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Comment by tr0ut | Hacker News Reader

I can tell you this. We (the company I work for) would not hire you as a programmer. Without a CS degree. Now I'm assuming you did not go back to get a CS degree. If not you have now ruled yourself out of a lot of opportunities. Ultimately for reasons you mentioned which are anecdotal and intangible.

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Well, that's all well and good. There are plenty of companies who do not feel that way (even though they almost all put a CS degree as a "requirement" in job listings). In fact, I've never encountered my unrelated degree being an obstacle. I have no idea what you mean about ruling myself out of a lot of opportunities for "anecdotal and intangible" reasons.

I know there is work for people like yourself to be found. Having an unrelated degree but being capable of working in tech. However there are quite a lot of really good companies that will not even give your resume a second look with out CS degree or equal on it. This is what I'm arguing for. I don't think it matters. I've worked with people like yourself and others with no degree or drop-outs. That worked people from top universities under the table. However if we keep perpetuating this nonsense we'll never get an equal opportunity. You'll continue to shut people out who are more than capable.

What I mean is the things you mentioned while I do not dismiss them and I believe you. That being learning an unrelated major helped you with learning something else.. Is not actually enough for tech companies to want to hire you. But because we place so much emphasis on the paper. You're over-looked. So what you feel is a higher-education strength is actually a weakness in the market.

Well, my argument is a little different than that. I am saying my university education is, in my mind, part of the reason I was able to go from having the notion of learning programming to following through and learning enough to make it my career. I don't think my education makes that much of an impression on my resume after five years of work as a developer except as a curiosity, but if I weren't able to learn in the first place that would be the least of my concerns.

Most of the hard-luck stories I've heard related to degrees were people who'd had decent careers and then weren't able to get a promotion because of a company policy saying managers all needed a bachelors, or something to that effect, where the subject wouldn't really be what's at issue. If I'm really being shut out from interviews because my degree is in the wrong thing I have not noticed the effect -- even at tech companies.

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