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and imposter syndrome haunts me

You’ll get over it. However, you will forever be cursed with having to keep your wiz-kid credentials up to date as you will never have that degree to help wedge the door open for your next opportunity. Ultimately, if programming is what you do (yes, I know CS is not just about coding) it doesn’t really matter, because the rubber meets the road at some point, and either you can code, or you can’t.

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Keeping up with credentials, regardless of having a CS degree, is a life long commitment for everyone in the field - right?

Absolutely, but when you enter that room for an interview, there may be a bias already built up against you. Somehow you made it through the door, but now you have to overcome the skeptics, maybe a team member who refuses to believe anyone without a formal degree could possibly have the proper foundation for “real work”. You can’t be just good, you have to be outstanding. Even if you shine in the interview, you may still have to make it through an upper manager who did not bother to interview you. Twice I’ve been rejected because the upper management didn’t want anything to do with me, even though the technical team was excited. I was never told exactly why, but I suspected the lack of formal education (what else?). In one case I was offered the position about a month later but already had another job.

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