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For what it's worth, I worked with a talented self-taught engineer. He stated he hit a ceiling and needed to get a degree and so he did through a remote learning program. In the event that this is common, it may explain why they're rare. The resumes of the ones that don't hit that ceiling probably don't make it to your desk.

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I don't know if there's a ceiling for degree-less software engineers in the Bay Area. Speaking as someone who dropped out of college and is now a "senior" software engineer at Google, I've worked with a couple folks who are much more senior than I am without a degree.

That said, it's much harder to get your foot in the door without a degree, even in the Bay Area. I had to go above-and-beyond to get my first job at a small startup (I created a program that used their API and was useful enough that I ended up continuing the work when they hired me). With my second job at Dropbox, the recruiter told me that they only reason they interviewed me was because I went to Recurse Center (which is a free programming retreat for programmers that also acts as a recruiting firm). Multiple companies have grilled me during interviews about why I dropped out, including Google.

As a college dropout myself, this really makes me think about continuing my degree. What did you answer to Google and others who grilled you?

It seems kind of strange that you would go to university to progress. I feel the opposite, university was a good starting block but the vast majority of my knowledge is from on the job.

I think they meant a salary ceiling.

That makes more sense.

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