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Comment by mywittyname | Hacker News Reader

> Being self-taught is fun, but without credentials you end up having to work at companies that are willing to take chances, and as a result of that these companies have a propensity towards going bankrupt

This is one of the notable difference between my pre- and post-degree careers: a degree opened the door to jobs with stable Megacorps. I still get the opportunity to work on cool, cutting-edge stuff, while also having a good salary & health insurance with reliable raises, decent vacation, and a lot of intangibles (nice equipment).

Plus, if you enjoy programming, CS is an incredibly fun degree (when you take the right courses).

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I mean, I work for one of the biggest tech megacorps now (not going to say which one but I can guarantee you've heard of it), so it's definitely possible to get the stable job eventually as a dropout.

That said, it was a rocky and scary road to get to this point; if you get your degree you can often start out immediately with some stability.

I never took CS, as I was a math major before dropping out. Honestly, math is still more of a passion for me than CS (despite me loving programming), and I consequently do have some regrets about how I handled school; specifically, I'd like to get a job doing research, but as it stands that would require me first finishing my bachelor's, then getting at least a masters, and probably a PhD. Doing night school for a bachelor's is definitely doable, but I don't think I've heard of a single success story of people trying to work full time (which I would need to do to pay my mortgage and support my wife) and doing a PhD. If I had finished school the old fashioned way, I could have conceivably gone straight to grad school before entrenching myself into my current (admittedly comfortable) lifestyle.

Not sure how helpful my reply is since I did my PhD in the humanities, but I absolutely did my doctorate while working full time and supporting my wife. Rare, certainly, but not as impossible as it once was. And this was at a legit, SACS accredited U.S. brick and mortar school, not some online diploma mill or anything like that.

> I don't think I've heard of a single success story of people trying to work full time (which I would need to do to pay my mortgage and support my wife) and doing a PhD

I worked full time during the second half of my PhD, paid a mortgage, supported a wife, and had a daughter.

I'm confused about what kind of wife support are we talking about? Is it not the default and expected behaviour, even in the US, for wives to be self-sufficient and perfectly capable of supporting themselves? Is it very different from European Common practice where for most educated employees and freelancers disability is covered by disability insurance and pregnancy + aftermath is covered by paid maternity leave until children are in child care?

> Is it not the default and expected behaviour, even in the US, for wives to be self-sufficient and perfectly capable of supporting themselves?

If your wife doesn’t have a paid job and so doesn’t have any income, in order to look after the children, then no.

We don't have kids, but my wife is still in school, and wants to be a teacher, which doesn't pay all very well (at least in the US). Because of this, it's unlikely that she would be able to afford the mortgage without my bloated tech salary.

Wow! I didn't really know this was a thing...if you don't mind me asking, what was the PhD in? How did you manage to make time for yourself to not go insane?

It was a programming language PhD. I didn’t say the experience didn’t make me go insane!

>Plus, if you enjoy programming, CS is an incredibly fun degree (when you take the right courses).

And in some countries it's also an incredibly affordable degree. I was able to pay off all my student debt with part time jobs between semesters.

And in some others it doesn’t cost anything: I just have to pay a 300€ registration fee each semester here in Germany.

After a few years of experience I’ve not had a problem getting interviews at megacorps - it’s just too competitive right now trying to find coders.

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