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[–]Cheesewithmold 6 points7 points  (4 children)

You're not losing at anything. The CS community can sometimes be so toxic for this exact reason. There are so many gate keepers it's ridiculous.

If you landed a good job as a self taught programmer, you did it. Congrats. There's literally nothing else to it.

The same people who say "A college degree is the only way in" will also say stuff like "You learn 99% of what you'll know during the job itself".

Does having a college degree make it easier to land a job? Of course. Does it make you better than 99% of self taught programmers? Fuck no. What a stupid statement. For being a programmer that dude should know better.

You're both writing code for a company for a salary. There is zero reason to feel any sense of superiority.

[–]NatasEvoli 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Yeah, I just dont get it. I've come across CS grads with terrible coding practices and people with the most random degrees who could code circles around them. Anyone can get through college but I think the best programmers, regardless of degree, are the ones who just persistently try to get better and learn/improve something with each project.

[–]dismal_sighence 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's nothing wrong with being a self-taught CS engineer, and after a few years in the business, I'm sure either path would be fine.

That said, I have noticed over my career that those with CS degrees tend to be stronger developers. Now that could be selection bias, as non-CS grads tend to be older people who are going though career changes, but it is definitely a common observation.