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Comment by Jesus_Jones | Hacker News Reader

Software engineers are unlike almost any other advanced technical field, as in there is so much demand and so much change in the field that degrees aren't as important. After a few years of experience, that's what matters more. But i bet that first job is hard to get.

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This is the reason I chose a community college with a high job placement record. I had a job right after graduation and gained experience working instead of wasting an extra 2 years in college. Plus, an associates degree costs significantly less than a bachelors.

If, instead of using the metric getting a job as a Software Engineer, you used building and deploying quality software in a timely and cost-effective manner, then a CS and/or SE degree may be very important.

> building and deploying quality software in a timely and cost-effective manner, then a CS and/or SE degree may be very important

I've yet to see a correlation between the two.

When I worked in IT, I noticed a correlation between the absence of each. Those who get jobs as programmers without prior study and/or training tend to be more likely to slip up on quality delivered, deadlines met, and/or resources used. Of course, measuring those things is tricky. Some programmers ship software full of bugs so they can make more money fixing it up later, which is charged to some other account in the company.

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