Do i need a Programming degree??

It depends of your country, for example, in France for different reasons, the companies are mostly looking for people with a degree because this is kind of a guarantee that he has good knowledge.

Nothing is required, but some things might make it easier. You can possibly get a job without a degree, but unless you can convince them you have the necessary skills, you’ll start at the very bottom of the bottom and will have to work your way up.

I agree with @dloser

Degree is not important, but the knowledge.

Do you also agree with me that you are an ass?

I also agree.

With things.

You’ll have a harder time landing a job and you might have to work a little harder to grasp things you might have been taught while studying. Having said that, it really depends. I got a degree but really wanted to drop out and just start working since I already had the knowledge to begin with (though I didn’t). But why landing a job? If you can, I recommend starting on your own. Start writing webapps, phone apps whatever you fancy.

No I think both things are important for job.

As I said before, you can’t generalize. There are differences between countries. In France without a good degree, good luck to find a good job. It is possible but it’s pretty tough.

As said before, having a degree isn’t a 100% needed thing. But it makes it a lot harder.

No matter what, you will need a portfolio. That away the person who is hiring you can see you can actual code, how long it takes you, and so on.
You should go on Github and find some projects. A lot of places want you to show that you can work with 5 or 10 other people.

If you could, I would say you should go and get a degree. If not, you should look at working with a start up that will take you on. Use the time you are there to learn, and market yourself.
If not, then check out freelance sites like https://www.freelancer.com/

So, that all boils down to the fact, that no matter how well im gonna learn to code, it doesnt mean a thing, unless i got a diploma. Sadly, im finishing degree in another field not codding, sadly. So, i should quit coding. i think, most rational decision

It doesn’t mean you have to give up, you still can be hire without a degree in IT, but obviously a degree makes things easier.

@vileplayer1 When I’ve applied for jobs they’ve been more interested in whether I actually knew what I was talking about as opposed to the degree that I have.

For example asking me about protocols and to explain them,
What does this IP address mean etc.
What projects have you done recently.
What websites do you regularly read and watch and why.

I think it’s definitely worth trying without a degree although you are likely to get a lower position in the company.
But it’s worth balancing out how long it will take you to get the degree the cost of paying back the degree VS how far you could progress in said company.

Having a degree definitely makes it easier to open the door, put you can still be pushed out of it if you’re just paraphrasing stuff you’ve learnt from class.

If it helps you, @vileplayer1, @dloser has no degree* and he is the Grand Master, isn’t he?

To be honest IMO a degree doesn’t mean s***. What matters really is what you can do, so having a track record of all the things you’ve done coding wise is more important.
Think about it this way, say an employer looks at a CV and sees Bachelors in Computer Science or Masters in Computer Science and sees proficiency in Python, Java, C# etc. or whatever fancy word is used nowadays instead of proficient such as “experienced” or “working knowledge of” and on the other side they have someone which sent them a lot of work showing and prooving that they can code.
Any employer who is smart enough will take the latter option, even if the person doesn’t have the name of an instituation and a grade written on their CV.

Degrees from what I have seen are more important for more traditional fields i.e. Finance but for new fields such as tech the old ways are changing and knowing what you can do is better than having the name of an institution on your CV.

To reply to @r4v463 in France people do look for degrees more and it is harder to get a job with a simple Bachelors degree compared to places like in the UK or the US, but France is very low in the rankings when it comes to tech compared to where it should be, due in part to archaic ways of thinking and teaching. Thankfully schools such as ecole 42 are changing the dynamic.

So in short NO, you do not need a degree. Continue learning to code if this what you really enjoy doing and do not be led to believe that you need to spend money or get in debt in order to get a job. Also learn to think, question, things that a degree will usually not teach you or at least not in an open way. The internet has changed the way things can be learnt, it is a great tool, use it wisely.

Tnx for input guys. And btw, Tehron, dloser rly has no degree?? didn’t know that lol

Then again.. what do you know about me?

Hey, I didn’t say that, @vileplayer1 …

I didn’t finish high school.

[list=1]
[] Forced myself to build projects in the languages I wanted to learn
[] Posted them on Github and presented it proffesionally
[] Learned Linux
[] Was witty (but not arrogant) on job interviews (shows that you have confidence and are able to communicatie with people and are not some anti-social basement crawler).
[] Hung around on IRC channels with people from my local area. They were able to teach me new stuff and also I have gotten multiple jobs through IRC (ofc, you’ll need to know them IRL too).
[] Went to hackerspaces and visited conferences (if they were too expensive, i volunteerd)
[*] Put a little effort in a Linkedin profile
[/list]

If you have rich parents please for the love of god stay in school and go to university or something.

Overall keyword would be motivation. Do you love coding? You’ll get there with or without school…

Yeah… I’d go with the rich-parents route. You might risk being less awesome, though. ;)

Everything depends on the area in which you live and the current job market. Right now degrees are a dime a dozen, but employers use them as an baseline to determine if you’re a suitable candidate. Another thing that may help you is a batch of certifications. Certifications are sometimes considered as important to employers as degrees. I know that sounds funny, but certifications can trump degrees in some situations.

In the IT world, experience trumps all. If you have professional coding experience, showcase it on your resume. If you don’t have any professional experience, this may be an avenue you want to look at. There are small businesses that may be in need of small developer projects but don’t know who to ask. This can be your ticket in.

Having no diploma but with some necessary skills you have an opportunity to become a freelancer. Besides, it’s very convenient to work where and when you like. As far as I know here XPlace there’s no commission or dealers so you may try to post your portfolio.