DEV Community

Discussion on: In your environment, does a college degree matter?

Collapse
 
soulfiremage profile image
Richard Griffiths

My bias is I'm total self taught, left school at 16 and can't see why I'd spend 5 figures or more to study for a piece of paper and a mountain of crippling debt.

My environment? Wouldn't even come up. What came up was could I discuss past projects and offer meaningful commentary on a current one. Could I pick apart a complicated project and work on it. Could I learn?

Three years later, my boss still waiting to find out!

More seriously, anything a uni can teach me, if I need it, I have the books. Real books too.

Specific principles behind particular algorithms, or a nice complicated one on knowledge based configuration and so on I can look up and learn, if and when I need them..

The online courses are great for helping you learn what you didnt know that you didn't know. If you don't do a degree, it's worth having some idea of the topics involved, then assess their relevance to the work you want to do.

So my bias still is, I'd treat a degree candidate the same as a non degree candidate. What can they do now, how well can they think and adapt, are they good at Google and book Fu?

And I'd bias it towards the individual I can work with. Just like my employer did.