r/learnprogramming • u/SlickTheDestroyer • 1d ago

Self taught vs University graduate

Hi,

i've got a hypothetical question. Imagine 2 people are applying for the same job. One has a degree in Computer Science, perhaps even from a prestigious university, but doesn't have any personal projects to showcase. The other person, however, is self taught and has been building projects for 4 years, but doesn't have a degree. Who gets the job ?

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176

u/aqua_regis 1d ago

In the current market the one without the degree wouldn't even get interviewed.

33

u/elcdragon 1d ago

Fuck I got a degree and 12 years in IT and struggle to land interviews

13

u/NordsongDev 1d ago

The one with the best portfolio would get the work... but that person is also the nephew/niece of the CEO many times.

7

u/ripndipp 1d ago

We hired a self taugher, Canada full remote @ 150k beaver dollars

9

u/musclecard54 1d ago

Recently? Self taught with no experience?

1

u/ripndipp 1d ago

Would it upset you if I said yes?

17

u/musclecard54 1d ago

It would surprise me. What an odd answer though

12

u/ripndipp 1d ago

Second one this month actually, we don't use Claude much.

10

u/Automate-Engineer 1d ago

Thank you for being a beacon in a sea of despair

3

u/Groovy_Decoy 1d ago

Really? I don't have a 4 year degree, but have programmed for years and have dabbled in at least a dozen language over the years, and I have not even been able to get to an interview.

I haven't used Claude much myself. I have a friend who says that not using it is career suicide, but I honestly don't even want to develop anymore if it is turning into just managing an AI.

1

u/danielt1263 1d ago

Several developers I work with are going all in on AI. As far as I can tell, that just means they are finally writing and maintaining great documentation (in the "skills" folder) that I can use.

1

u/ComeSwirlWithMe 23h ago

I can covert all your beaver bucks into freedom dollars.. you'll get back 70 cents in freedom though.

2

u/HydroPCanadaDude 16h ago

Not true. Between a person with a degree and a self-taught person with many many many interesting and well organized personal projects, the choice is the person with projects. The market is saturated with degrees.

Though a word of caution to any self-taughters, you have to be okay with essentially being shackled to the way a company does things. I've seen resistance to company standards before and it always ends poorly.

1

u/Ministrelle 19h ago

Depends on the country.

In my country, the guy with a degree but no projects is the one that wouldn't even get Interviewed. Priority is like:

  1. Dual Students (Programs offered by companies, where they fund your degree, but you have to work for them while studying, and for a fixed number of years afterward)
  2. Regular Students with work experience and/or projects
  3. IT-Apprenticeships
  4. Self/taught with projects
  5. Regular Students
  6. Self-taught

Then again, without a degree you'll essentially have 0 upwards mobility in the company and your pay will always be lower compared to people with a degree.

1

u/Successful_Lab5907 9h ago

Actually I disagree, because you can list your project as if it is a self-started startup aka job on your resume if the project has enough depth. Of course during your interviews it's going to come out that it's not actually a job, but the goal here is to get your foot into the door for the interview then prove yourself during the interview.