!rant. I'm seeking advice.

This question have been asked a million times. But i still want to try to seek answer on this platform.

Is a degree worth it. In this current era?

From a guy who doesn't have one.

Yes... and no.

Yes,in the regard it will throw you down a path of learning how to program and pickup the theory behind CS a lot quicker.

No, you're going to have to self teach yourself anyway when you get on the ass end of that degree to keep up with current tech and practises, it's a more hands on approach and you'll learn as you go.

Now back to the Yes, it's a lot easier to get a job as a junior if you have one.

@C0D4

Thanks for commenting!

I've been working as a software engineer for 4 years. Recently i got myself enroll with a local university.

My application got accepted. I'm in a dilemma to go for it.

@matwx it gets you through doors and exposes you to so much more than ye olde app or web dev. So I'd say yes.

@RememberMe

Thanks for commenting!

Higher education is always worthwhile, even if it doesn't literally pay off in higher salaries and opportunities. If you have a chance to get a college degree, I say go for it, but don't expect it to be some kind of qualification for employment. It's for you, not anyone else.

Nope

@M1sf3t I suppose that is something that varies from countries, because It's not something I have noticed over here except maybe gender studies

Depends what you want to do, it does open some doors especially if you want to work abroad and need a work visa

@matt-jd

I wanted a better prospect. I'm thinking of a job switch right after attaining my degree.

Another factor is where you live and where you want to live. Self-taught is no formal education at all, so if you apply for a work visa, you're an unskilled worker. No country needs more of these, so you can probably forget about the visa.

Next is, sure you can get into jobs like web dev. Both the bar of entry and the delivered quality are so low that nothing matters.

However, if you want a dev job in other domains that are more challenging, you won't even be considered without degree. That's because there's a ton of stuff that self-taught people routinely lack.

I have yet to see self-taught folks who cared to learn stuff like Fourier transformation or partial differential equations. The latter makes it e.g. obvious why deep neural networks take so long to train.

On the other hand, bullshit majors like sociology and political "science" won't pay off. They're more for rich but dumb kids to get a degree at all. And for dumb but pretty girls to score a husbank (sic).

@M1sf3t

I went for the cheapest uni.

@rutee07

Thanks for the great advice!

Money & Time it's always a factor when coming to further studies.

@Fast-Nop 👀 not all webdev is the same, but it's great place to break into the industry without the degree, and wiggle you're way up.

Yes.

3 aspects:

- (at least in my country) you must have a degree if you want to work in a gov institution. regardless the position you're aiming for [ikr, BS]

- The process (studies) will teach you more it-related stuff than you would learn in courses. By "more" I mean in a sense of variety. Regardless whether you get the degree or not, that's a valuable knowledge difficult to acquire in other means

- The process (studies) will introduce you to other people. You might find those connections very valuable later in your career
----------------------------

Neither the degree nor the studies will make you an expert in one area. You won't master any programming language either. That's entirely on you.

Studies, however, will show you what are some of the main unknown unknowns in the field. This way you'll know what to look for yourself. It's hell of a push to the right direction if you asked me!

@C0D4 You'll still run into the visa issue because 10 years of making slow and bloated websites don't count as education. Also, no formal education and experience in web dev qualify you for... well, web dev again.

Yes. Because most recruiters are such absolute dumbfucks that they'd sooner choke on their own stupidity than try to interview someone without a resume.

A degree is more than just creds. For all the complaints I have about how broken the graduate system is, I still wouldn't be the professional I am without my electronics degree. If anything, for social reasons more than academic.

@Fast-Nop I agree to disagree.

My job required a degree, my company requires a degree, and here I stand among the crowd.

But generally speaking sure, the formal education is a handy thing to have, especially if you want to get beyond 5 page Wordpress sites.

@C0D4 You'll still have less choice on the job market because a ton of companies won't accept you. That translates into greater obstacles when negotiating the salary.

And industry-wide, career changers are often the last ones to get a job when economy booms, and the first ones to lose the job in a slow-down.

Also, you didn't address the visa issue. Sure, if you are fine to saty within your country, that's OK. If you are EU citizen, you don't need a visa within the EU anyway. But a lot of people would want to relocate with visa requirement, or at least have the option.

Self-taught is a valid backup plan if studies are out of reach for whatever reason possible, but considering it as wilful choice is another story.

@Fast-Nop ok sure for Visa workers. Then yea to get pass the Govt regulations you'll need to have a degree.

I'm not sure where @matwx is from, so that should be a consideration if looking at relocating somewhere else on the globe.

But outside of that, if your not in a... developing.. country or relocating internationally, that degree is only useful for theoretical knowledge you won't easily obtain unless you actually go looking for it being self taught.

It's not a be all and end all thing and I'm not discounting it's worth if you actually want to get into data science and low level programming.

@C0D4

I'm from Singapore. =)

Depends how much of the autism you got.

Enough to go on uninterrupted 48h wiki binges?

At that point, you wouldn't even make it in Uni. You get annoyed, bored, frustrated with their bureaucracy, with all their silly social rituals and the chaotic atmosphere of organizational incompetence.

I did elementary school, became an orphan, ran away from my foster home at 14.

I spent whole weeks skipping school, just to be in the library in the 80s. I tried university in my 20s, easily aced the entry exam -- but dropped out after 2 months. I can not handle education when it is provided through a projector screen and the voice of a tenured fossil.

Got hired by Microsoft, Arianespace, Johnson & Johnson, purely because I had snorted up enough information from libraries, scientific journals, usenet, and wiki pages.

But... autodidactism is not superior. It's chaotic and flawed in its own ways. You do miss out on important conversations, mentoring, opinions from peers.

Fuck yeah. Going to get my degree soon and I am just so happy to have one

I'd say, only go for a degree if guided education feels like the right way to learn, for you.

Do not do it for the degree.

That's never enough motivation. Do it because the university offers information you want, and you feel like the university has structured this information in a way that it benefits your learning process.

It should be about the knowledge first and foremost, the piece of paper and title should be just a side effect of the acquired knowledge.

An empty degree will get you less far than useful knowledge without the acknowledgement.

If you have doubts, ask if you can contact one of the professors for a chat, visit a lecture, get a feel for the minds you are hiring to mentor you.

Don't forget about that relationship: In guided education, you hire specialists, to educate you.

Hiring someone on a multi-year contract is ridiculous without any kind of interview, so try to make sure you get a feel for how the university operates before enrolling.

I can write an article about thst you better read Peter Thiel, Nassim Taleb about thid matter. They explain their disdain eloquently. In my opinion, university can not make someone better in an occupation. They provide accreditation and HR asks for a diploma...

@matwx not sure if graduate helps. I never took one but did read a Sedgewicks first text and Cracking the Coding interview but that didn't help.

I think biggest draw to degree is more prep time (undergrad basically 4yrs of FT stuffing) and maybe campus recruiting.

For CS basics prolly can just read the books yourself.

@M1sf3t that sounds like a really shitty situation, didn't know it were like that before, in that case going for the cheapest really is the best choice so it all depends on on which country OP is then.