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Comment by lennoff | Hacker News Reader

Is a CS degree important nowadays? I do have one, but literally no one mentioned or asked about my education during an interview, ever.

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1. They didn't ask in the interview because you are not going to say something surprising about your degree. They already know you have it and have made their inferences from it. There is no need for further discussions

2. The problem isn't the interview, people can show their knowledge in an interview. Problem is getting the interview.

I think it's less about the actual interview and more about the initial opportunity. Some recruiters definitely still filter on degree. And similarly, some companies have special pipelines for big schools they like.

Once you're in the interview, it's more about real experience and knowledge. I think nobody cares whether you got your experience from school or from somewhere else.

In the (UK) developer job ads there is usually something along the lines of "a degree in computer science or relevant experience". Based on my experience I am guessing that this only matters for the purposes of getting through the recruiter / HR gatekeeper filter - once your actual tech chops are being considered no one cares, in fact not having a CS degree may well be to your advantage (CS does not teach you how to become a good software engineer, nor does it teach you the soft skills).

That said, without the CS education (formal or otherwise) some fields of work will be inaccessible but I think these are in the minority.

Interviewing people without formal education to SWe/MLe roles has always been a disaster for me.

No one asked you because you already have a degree in CS. But for a non CS graduate things are different I guess

I didn’t go to college, and I don’t include an education section on my resume. In 23 years in the industry, I’ve never been asked.

Well you are an inspiration for others. Can you share some useful knowledge so others can benefit from your experiences?

I can summarize my path. Ages 12-20, wrote code every day. Took a QA job at a small software company. Moved to development team. Spent 6 years there. Used that experience to get into Microsoft. 5 years there. At that point, there were almost no companies that wouldn’t interview me, and it was just on me to do well in the interviews. I have practiced white boarding all through my career.

So the idea is to get your foot in whatever door you can at that time, and climb when you can.

Thanks for your input. Highly appreciate

With 23 years in industry, you were joining back when CS degrees were less common.

This is like the "boomer handshake" meme. Nowadays you need a degree.

I used to work with a guy who dropped out of a gamedev course at a second-tier university. Graduate SWE at a respectable/selective company and all.

Admittedly, this was at a company with about 500 employees and 1 part-time HR person (who quit 6 months later and wasn't replaced).

do you think it's possible to work at companies like amazon and google without a degree at all?

I do

Sure, Amazon has jobs in it's warehouses :p

Yes, I know a number of people who have

I started in the industry 7 years ago without a degree and am doing well.

I didn't go to college, have no "Education" section on my resume. Senior-level SDE, 8 years of experience.

I've been asked about my education in initial recruiter screens maybe 10% of the time, and its come up later down the line in interviews maybe 20% of the time. I've never had it clearly and obviously preclude me from moving forward (as in obviously dropped from consideration after that conversation).

I've found most people who ask to be curious, but keen to move on and talk about my experience. It might be different at the entry level.

I have been asked for a copy of my transcripts before - but only as part of a background check.

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