Simply having a university degree is not a reasob for a bigger salary comapred to a non degree. Its just a school where you learn some of the stuff you need on the job. Therefore if you prove that you know the same it is the same. Same work same salary.

And yes me is a bit mad that my work neighbour earns 40% more than me simply because he has a degree.

in public service, you might also deserve a higher salary just because you are older or have more kids than your coworker.

Then literally degree is worthless if that is true

@b2plane the degree is, the knowledge isn't.

IDGAF how you got your knowledge, but I'll hire you if you have it. You paid 100k to get it and that guy got it for free on YouTube? Sounds like the other guy is smarter and a better hire to me.

Degree holders have to study and overcome things they might not like. Self learners will often skip the shit they don't like (hence why we have so many web developers and less software engineers)

I still don't believe in degrees or university degrees for some fields, but I can see why people with degrees (i.e meself lol) command a higher salary in some parts. I also do not believe someone with a computer science degree might necessarily know more than a self learner......but self learners nowadays are for the most part just web developers.

The entire system is built around acquisition of social status; "educational" institutions merely exist to ensure that as few people as possible attain the priviledges attached to it without compromising the façade of meritocracy on which the value of these nobiliary titles is predicated on.

It is a strict hierarchical model, in which the value of your time is dictated not by your knowledge, effort, or anything related to the real impact of your contribution to society, but rather by your standing within an artificial ladder that is, more often than not, absolutely ineffective in measuring an individual's worth.

This summary of our current state of decadence was brought to you by the occult order of GNU/Bakunin.

@b2plane no. it's at least _some_ kind of proof that you know your shit (instead of knowing shit) when you don't yet have any real life experience yet.

@tosensei in theory, yes. But in practice, a degree doesn’t mean anything in terms of knowledge or skill. Because only a very small fraction of what you learn from a degree can be applied in practice, the rest is completely irrelevant or outdated. And from what you could apply in practice, you will forget the most after you leave uni.

I say this as someone who has a degree.

And of course I mean a computer science or engineering degree.
I don’t have experience with other degrees.

I lean towards getting a degree. I think it's the right thing to do.

@SidTheITGuy a degree blocks a significant number of talented people from entering a field. Talented and poor? Fuck off.

To be 100% frank, if I see a master's in CS in a resume, he goes to the bottom. So many useless co-workers with that degree over the years, that it has negative value to me now.

An electrical engineering degree is the only one I think holds any merit.

Try being a female in a predominantly male industry, you still get paid less, with or without a degree.

Yes but many employers have limited ability to gauge technical skill. If someone gets a 4.0 from a math heavy comp sci program, its a pretty good indicator that they’re going to be better than the self taught (btw I’m a self taught).

I think most posters here know that there are exceptions.

At least in the US, I’ve always thought it acceptable that I would have to hustle a bit more with things like portfolio items, etc. Pretty sure that’s just how it is.

@AleCx04 people really underestimate what being able to grind can mean. Obviously just grinding is dumb, but being able to put up with shit is just as valuable. I got the worst of both worlds, where I went to a useless college that didn’t even teach DSA properly, but also neglected my DSA and now I’m grinding it after years of experience writing shit code. It is humbling, to say the least.
Same goes for certifications.

@lungdart You can always try to find a job, make some money and then, get the degree.

@SidTheITGuy why?

Learn the material, get a job, save up enough, pay out the nose to learn the material again?

Sounds pretty foolish to me

I'm leaning towards getting a degree just so I can leave web development forever behind. I just accidentally slid into this industry and I must say building websites isn't all that fun after your 10th or so website. I want to code real stuff and not push pixels on a website

@lucadev I feel this statement so much. I have come to have a fascination for low level development and have been going at it hard. I was exposed to it when i was getting my degree, so I have been looking more and more into it and have been greatly (and I mean greatly) enjoying the ride.

Currently on emulation basics and graphics programming. I am absolutely fkn loving it. Way more interesting than handling requests on a fkn web form or playing around with CSS for hours on end trying to get customers/users happy. And way more soulcrushing, but in a good way. I like being exposed to hard concepts, things that make me learn, and there is only so much of that you can do with web development.