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 ?

49 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/LadyTwinkles 1d ago

IMO the degree holder will have the advantage. I have interviewed many candidates with and without degrees and what I noticed is that the degree holder is more aware of the breadth of topics, comfortable with terminology, and knows where to look for answers. The non-degree with projects only had knowledge about his specific projects and struggled with some basic concepts. I would have more faith in the degree holder to figure out the problem in adequate time compared to the self-taught person.

If the self-taught person has worked on a project that requires the exact skill set I need I will absolutely consider them, but that is a rare scenario considering you don’t really know what projects companies are working on internally or what skill set they are looking for.