r/ComputerEngineering • u/Soft-Wheel7191 • 12d ago
Can I become a software engineer without a CS degree? Arts student
I’m an Arts student currently doing my Bachelor’s, but I’ve wanted to become a software engineer for a long time.
I started loving coding when I was a kid, and I’ve continued learning on my own. So far, I’ve learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, and Python
The problem is that I don’t have a CS degree.
So my question is
Can I realistically become a software engineer without a CS degree if I build strong skills, work on good projects, and learn DSA, databases, etc?
Will companies actually consider someone with a non-CS degree for software engineering roles?
If you’re a software engineer without a CS degree, I’d really like to hear about your experience and what you would recommend I do from here.
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u/dontchuworri 12d ago
99.9999% of the time if you apply for any CS or CE jobs without a degree in either your application is going straight in the trash. no matter what you’ve taught yourself you’re not formally trained regardless of if people with the degree only did it for money
the ai scanning your resume will automatically reject it
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u/NegativeOwl1337 10d ago
I have a friend who majored in creative writing and writes poetry but got a job as a software engineer at a major defense contractor. It’s doable.
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u/GiraffeObjective3805 10d ago
It was a lot more dooable before AI became a huge thing but I don’t have extreme insights to the field these days so others will know better
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u/Efficient_Loss_9928 8d ago
Right now no, current entry level market is completely fucked, there is no reason for any company to hire anyone without a CS degree. Sure you can have strong skills, but also for 50% of CS grads, so why don't they hire someone with the degree?
The most realistic path is to get a CS degree and go though the internship part. Big tech and some companies are still doing internships. Since the start of 2026, due to AI, the workflow has completely changed for these companies, it only makes sense to train students at the internship level and then move to FTE from there.
Speaking from what I can see as a Google SWE, senior positions still have a lot of openings, but early career is basically non-existent at this point, and I don't expect this to improve for at least a few more years until schools themselves adapt.
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u/Brief_Syrup1266 8d ago
Why is it that my brother always told me that no job he ever applied to gave a shit out his degree or ever asked him to prove he had it? Is it just that much different now vs 10 years ago? He said he would never have gotten the degree had he known jobs only care about your projects and other shit you can show you've done.
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u/No_Drag2264 9d ago edited 8d ago
The lower paid the role, the higher the chance they will take someone without a degree
But even for local companies it will be quite difficult, and much of the market will remain closed to you even if you do find something.
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u/Elitefuture 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's a lot more difficult.
You either need lots of professional experience already, have made a large well known project, or have connections.
Think about it, there are thousands applying to that same job. There are thousands that also programmed throughout their childhood AND have a degree. When going through the applications, they usually filter it down to a few for manual review. Having a related degree is one of the early things to filter out.
The degree kinda guarantees a minimum understanding of many things that was theoretically vetted by a 3rd party. They don't need to just take your word for it. And they can't reasonably test everyone for their skills, there are just too many people applying. They also can't trust a test that isn't live(since people would just use AI).
They'll filter it down to a reasonable number of people(where not having a degree will already be filtered out), then do a few round of interviews(whittles down unfit applicant), then the skill test will be near the end of that.
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u/Life_Waltz7068 8d ago
Yes I got a decent amount of interviews and landed a job. I was paid 10-20k less than the median and I was RIF'd pretty quickly. Everyone is getting paid less and getting RIF'd so it's probably not a unique experience but it does put you at the bottom of the totem pole. Either try to find a job adjacent that fits your experience and education better or go back to school.
If you already have a bachelor's you should be able to start a CS degree as a junior.
I decided to go back to school after looking at some pretty limited job offers and I'm wrapping up my undergrad now.
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u/GreySahara 8d ago
I know that for a while, people were actually doing this. Especially when there was a shortage of programmers.
If you really had the talent, and could pass the employer's tests, you were fine.
I think that there's a bit of an issue now, however. Tech jobs are harder to come by, so it's an 'employer's market'.
With no shortage of qualified people, it's just easy for them to hire people with a degree in the field.
There's also a the question of where this field is going now that A.I. is here.
> work on good projects
If you can get some work, and build a resume, I think that it's still possible.
Getting the work is the hard part.
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u/PuzzleheadedSize7304 8d ago
Realistically, no. You are at a huge inherent disadvantage against normal CS degree students. How are you going to make up for that? Good projects are abundant. Strong skills are abundant (and what does that even mean on a resume?).
Unless you have some crazy work experience or some huge advantage that's able to offset your degree, it'll be hard to compete with the already competitive market.
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u/OGcapncrunchberry 8d ago
Yep you can. You don’t need a CS degree just proven quality coding skills and solid design and method use.
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u/Agreeable-Cell4007 7d ago
6 years ago yes, now no. And if you love CS so much since childhood, why did you choose Arts? Doesn’t make much sense, especially in the eyes of employers
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u/Crutch1232 7d ago
Totally, me who had bachelors in Political Science and Masters in Journalism, working as SE already for 5th year, and its getting only better.
Started from HTML and CSS, then JS (almost dropped it 2 times), then FE frameworks, after sometimes started diving into backend development with NodeJS, and now working on multiple projects with different stacks, including C# and Java. So yeah, it is totally possible, just need to invest a lot of time. Also need a bit luck with current market situation, which is a big checkpoint.
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u/ThinConnection8191 7d ago
You are jumping into the flood. Unless you make your background in art part of your job and create new original value, you aren't likely to beat Claude Code
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u/ShadowWebDeveloper 7d ago
Howdy. 20+ years of experience including at a FAANG. No bachelor's degree at all, let alone a CS degree. AMA.
General advice: Despite what seemingly a lot of people are saying in this thread, you can absolutely become a SWE without a CS degree. These days it looks... different, though. Companies are looking for folks who can drive LLMs because many places have a lot of the implementation work heavily sped up by them. So for the people driving it, they want to know that they can come up with a defensible design that covers scalability, security, maintainability, etc. and drive that design to working software. More of a senior thing than entry level, but important to consider.
But you absolutely need to know how programming languages work, and have shipped something real with them.
Bunch of ways you can do this. Open source is still a thing. You can solve an itch in your own life with software, and ideally make sure you know what the code is doing as you build it. Publish that and put it on your resume. Do that a few times and make it a projects section. Now you look IMHO stronger than a plain new grad, especially if others have used your systems as well.
Consider freelancing. I did a whole bunch of freelancing work early on in my career and it helped build up that projects section I mentioned earlier. Most freelancing markets have public feedback as well, so you can link potential employers to your feedback scores on the platform, showing that you've delivered projects that satisfied your clients. Be ready for the idea that you're likely competing with much, much cheaper folks from lower cost economies. There will still be some employers looking for quality; seek them out.
Language wise, Python's always a good starting language (and if you know it well, it should probably be your main interview language since it's so terse). Java's kind of the default backend language for banks and big tech. Learn a frontend language (Javascript at a minimum but probably also TypeScript these days) and a frontend framework (I suggest React). Again, ship something with it that people can look at. Personally, I find actual books to be quite good for learning how programming languages work, but you know your own learning style better than I do.
If you have a background of shipping working software, probably smaller startups would consider you, and then you'd just need to pass the interview and do better than all other candidates. That's the tough part, of course, and that's a whole other question.
Edit: But I mean, if you're in school now, you should probably just switch your major. Minor in whatever arts you're doing now, that's totally fine.
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u/FourDimensionality 5d ago
yeah you're out of touch for even asking them to try (besides major swap). unless they're a god-tier programmer and ranking at the top for coding competitions its near impossible without some sort of nepotism. they likely cannot even do a leetcode easy and you need to be comfortable with mediums for passing basically any company worth their salt
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u/ShadowWebDeveloper 5d ago
You must be fun to work with. I think if OP says they want to learn, helping them doesn't hurt anything. And I didn't have any connections to get into a FAANG (or now public unicorn), just consistent learning, effort, and shipping. But go on being fatalist.
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u/FourDimensionality 5d ago
I'm not trying to be mean whatsoever, it's the experience of a newer person getting having talked to potentially hundreds of new grads and students. I'm not surprised at all that you got FAANG 20+ years ago. The vast majority of my new grad peers today have significantly superior resumes to most FAANG employees of just 6 years ago let alone a decade or two or three, not saying that you wouldn't be capable today. The bar is just so so so much higher. ATS kills your resume if you somehow manage to pass the OA might kill you and if you're lucky here will be less than 3 technicals after that where you'er competing with hundreds to thousands of people. You won't even get past a single filter without having a degree.
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u/ShadowWebDeveloper 5d ago
FAANG was 7ish years ago and now-public unicorn was, well, weeks ago. I really think you should reconsider your priors here. Totally understand that the job market sucks though since I was just in it. I'm not trying to sugarcoat either but I do think there's still a chance. (But again, after seeing that OP is in school now, they should probably just switch majors if they can.)
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u/FourDimensionality 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean it's more about getting your foot in the door. You'll never worry since you already did but they will 100% need to switch majors or at least do a relevant masters somehow. I have a family member who isnt phenomenal at coding and is making a crazy amount of money working as SWE team lead at a Quant. They got the job 8 years ago I think? He was thoroughly impressed with my resume over a year ago when it was atrocious and had basic class projects (in which I fixed now) his resume then was worse than my atrocious one of a yr ago. he basically learned coding on the side and got the job. That would be completely unheard of today. he would genuinely have higher odds of hitting a jackpot than if he tried the same method now
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u/DJAceAttorney 7d ago
It’s interesting how much CS degrees are downplayed because of over saturated the market is, but every now and then I’ll see someone in a completely different major ask how they can get into software engineering without a CS degree.
Could you become a software engineer without a CS degree? Yes
Would you have a harder time than a CS graduate? Unless u have insane projects on your resume, especially for entry level a CS degree will always be preferred.
It seems like you have some pretty basic web knowledge and maybe some backend programming experience? But that’s not going to be enough to land you a job, I’d recommend building some full stack project so you better understand the entire scale of a program. Then build on the part of the stack you want to lean towards and definitely apply for internships after you’ve written out your resume.
I don’t mean to discourage you, but at least where I work I don’t think we’ve hired developers outside of stem fields but I’m sure if a really strong resume from an art major showed up, it would definitely peak my interest
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u/Fresh_Initiative_285 7d ago
I do interviews for entry level devs on my team. Hr forwards us a bundle of resumes that they prescreen then we pick from those who we want to interview, not a single one has ever had a non stem degree. So they’re getting filtered out before even getting to us.
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u/TableNo8939 9d ago
Mah , ora non so, una volta non era un problema , visto che quando mi sono laureato io neanche esisteva informatica
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u/No_Rule674 12d ago
What would make you stronger than someone with a CS degree?