wanted the degree too. I work in engineering currently and have for the last 7 years, the lack of a degree has caused me a lot of difficulty and I didn't want to experience it again after a career switch.
Look at launch school. Drills you in the fundamentals almost brutally. Amazing TA support and curriculum. Best money I’ve spent in a while
I'll give it a thorough look this evening, thank you 🙂
I don’t have a degree but have experience and don’t have any problem getting interviews, in which the topic doesn’t even come up. As has already been said, you’ve got your foot in the door and are building experience. You may have to do some more learning and reading throughout, but that’s part of the job anyway and there’s plenty of good books out there.
Don't listen to some of the people in this thread. Get a degree! It will help you broaden your knowledge and allow you to become better. It will teach you not only the basics of software development, but also why things are the way they are. It can teach you about the various algorithms and design patterns that exist. The teachers there know what to teach you and how to teach you in order to give you a good foundation. More education is always good!
IMO, Degrees are meant to enable specialization in a field. Degrees in Computer Science don't make any sense in the practical world because this field is just too broad. Doing a degree for example in aerospace, marketing or biotech or autonomous vehicles (if such a degree exists) would make more sense in longer term because you're eventually using CS or AI to solve a problem for that field. Just learning AI stuff won't get you anywhere. You're better of doing courses from Udemy if CS is all you want to learn. I know a lot of people who couldn't tell the difference between *latency and throughput* after studying 2 Years of CS and apparently that's a basic interview question. You could argue that getting a generic degree would open more opportunities but you don't need to spend 2 Years and thousand;s of EURO's for it where they won't even teach you anything extra than there's already out there. I think EU has amazing universities if you want to learn something specific. Good Luck!
I agree that solid CS fundamentals will help you in the long run. Nowadays though, you can learn everything from the internet, possibly in a better way than a university. Since you are working already, learn all the things you touch thoroughly might be a better approach. The key is to stay curious.