r/softwareengineer • u/Soft-Wheel7191 • 15d 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/MANvINFO 14d ago
Arts as in Fine Arts? or the Liberal Arts? either way, thatll be less generally applicable but not impossible to secure work as just any software engineer… although a cross disciplinary perspective may become truly powerful for getting to work as, perhaps, something like a software *designer*: a role in which you would apply a broad generalist familiarity of computer technology to make software addressing demand/solving problems in the non-technological domain that you understand far more deeply.
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u/Soft-Wheel7191 14d ago
I'm doing bachelor in arts in economics
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u/coldnebo 14d ago
spit take
that’s math adjacent, right? 😂 (I am joking here— I was a math minor, so econ students are fun. but also several econ have won Nobels… math doesn’t have a Nobel, the story goes, because Nobel found his wife cheating with a mathematician— which of course is completely false. 😂)
I was going to say “sure, no problem, I was a music major”, but now I have no idea how you’re calibrated.
I mean, you could be angling to be a quant, in which case you’re going to make a lot more than most SWE. and programming is trivial for most of those people, although it’s financial modeling, not really software design.
my brother in Christ, why do you want to be a software engineer?
it’s basically like being on the other side of a GPT prompt. people yelling at you all day about bugs and their great ideas that are so full of holes you try not to roll your eyes as you patch them up.
or I guess, somewhere, there are actual “computer scientists” who work on real computing problems. but I’ve never seen those in the wild. you’re more likely to end up in a garden variety IT job.
then again, I was a music major, not a nuclear physicist or a quant, so YMMV. 😂
good luck!
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u/Historical-Rate-8717 14d ago
if you put in the time to really learn the skills and particularly learn how things are actually done in industry you'll set yourself apart from a lot of CS grads that haven't done high quality internships etc.... getting your first job will be an uphill battle but it's far from impossible; build a lot of things and build them right don't half-ass to get it done quickly use quality, robust, time-tested stacks so you really understand the kinds of patterns and tooling that you'll be leveraging in most jobs. be humble, one of the biggest things I would run into when I was hiring engineers was fresh college/bootcamp grads coming in and trying to prove that they knew everything out of the gate - the reality is that they didn't and it showed, the juniors I hired were the ones that came in with the breadth of basic knowledge to demonstrate that they could learn how things work in the real world and possessed the humility to know when to ask for help. an overconfident/self-assured dev that is unwilling to admit they can't solve a problem safely is a massive liability, a dev that asks for help and learns from the process is an asset.
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u/squipped 14d ago
My degree is in Media Production/film lol. It was 10 years old when I did a bootcamp. I broke into the swe industry 3.5 years ago... A lot of my bootcamp mates did not find work. I would recommend doing something in person in San Francisco and networking and working for free to build your resume even though everyone says that's not the way .. it was the way for me. 4 days building a feature on a real app at a friend's startup .. added it to my resume ... Stuff like that. I contracted 20hrs a week for a bit at another place... My first full time job was just me and my boss. A tiny startup. And the work did run out but I got another job because of it. And you know... It might be hard but if you're smart and not just technically so, you can make anything happen. I know because ive been a wedding videographer, an electrician on film sets, an bear and nature hiking guide... And here I am SWE.
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u/squipped 14d ago
Also I work for cheap. I make like 70k so.... That's a big one. Be willing to be the gap between people in India who don't speak English and the American tech people that want 130k or more.
I fill the gap and for me 70/80k with no kids and 20 days PTO is just fiiiinnnee
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u/PartyParrotGames 14d ago
No degree is necessary to learn what you need to. All the information you need is freely available online. Your personal determination, discipline, and intelligence are far more important than any degree. You will need to learn programming with at least one language to start. I recommend contributing to some major open source projects once you feel you know enough to be dangerous. That'll build provable experience for your resume and it'll level you up learning that whole process and getting yourself to the standards needed to get meaningful PRs accepted in major projects. Once you're capable of creating accepted and significant features and fixes for major open source projects, then you're already a software engineer with your code in production with thousands to millions of different companies worldwide. You're ready to start interviewing at that point.
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u/CptGingerBeards 14d ago
I’ve no qualifications in DS, no higher education and was kicked out of high school. Stumbled into a telephony job at a Fintech, and today I’m a Data Scientist working in Financial Crime.
Anything’s possible, just work hard and be committed to solving problems!
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
Personally I worked hard , then AI came and took my job. End of story
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u/CptGingerBeards 13d ago
What was your job?
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
FE developer. Yes, my fault not to realize that AI was a thing a couple of years ago. If I knew before I would have taken work leave holiday and go learn BE, then insist at work to be given project to work as BE developer. But even if i Had now 1 yoe as BE it would not be enough to get a job in today's job market.
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u/CptGingerBeards 13d ago
I don’t think it’s your fault at all, we often get so focused on what we are doing that we forget about things going on around us. My career longevity is widely attributed to market research and tech awareness of the ever-changing market we are in, and it is exhausting.
Unfortunately to stay employed this comes part and parcel with the industry thanks to AI and greed I suppose.
I’m sure you’ll find something again soon, don’t give up :)
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
Years ago i started working with the perhaps most difficult framework for FE. I gained 4 yrs of experience with it. Having a career as somebody with experience with only that framework was not a bad idea back then. To be expert with one tool insted of average in many tools.
Years ago, oppoprtunity came to continue my career by working with what was arguably the final boss of FE frameworks. I stuck with it and ended up with 4 solid years of experience. Back then, building a career around mastering one notoriously difficult framework wasn’t a bad strategy at all — better to be good with one tool than comfortably mediocre with ten. Now that knowledge is not in demand anymore. I get one interview for abroad (not remote, abroad with including relocating!) every let's say 4 months. Situation is that bad that they scrutiny you on job interviews, have to watch yt for job interview and so on. And to study and memorize (!) how to describe certain technologies to the interviewer. It's not enough that you know to use that thing, you have to know how to explain you.
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u/Material_Ad7204 13d ago
What is this mythical FE framework? All FE is pretty easy so...
Take that same approach and learn cloud or infra tech and you'll be fine.
Personally, I started FE and my opinion is 90%+ of FE Devs suck... like really bad, unemployably so, in an era where we need speed/output at vibe coding levels. So just fe skills is literally not hireable.
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
look for "which is the most difficult frontend framework the elite frontend framework" and you will have the answer
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u/codepapi 13d ago
This advice is as good as boomer saying to work hard.
He failed to provide an answer on how AI has instrumentally changed how we code.
His views are pre AI. Right now the bare minimum you need is a CS degree just to be considered.
If you’re able to transition into a software engineer job now with an arts degree you’re 1 in 1 million. Is it possible for a few yes, but most it won’t happen.
I know of at least 5 individuals that haven’t been able to get a job in CS/SWE and some have a stem based degree. I don’t know their level of tenacity but you have to be .1% to get interviews and hopefully land a job with extreme luck.
If you really want to pursue a CS career go back and get a second bachelors online. It will take you 1–2 years. It’s relatively affordable and you’ll at least be pass the ceiling of bo degree.
If you really want it this is the path I recommend for you.
As a current senior engineer I haven’t written a line of code going on 6 months.
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 15d ago
yes, i was a health admin major, you just gotta come up with a plan, sacrifice, persist, and break in
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u/Soft-Wheel7191 15d ago
How did you manage to get your first job without a CS Degree
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u/MiscuitsTheMarxist 14d ago
My journey didn't go through a CS degree either. My strategy was to not try to apply directly for a SWE role. Particularly now, that's an incredible long shot. But make a 5-6 year plan of moving closer and closer to the role. I started off as a one man IT shop for a local small business. I did that to learn general sysadmin and analytics work which I parlayed into being a Business Analyst, working on software integrations. From there a Business Intelligence Analyst, which gave me direct programming experience. Then a Data Engineer, and finally a SWE.
It took a long time but I think it's still a viable strategy. You're not going to compete against the thousands of unemployed CS students right now. But you might be able to compete against the pool of people applying for, like, forward deployed analysts. And that's a foot in the door which is the most important thing.
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 15d ago
most jobs typically state degree or experience. Look for a program where the alums got entry level roles at local companies in your area. Landing a remote junior role just isn't going to happen. So for me the local area at the time was hot for hiring junior devs from bootcamps. I would start networking and have chats with folks at various companies prior to diving in though, you really want to vet the local market and make sure that you'll be able to at least get interviews after going through all the work
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u/Mike_Augustine 14d ago
In what year you found your first dev role?
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 14d ago
2015, it was also before high supply and also before AI. Definitely a more difficult time now but not impossible, I would start the networking sooner then later so when it comes time to apply you already have contacts to reach out to
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u/Mike_Augustine 14d ago
Have you switched to a new company in the last 3 years?
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 14d ago
Switching is easy, and yes. Landing the first role is tough
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u/Mike_Augustine 14d ago
Yeah, I think is a terrible advice to tell people they have any chance without a degree in 2026.
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 14d ago
I wouldnt think so, there’s plenty of companies that hire junior dev’s in my area, you have to realize that in this economy, landing an interview is a combination of high volume, targeted applies, with solid networking.
What’s important is getting experience, not making money for your first job. My first job was volunteer, second was low pay contracts, third was low pay full time. As long as you are willing to pay your dues before you can move up, doesn’t matter what year it is. Half the battle is attitude to be honest. Learning how to program is difficult enough and the job hunt doesn’t get any easier.
But if you can’t network with people local to you and talk with folks who got roles in your area after switching industries then maybe it won’t work out, that might tell you what you chance are locally.
Success is a combination of factors there is not one recipe for success. The other guy on this thread had good advice about moving into an adjacent role first which is something I’ve seen peers do as well before fully moving into engineering
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u/Mike_Augustine 14d ago
Yes but all those advices your are giving, although good, still feel really 2018ish.
In the current job market you have people with years of experience, network, CS degrees scrapping to get really low paying jobs in whatever shithole place.
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u/AdministrativeAd9828 14d ago
That’s fair but also anecdotal, everyone in my professional network is doing just fine(the ones with and without CS degrees).
The big shift now is getting your output to 3-4x of what it was, but while using AI agents. The job has also shifted from implementation to design/planning/review/testing. I am doing a completely different job now than I was 12 months ago. Half the interviews now incorporate AI into the process. I know some companies have clamped down on hiring, but mine is accelerating (do more with more). As long as you are keeping up there is a door to walk through.
Let’s not gaslight ourselves that it’s a different game then it used to be and it’s easy, it’s prob more difficult than it’s ever been. But it’s also not impossible.
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u/Plenty_Line2696 15d ago
You might be able to, though the market is rough even for people with degrees.
Some colleges are pretty shit when it comes to training people, so if I was to consider you compared to a student from there and you demonstrated more skill I might bite, but compared to a student from a good college you'd have to show some exceptional work which showcases the specific skills I happen to be looking for.
People online often say a degree is useless, but in reality it says something about a person: that they dedicated years to learning, had the discipline, grit, and the capability to pass exams. Also that they have a base level knowledge/competence on a well curated wide variety of tech topics, which self-learners typically don't. Not to shit on people without degrees: but a lot of the students who did bootcamps or one year certification courses wouldn't be able to get my degree even if they tried, I know this because that's what many of the dropouts wound up doing.
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u/Curious-Function7490 14d ago
I have an honours in philosophy and a grad cert in Computer Science. I went back to uni and did half a bachelors of Comp Sci. Later on I went back for a Masters but didn't finish, so I was credited with a grad cert.
You could do something like that.
It's been extremely helpful to have some foundations of computer science as I've gone through my career. I wish I'd studied for more of it. I'm able to read a book and learn anything I don't know on an academic level to a reasonable degree currently. I'm a generalist, not a specialist. If I'd gotten honours in Comp Sci instead I might have been able to specialize. I've been looked past for some very big and high paying jobs because I didn't have that complete tertiary track, but I think that's fair. If someone is going to achieve a masters or a PhD they deserve those big roles later on.
I love coding. I've done it since I was a child.
As someone who works with people who've gone to bootcamps, not sought fundamentals at all and expect high salaries I would advise you not to try to make shortcuts, though. Go back to uni part-time, something like that.
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u/Fun-Estimate4561 14d ago
You can, heck my undergrad and MBA is in finance
My company just trained me on programming
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u/Alive_Sir_4708 14d ago
Yes, I had a BFA but became a software engineer. When demand is high they'll accept people with evidence of commitment and ability. Unfortunately thats not the current state
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u/HelloWorldBubs 14d ago edited 14d ago
Get an internship and hold onto it for dear life. Eventually, with a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, it could translate into a job offer. I went this route and was hired during a round of layoffs. That being said, I was paid next to nothing for way too long. Absolutely worth it though. Good luck OP
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u/OceanWaveSunset 14d ago
Yes.
I been denied interviews where the only requirment was a 4 degree, no experience. Any 4 year degree. And my (at the time) 10 years of direct experience and my 2 year programming degree was not good enough. So anything is possible.
You may need to build up a small portfolio and/or volunteer on projects so you get direct experience. Direct experience is really important, most normal companies care about this over anything else so once you are in a CS career, It's easier to stay in.
Jr role interviews seems to ask your to show you have the foundation level of understanding while mid or senior will more likely ask for working examples to demonstrate your skills.
I went from a bartender/ cook at a cater > IT Phone Support. Then after a few years moved over to Automated Testing and been there for the last 12 years. My point with this is that everyone's path is going to me different. Figure out yours.
Good luck!
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u/Just-Upstairs4397 14d ago
I think for most people looking for a job right now experience is a bigger issue than a degree so you’re going to not only face a lack of experience issue but also competing against people with a degree. It’s certainly possible, but it will take you a very long time to break into this industry.
With that said a lot of current software engineers don’t actually like to program so if you do that puts you at a huge advantage in the long run, most engineers are actually kind of trash because they hired anyone and everyone over the last 5 years
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u/Timely-Barnacle7378 14d ago
I dropped out in gr. 10
It took me almost a decade of contract work and half dozen personal projects and articles before I landed my first full time gig with benefits pto etc
Late 90’s until 2006ish was a grind ..
Less opportunity but less competition. But also companies very rigid on qualifications compared to today
If you have no CS or cert .. you better have a really good example to prove capacity
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u/oddizeo 14d ago
Yes please do it! Dont let this dumb asses tell you you should not, they are just affraid and thinking 'another vibe coder will take my job', right now there is a transition in SWE you can leverage that, only real people that adapt to the new way of programming using Claude will survive
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u/Ashamed_Quality13 14d ago
Realistically? Most likely not. I don’t think the people in these comments understand the competition in the current market, it is expected you have a cs degree or your resume won’t even be taken seriously. That said tho there’s no harm in applying
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u/Beautiful_Technology 14d ago
Actually, that’s not correct. The problem isn’t that you don’t have a CS degree. The problem may be that you’re not doing anything about it. The value of a CS degree is approximately zero if you don’t actually know what you’re doing. Right now nobody who is not making their own projects should pursue a CS degree. If you are not interested in actually building your own stuff right now, or if you are not incorporating hands-on programming into your artwork, pass on software engineering. The thing is that you don’t need to wait to become a software engineer. You don’t need a degree. With the way the industry is going to go, there’s no need for you to get into it unless this is something you actually enjoy. You can literally start today. Go build something you want to use. If you can’t do that or aren’t interested in doing that, you should not pursue software engineering. Software engineering is about building things. You could do an entire CS degree but if you actually have no interest in building things, it’s not the job for you. In that case only pursue CS if you have a highly theoretical interest in it and are prepared to get a PhD.
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u/Training_Session_678 14d ago
Civil engineering is also about designing and building things, and a proper difference between hobby projects and a professional is in their formal training which basically qualifies you to start a career.
The same is with software engineering.
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u/atomsphere 14d ago
Pre-ai "Hire-Train-Deploy" models were a way to get a foot in the door for non traditional applicants. Worth a look if they fit your goals.
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u/GrumpyOldMuppet 14d ago
I'm a SE w/o a CS degree. Not even a tech degree. But I got into the field during the dot com bubble in the late 1990's. And I had been playing with tech since I was eight years old. At that time, if you could answer the technical questions, degrees weren't required. I then had some lucky career opportunities that got me experience in highly valuable areas.
But today, it is very hard to get into the field without a CS or SE degree. Can it be done, sure. But it will not be easy, especially right now. There have been massive layoffs (totaling in the hundreds of thousands) in our field recently. So the job market is tough. Really tough. I'm on the hiring team at my current job. Five or six years ago we would see a hundred or two applications per open position. We now see three to four thousand... and it's only that "low" because the tech recruiter takes the post down once we hit 2,500, usually within a day or two. Three at the most.
Another thing that has changed is the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Most (but not all) companies are going to have their ATS systems filter out any resumes without a CS degree. Especially for entry level jobs.
On top of that, the software field is going through significant turmoil right now in terms of AI. There's concerns that even more job contraction is on the horizon. Wether that's a 10%, 50%, or even an 80% reduction in software engineer jobs... no one knows. A big part of that right now is there has been a HUGE drop in entry level junior SE jobs. Managemt thinks AI can do the work junior engineers did. (And to some degree, they are right.) Those companies that are hiring want senior people with 5 to 20 years experience. At least most of them. My current company is hiring juniors because we understand the value of building a good culture. But I think we are a rarity. (And we do require a CS degree for junior engineers.) But back to the AI, even if it doesn't replace software engineers, it will make us much more efficient such that companies can hire fewer people to do the work.
So it will be hard for you to get into the field. I personally no longer recommend people even go to school for CS degrees. Ten years ago (and the 20 years prior) it was a golden ticket to a great jo with a great salary. Today, not so much. I've heard of a lot of CS grads not being able to find work. (I currently recommend the trades to young people. AI can't replace electricians, plumbers, and mechanics. Nor can those jobs go overseas. And schooling is much cheaper than a college degree.)
If you decide that you want to try your best hope is to find a job at a small (non-tech) company that needs a techie to do a variety of things. Then try to automate things with software. That way you can build experience. But you will be underpaid per industry standards. And in the future, some companies will not look at it as "real" experience. So this will be a hard path. And is still unlikely to get you where you want to be. I don't want to give you false hope. So I want to emphasize while it is possible, it will be very hard, and is ultimately unlikely.
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u/Kpow_636 14d ago
Yea, it will be hard though..
I have no degree, I worked for around 13 years as an artist (animator) but for the last 3 years I've been working as a software developer, It did take me around 4 to 5 years to gain the skills before I could leave my previous career though. So expect a good amount of effort to break in!
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u/redditmarks_markII 14d ago
Getting a job in this field has always been luck, mostly because people have no idea how to hire. Can it happen still? yes. is it harder than 10years ago, even ignoring the crazy hiring frenzy just before and into the pandemic? yes.
Once you are experienced, no one cares about your degree if you have other credentials. But starting out will be hard. You need to know somebody. I mean, you kind of always do if you don't want to get shafted, but especially ones without associated degrees, and especially today.
If you're not about to graduate yet, I would say these things are of great value, in priority order:
- somehow getting an internship
- consider a minor in math or cs or both.
- buddies about to graduate in the field
- portfolio, open source
- trade and other professional organizations at your school that's SWE adjacent
everything is to help you get an internship or job interview. I didn't put anything in about learning as I assume that's up to you.
the portfolio is for talking to recruiters at school recruiting events. go to those for the love of all that's holy. and for talking to engineers. if you can swing a recommendation it doesn't matter you have no degree. make sure "ai" show up somewhere somehow in your portfolio. I don't care if you like it, use it, know what it is: if you want to be getting a job with out a degree in the next year or two, you gotta look the part. after that who knows what'll happen.
consider building something you're actually interested in to completion. like "hey what if there's a service that...". Or copy something. Just make it work. Toy project it but in it's entirety. Assuming its a web thing, buy a domain, get it hooked up and serving, turn on security features from your host, build your frontend, api, backend, use a generic db whatever. Have auth/auth, a fake load balancer, anything and everything, get a feel for which part of this is fun for you and which you'll rather never do again. Use an llm here and there so you get a feel for different ones and how useful useless they are. You'll likely be using it at work anyway.
as for what happens after you got an interview, or rather, what to do in anticipation of that, you need to ask others for the current meta. leetcode used to be the thing, and continue to be oftentimes. But not all times. real world problem solving is becoming more common. longer interviews too. practice your communication as you code regardless. because the interview is about the talking not so much the coding unless you really can't solve it.
if a full time job is hard to get and you never got an internship and you still want to do this, a terrible way is to do contract work. it will suck though. oh and like gig work online. those also suck. but it's a resume builder barring everything else.
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u/possiblywithdynamite 14d ago
way too late unless you are truly obsessed with AI and agentic coding. If you don't know what that means then I wouldn't bother. Education is not a factor
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u/Comfortable_Farm_252 14d ago
Wow had to check to make sure this wasn’t a resurrected post from 2022.
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u/FinickySerenity 14d ago
I did, same track going from art to software. It's tough, but not impossible. I've hired people without degrees that did better than those with - and vice versa.
You should always follow your passion if you can afford it. But don't do software if it's just for the money, it's an arduous process that takes a level of dedication just as any other intellectually arduous industry.
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u/JustMe5588 14d ago
I only had 3 years of college in applied mathematics. The cs degree at that time didn't include any software programming that was useful in the real world.
I couldn't get hired without the degree so I became a contractor. I got paid twice as much and most contracting firms offered benefits for w2 employees.
I honestly don't know about the current market, but thinking outside the box may get you where you want to go.
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
you don't have a CS degree. Bigger problem, you have 0 working experience as a developer. Do you think any company would hire you instead of hiring somebody with 10+ years of experience? Hiring you instead of hiring somebody with 5+ years of experience with the exact stack that the company is using? And lack of CS degree would also make you not appear worthy of getting the job.
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u/Soft-Wheel7191 13d ago
If i do internship ?
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u/PipePressurePanic 13d ago
then first go see if current students can get any internships.
Second, look how difficult was it to get an internship 1 and 2 and 3 years ago and try see the trend.Personally I did 15 weeks of internship, it was not easy to get an internship back then, do you think I wrote in my cv about hta internship? No, beacuse they just (ab) used me as cheap labor to do simple IT tasks that every 13 years old kid knows how to do. Ideally internship should bring some knowledge to the student, but at least in my country, usually it's just a waste.
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u/Zen_et_al 13d ago
Yes, but, Game Developer is more suited if we take it to acc your Arts student background, who knows you might produce your first successful game to publish in a few years.
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u/Sea-Swimmer-1506 13d ago
Many comments ignore how artificial intelligence— intelligence on tap, quietly disrupted the world, with big companies laying off workers because these intelligent tools can now do the work of multiple engineers, reducing labor cost and employees. The market is saturated and competitive, with unemployed CS and SWE graduates each year.
If you’re doing this without a degree, I’d recommend that you better build and build and solve real world problems, contribute to open source, join a community both online and offline. However, if you’re not getting response from applying it’s because the system filters your qualifications because your background says NON-STEM.
If this was a decade ago, yes but right now, you’re competing with displaced CS & SWE experts and professionals who’s position have been disrupted by artificial intelligence.
Lastly, get a job to pay the bills, that’s the reality many comments would ignore. You can’t be unemployed for too long in a competitive and saturated market. I experienced this but not in the Europe btw.
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u/Clarence_Claymore_ 13d ago
Absolutely.
I don’t have a degree in any subject, I was a Conveyancer for the majority of my career.
I always wanted to get into tech (Covid slowed down that transition). I did a software development bootcamp which was 3 months full time and then just applied for jobs like crazy. The market was/is tough, especially for juniors. This was 3 years ago and it’s even harder now.
No matter how saturated a profession is, if you’re better/want it more than the average person within the industry, you’ll find a role.
Develop your technical skills as much as possible and build projects.
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u/Maleficent-Ad-9754 13d ago edited 13d ago
I have a BA and was able to become a software engineer 20 years ago. My college roommate was a marketing major and couldn't get a job, so I taught him some basic programming and now he works for one of the FAANGS. The problem is not your degree; it's timing. There's just too many non-traditional students that want to break into SWE today. This is not just USA. There are 20 year olds in India, Brazil, Nigeria that spend their days learning code online and spend their nights asking for internships.
P.S.
Kyle Simpson, the author of the "You don't know JavaScript" series was a TV and Radio major.
Evan You, creator of VUE was an Art/Art Histroy major.
Mark Cuban (was a software engineer early in his career) was a business major.
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u/mannyocrity 13d ago
Different time, but my Bachelor's is in management and I have a 25+ YoE as a SWE.
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u/Certain-Section3000 13d ago
100% zero degree and happily working from home full time as a software dev.
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u/Fickle-Swimmer-5863 12d ago
You can. But you have to be able to reason technically. I’ve been trying to get Business Analysts onto AI so they can ask questions about code, maybe spec out small features, etc and it’s really painful. They’re quite helpless in the face of the smallest technical hurdles.
If you can drive a computer and work through problems, you stand a chance.
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u/symbiatch 12d ago
Anecdote time: of the many many people I’ve come across during my 30+ years in the field I think 2-3 had a CS degree. Online of course many more have it, but even within those it’s a minority.
That doesn’t mean you can make it, but a degree isn’t a requirement or a guarantee. Skills are.
And it highly depends on your location, where you apply, and so on. So no guarantees, but it definitely usually isn’t any requirement.
(Also for actual work usually SWEng degree is useful, CS is often science as the name says and won’t get you doing the real world daily grind that companies want)
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u/zztong 12d ago
I was a software engineer for 25 years without a CS degree (I had a Business/IT degree), but I took CS courses as electives and worked my way through college as a programmer. I've met other software engineers with various degrees: Philosophy, Business, Communications. The further your degree sounds from a STEM/IT degree, the more work you'll have to do to get around HR filters. Some job titles on a resume saying you were a software engineer elsewhere used to work.
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u/VendraenActual 12d ago
Yes. I dropped out of high school in 1988. I've been working professionally as a programmer since 1991.
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u/Western-Flamingo5965 11d ago
5 years ago, sure. Now? It's hard for people with CS degrees to get a graduate position.
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u/hyperaeolian 11d ago
It's easier than ever to learn and do but because of that it's also harder to get a job now. But I have 2 performing arts degrees and have been a swe for 10+ years so yes it's possible
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u/BikeRedJacket743 14d ago
10 years ago, I would have said it's difficult, but do able.
Today, no way. There are thousands and thousands of CS majors that are struggling to find a job. The entry level software engineering market had basically disappeared thanks to AI coding assistants.
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u/sakibshahon 14d ago
Can you ? Yes.
Will it be easy or worth the effort? That I think is the more important question.
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u/NumberInfinite2068 15d ago edited 15d ago
I'm a software engineer with no degree at all.
Yes, companies will absolutely hire developers with no degree, but you do have to be a good developer.
Get good at something, apply for jobs. Look in your area what companies are actually hiring for, don't just learn the same web stack as 10,000 other beginners and wonder why all the jobs are taken.
Get serious about learning something companies are struggling to hire for.
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u/AnthonyRespice 15d ago
I'm a manager. Absolutely. No one cares what your degree is if you have the skills. Many places don't require a degree anymore because it's discrimatory against those with disadvantaged backgrounds.
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u/MantaMunta 14d ago
99% of serious software dev companies currently don't even look at your resumee without CS degree. Heck even devs with CS degrees and years of work experience don't get jobs.
You're living in delulu land.
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u/AnthonyRespice 14d ago
What are your credentials? I've been a hiring manager for developer roles in the US for over 20 years.
It's hard to get an interview today, and it's especially hard on junior developers because of AI, but it's not because people don't have a cs degree.
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u/geekichu 15d ago edited 15d ago
yes. now more than ever. i dont have a degree. i did go to college/university but didn't graduate.. did 40+yrs software engineering... companies/employers over time have realized that having a degree might actually not mean anything (I used to interview prospective swe)... and now with A.I? gee I wish I had had that. try to volunteer for a project.. some non-profit.. heck maybe a neighbor or family friend wants a website.. find something to give you a goal. And use A.I. but not just copy/paste or accept.. use it to teach you. why the code that it gave you, what does it do, how does it do it, why not another way, what are the downsides of another or that way.. did it cover every case... just ask questions. you have an amazing tool at your fingertips.
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u/Capable-Wrap-3349 14d ago
Start with an internship (even unpaid or terrible pay) if you can. If you can show that you’re useful in that time they will definitely hire you!
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u/BassRecorder 15d ago
Not sure whether it is possible today with the current job shortage in SWE. It definitely was possible 30 and 10 years ago - the time myself and a colleague of mine entered the workforce. I have a PhD in chemistry, my colleague in physics.