Computer Science Degree Vs Us

I have looking for the topic all over the internet and found about the CS Degree are considered superior to people like us. I am deeply hurt by this. Why does the industry consider us inferior to the computer science degree holders?

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I don’t think the industry considers those who don’t have a CS degree inferior to those who do. I have a CS degree and no one cares about it. In a form that it is not a factor for getting hired! you can show you capabilities in other ways.

YOU need an extensive portfolio of recent projects with clear explanations. (Why you made them? Do they add anything to your skills? Are they relevant to the job market?)
YOU should set a crystal clear goal for the future of your job and explain it to the employer in the interview.

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In sociology, there is the concept of Selection Bias.

What does that mean?

There are 100 developers.

99 of them don’t care if you studied CS or are self-taught, as long as you do your job and are a good team member. These people don’t post on reddit or twitter about the topic, because they don’t care.

Then there is this 1 person, who says CS graduates are superior.

Now you got the perception that everyone says this. And your logic is correct: Everyone **whose post you read** says CS graduates are superior, because you read 1 post and 1 has this opinion (1 / 1 = 100%).

But the selection of the people whose post you read is not valid to get a correct perception of all peoples’ opinions.

So you should always look carefully at who you ask or whose post you read.

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First don’t believe you read everything on the Internet.

Second I don’t think that’s true at all.

A large number of folks that make up the IT / Software development world don’t have CS degrees. The field its comprised of vastly different types of people that got to where they are in vastly different ways.

A friend of mind holds a CS Degree. He considers his CS degree mostly a joke. He said they mostly taught outdated programming languages and just other general computer theory. And he went to Cal-Berkeley, not some fly by night school. He is currently an IOS developer and said that nothing he learned in his CS degree really applies to what he does today in development and stated he was hired in his current position due to his portfolio of work, not his CS Degree.

Plus at some point experience far out weights a college degree anyway. That’s true in just about every field from CS to Finance to Sales, etc, etc.

So in summary I would not lose to much sleep over this issue.

There is one quote I just get from Richard Wolf

Don’t let school get in the way of your education.

I just put my CS degree in my closet, in today’s era your diploma or what ever you get the certificate from, it doesn’t help you much to deal with the problem you face. Even your FCC certificate wouldn’t not give you a chance to work if you not implement what you get from FCC exercise into your portfolio.

So don’t be discouraged if you don’t have certificate or diploma, because school doesn’t make you smart, only the willingness and time you spend wholeheartedly will pay off. This is my third year at FCC and I am so happy to repeat all the curriculum that FCC provides.

You know the result when I review the FCC lesson ? It didn’t take me longer than the first time I worked on.

I wouldn’t say that people with a CS degree are considered superior to self taught developers. However, a degree is a credential that a company understands, and a degree (or job experience) helps convince a company that you are a competent developer.

The only time this might be remotely true is in a statement like: “Once bob got his degree he had a superior chance of getting a job.”

Outside of that, the word “superior” implies better than someone else and this is incorrect.

The truth is: When I hire people, I look at having a degree as a positive. I also view tenacity and lifting up by one’s own bootstraps as a positive.

But one of those is a lot easier to verify in the short amount of time I have to interview a person.

I have two degrees (B.S. and M.S.) and I know they don’t make me superior or better than anyone else. All it says is I’ve spent a few years focusing my study on a certain thing and it helps me prove that to a potential employer - with a higher degree of certainty. That’s what it’s for and that’s what it does.

However - I have worked a person who didn’t have a degree and was convinced people thought less of him because of it. He was so convinced he would often break out into unprofessional arguments about no one listening to his ideas because he didn’t have a degree. The goofy thing is most of us didn’t know he didn’t have a degree until he brought it up. No one really cares. We care that you can get the job done, be pleasant, and as a bonus, be fun to eat lunch with.

My point in sharing this is that your personal bias and your self esteem will have a huge effect on how others perceive you - because it’s a fuzzy reflection of how you you see yourself.

Long story short - a degree will help you get a job. But it won’t help you be a better person. Certainly not a “superior” one.

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The true is that whether you studied computer science or not, it does not matter in labour market. What is matter in labour market is if you can successfully deliver the project you are given. Most of the successful IT professional or software developers don’t studied computer science but can deliver. In my country, I know a lot of people that studied computer science that can not only handle computer let alone of programming or do any advance work on the computer. I remember when I was in school, as a computer science, National Open University of Nigeria. All most all the courses on computer that we did are not relevant. Can you imagine when they wanted to start in computer to us i,e CIT 101 they start with window 98, and by that time there was window 10 already, The BASIC, C# and all other programming we did when i tried did not work. But if you have the certificate and skill you have advantage over those who have the skill only without the certificate. But, if is only the certificate is just ordinary paper it can take you to anywhere

Well, I realized that it was just one or two posts that I saw online which made me come to this conclusion. I appreciate all of your advice guys.