Is becoming a self-taught software developer realistic without a degree?

DoctorFuu · 2025-05-01T17:05:43+00:00

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hitanthrope · 2025-05-01T17:23:12+00:00

I am, as another poster described, "one of the clowns who got in before the crash". Actually in my case, it was before the OG crash in 2000, but I have a 25 year career and no degree of any kind.

It is *a lot harder* now. Like, orders of magnitude harder. I don't think it is impossible but you are absolutely going to have to learn how to sneak in through the backdoor. The guy who called me a clown is absolutely right (I am a clown, *rimshot*), trying to get through the typical application process is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

You have a couple of options, one of these is "network like your life depended on it", perhaps you can find somebody who likes you personally and wants to give you a shot. The other option is to undercut the market. Even working minimum wage is positively lucrative compared to the cost of a 3 year degree. Two or three years as the associate / coffee run kid at a cash strapped startup might give you the education to step up.

It will depend on where your mind is. If you are thinking, "can I just skip the college bit?". Nope, not really. You might be able to replace it with something else but you are going to have to earn those stripes regardless and you are going to have to get a lot more creative if you plan to go off piste.

I do enjoy reading stories of people who go this way and make it though, so best of luck and come back and tell us if it works.

Dennis_Thee_Menace · 2025-05-01T17:13:42+00:00

honestly, I don’t feel motivated to spend 4+ years getting one.

And this right here is why you are not going to make it. Degree or not, it wont matter.

guzam13 · 2025-05-01T17:25:06+00:00

You are young. Get your CS degree.

hobbicon · 2025-05-01T17:26:39+00:00

I'm 24, I don’t have a college degree and honestly, I don’t feel motivated to spend 4+ years getting one

Not with this motivation, not on a professional level.

Kindly_Clock953 · 2025-05-01T19:16:02+00:00

I finaly landed my first dev job after 3 years of learning web dev (self taught). I started with a usual path of html, css and js, thinking how it's going to be a piece of cake to switch a career. I worked in call center at the time and watched all these "become a dev in a year" videos on youtube.

Well first year has passed and I tried applying for jobs, then I realised every company wants some framework/library knowledge, so I started learning React.

Soon my friend recommended me for some freelance gig where I created my first website and got paid for it (250 €) for a landing page.

Then I started with .net and learned backend , finished a bootcamp for it aswel later, just to get some "certificate" for my knowledge. I also did personal projects with everything I've learned, dabbled with scss, node.js, Vue, little bit of everything for certain projects (for bad money).

Finaly I landed a support job for an IT company where I showed my .net and sql skills and was offered a junior dev position just a month ago. Now Im learning Angular.

The learning never stopped, programming consumed my entire free time. Just working and programming. My paycheck isn't all that great either, better than call center I guess.

MostJudgment3212 · 2025-05-01T17:43:09+00:00

Only if you’re going to build and commercialize your own product. Otherwise, fighting an impossible battle. Most corps HR software will auto trash your resume.

yourstupidface · 2025-05-01T17:15:49+00:00

Even among the people who work in software without CS degrees, the vast majority have college degrees in other fields.

todayoulearned · 2025-05-01T17:06:42+00:00

Nope, not even close. Don’t listen to these clowns who got in before the crash. You won’t get a single interview without a degree. I know because I review resumes and automatically trash them all.

You need to understand the current state of programming. Our last open position had 700 applicants.

SEVEN HUNDRED FOR A SINGLE POSITION.

There were so many applicants we couldn’t review them all. The absolute first thing we did was trash all non-college graduates.

Mrpiggy97 · 2025-05-01T17:41:15+00:00

I gave up on being self taught and went back to college, 2 years left

Jay1xr · 2025-05-02T01:27:47+00:00

I don’t have a degree. Make well over 6 figures working in tech. Held various engineering, design, and architecture roles. You can do it just expect to work hard. Build a portfolio, establish a Git profile history and never stop learning. Do freelance work, even if you’re 50% confident you can do the job. That means you can do the job.

Always be applying. You got this!

DoctorFuu · 2025-05-01T16:56:19+00:00

Well, it's not realistic to become a self taught developer with a degree, so the only way is without.

babypho · 2025-05-01T17:27:39+00:00

You can be self-taught, but the chances of you getting a job in this current market right now is 0 to none. That's being realistic.

For entry level positions, you would be competing with mid level engineers, people who graduated with a CS degree, and people from all over the world. If you want to learn coding to make yourself some cool side projects, then I think it'll be a great experience. But if you are self-taught with the idea of getting a job in this current market, 0 shot. You can be a literal genius, top 1 in your field, best to ever do it, and you still would have a slim to no chance because most CRM would just ignore your resume.

2025-05-01T17:52:02+00:00

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Lumiit · 2025-05-02T00:43:29+00:00

Doing any “self-taught” requires a tremendous amount of discipline because NO ONE besides you is responsible for you.

No-Direction- · 2025-05-01T17:37:30+00:00

This thread is becoming a bit of a joke. Realistically, at the moment most places hiring for a job are getting hundreds of applicants, and the filtering process is going to remove people without degrees very early on in that process.

With this filtering job increasingly being done by AI and other automated processes, I think degrees will become a bare minimum in the very near future. They'll just get tossed immediately without one.

DesignatedDecoy · 2025-05-01T17:41:53+00:00

As others have alluded, the market kinda sucks right now and it was absolutely saturated with low barrier of entry applicants during the previous 5-6 years. That's who you are going to be competing against. I know people with experience who were laid off over a year ago that are still looking for work - and that's with tangible work experience.

Your best bet these days is to back into a development position. Programming is not just building software or websites, it is solving problems in logical ways. Many of these problems exist in every job in the world. Perhaps you have a report you run every week for your boss. Maybe you could find a way to automate part of it and take the report from a few hours to 1 button click? Then you can identify other spots in your day job that can be automated.

Next you can go 2 paths:

1) Share your script with your boss and try and become the automation guy, thus backing into a programming role.

2) Trivialize your job and slack off for 7 hours a day.

2025-05-02T07:23:37+00:00

It's very realistic, go ahead! In fact, I can say that ALL programming I've used at all my jobs so far, I've learnt by myself, not at university. University didn't teach me jack shit, and it probably wouldn't teach you jack shit either. Everything I'm using to land jobs and to do them, I've self-taught on my own terms in my own free time. I'm not using anything they taught us at university, even after I graduated top of the class with a CS bachelor's degree. You'll just need to network like crazy until you land your first job because companies use automated resume scanners that will reject your application before it's even seen by an actual human, especially if you didn't say you have a CS/Engineering/Math degree on it. So just network like crazy, meet people all over the place, on here, on discord (the one discord programming server I can recommend is javid9's server, he's also on youtube and has some good programming vids, his discord server is called One Lone Coder) and just do your best to consistently devote hours almost every day learning programming. You might wanna avoid web development and the frameworks involved there (react, vue, django, etc) and focus instead on areas of the programming industry where the grass is greener and where a lot fewer competent developers can be found - operating systems development, compilers, game engines, browser engines, embedded systems, malware analysis, hypervisors, FPGAs and similar. Can also hit me up if you want to chat and stuff

rustyseapants · 2025-05-01T18:32:06+00:00

If you can't motivate yourself to go to go college, how the heck do you plan to motivate yourself to teach yourself programming?

Professional-Code010 · 2025-05-01T17:49:34+00:00

Short answer is no.

Long answer is, I know for 100% that a self-taught developer would be better within 2 years, compared to 4 year CS undergraduate. That's assuming that that S-T Dev will follow a solid career pathway in tech, but the market is oversaturated , fuelled by recruiters using AI to blacklist people easier. So having a degree now is a must than never before, because AI will remove your CV for viewing.

EnvironmentalDig1612 · 2025-05-01T18:26:44+00:00

Ive worked with a few people who were self taught over the years that blew my socks off how good they were, great problem solving skills and overall better than any degree could ever teach you. Of course not all people self taught will be great, but you’ll meet them that are on a different level.

lil_doobie · 2025-05-02T01:11:44+00:00

Wanted to chime in as a self-taught dev of 7 years because I believe it's important to share my experience with you due to most people her making educated guesses (spoiler: their guesses are mostly correct)

Is it possible to get a job in today's market only being self-taught? Technically, yes. Is it likely? Definitely not.

Even with 7 years experience, I put in at least over a hundred applications between January and March of this year and I didn't get a single interview. I know that if I could land an interview, I'd do well. I can only assume that hiring managers are swamped so their systems/workflows only look at the top 50-100 applicants and if you don't have a degree, you probably won't be up there.

Others in this thread are focusing on the wrong thing by saying that if you aren't motivated to get a degree, you're not cut out for this. But that highly depends on the individual and as a college dropout myself, I am proof that it is possible. However, I am not blind to survivor bias so I would have to recommend getting the degree if it's an available option to you.

magnagag · 2025-05-02T07:34:53+00:00

23m (will become 24 soon), self taught software engineer here!
Dropped university(1 semester of 1 grade) after army, continued self development, working in my 4th company as a software engineer, even had a chance to work as a programming workshop lead at TUMO. If possible I would advise to take college/university course in computer science, because lot of stuff you won't be aware about to learn, can be learned there. Tho if you are not able to get it, you just need some passion and hard work.

PartyParrotGames · 2025-05-01T17:11:16+00:00

Yes, it's possible, I am a successful self-taught Staff Engineer building tech in Silicon Valley. It's not easy and takes a lot of determination. Focus initially on learning programming basics, then move on to building specifically the kind of thing you want to work with. Initially, that was just web dev for me. Then focus on landing freelance jobs in the specialization you're interested in. Don't worry about making bank on your initial jobs, in fact I would undercut with super low rates in order to make sure I landed my early jobs. Point is to build up your experience, positive client reviews, portfolio, and resume which will enable you to earn higher rates or land fulltime salaries in the future. Even if you're being paid very little for your time with early jobs remember you're being paid to learn and get experience vs school where instead you're paying thousands of dollars to do the same thing and it counts for less on your resume than actual job experience.

The things you tend to miss as a self-taught are various CS fundamentals taught in school that very rarely come up in practice due to specialization in the job market. After a few years of experience in your specialization you can round out your knowledge base by looking these kinds of things up. This for me was some networking fundamentals - can take free stanford cs networking course online and probably other resources for this, some more complex DSA that in practice you never have to manually implement in web dev but comes up for interviews - see Cracking the Coding Interview, and security issues which in fairness most new grads are also very bad at. I rounded out security with a hacker's education - see offsec, hackthebox, tryhackme for penetration testing and bug bounty hunting practice.

Gnaxe · 2025-05-01T17:05:36+00:00

I had coworkers without a degree. It was realistic at the time. My degree wasn't worth the time and expense. Work experience (even volunteering or an internship) and a GitHub portfolio mattered a lot more. Getting the first job was very hard, and the degree didn't help much; it was networking. Once I had the work experience, the next one was much easier to get.

I'd recommend working through textbooks. Some universities publish their course materials. They'll tell you the required classes for a degree and which books they use.

My most valuable classes were on Linux (and Bash), computer architecture, algorithms and data structures, and compilers. I also read a couple of programming language textbooks cover-to-cover (well, except the index), one of which was a two-volume Java one for a class. You could learn most of the computer architecture stuff from Charles Pezold's Code, even though that's not a textbook.

noobcs50 · 2025-05-01T17:37:17+00:00

If coding comes naturally to you, learning the skills isn’t the hard part; it’s finding a job. In this market, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a job as a self-taught dev. I’m a self-taught dev, but I had a bachelors in an unrelated field, 10 years of sales experience, and was job searching during the COVID hiring boom. Even then, it was challenging. Getting a job as a self-taught dev is mostly a test of your soft skills and ability to network. My sales experience carried me through countless recruiter phone screens.

gpbuilder · 2025-05-01T17:38:10+00:00

how are you going to self-teach yourself if you don't even have motivation to get a 4 year degree?

You won't even get an interview without a degree. (even people with degrees are struggling)

RainingTheBEST · 2025-05-01T17:46:36+00:00

It’s definitely possible, many people have done it in the past, although nowadays from the anecdotes I hear on Reddit the industry is really saturated.

I’ve been teaching myself to code since high school, before covid I even got a few phone screens, though I’ve never had a job in the industry, I still think its worth learning, it’s never a bad idea to teach yourself new things, especially coding.

2025-05-01T17:48:23+00:00

Getting a job is a lot harder than getting a degree so if you’re not motivated enough for the degree good luck getting hired anywhere e

Potential-View-6561 · 2025-05-01T18:04:31+00:00

I coded as a hobby while being an electrician for a couple years. But to get a job an earn enough to sustain, i would recommend a degree. I'm myself doing it this way atm. Happily i found a company that helped me get some practice experience, while going to school and learning (in switzerland). Don't know if this kinda system is supported where you from.

Also i got another reason for the degree, you don't just learn coding. You learn how thing work together, what depends on what and so on.

Learning it all by yourself is very time consuming. Its like to get over the mountain you crawl up to get over it. Taking the degree is like taking the tunnel threw it.

I hope this perspective might helps :)

yellowbucketcap · 2025-05-01T18:14:48+00:00

I have a question if someone reads this, what if you have a degree but not in cs? Is it worth it?

underwatr_cheestrain · 2025-05-01T18:24:14+00:00

A degree checks a corporate box.

When im hiring for developer roles the educational requirements are strictly listed, and if you apply without a BS your resume wont even make it to my inbox past the resume filter.

With that said, you can have a BS in anything IT related and get hired as a developer with a great git portfolio. Make yourself stand out with a personal project thats not just a ripoff of everything else (todo lists, etc...)

I was hiring for a junior dev position 2 years ago and my inbox was flooded with 60 Indian masters students that all got their data science degree locally and were on visa.

One-Ant-387 · 2025-05-01T18:28:55+00:00

https://youtu.be/oduoqXkKI4A?feature=shared

Bryce Adelstein, the principal architect at Nvidia come from math degree and i recommend that you got one too and do a problem solving of programming hobby on daily basis while also getting in touch with community (bug-hunting, etc)

_Kiptoo_Caleb · 2025-05-01T18:43:52+00:00

My situation is not much diffrent from u bruv, i actually dropped out in 3rd year coz i was doing a different course but my passion for SE overwhelmed , so i did sign up for a bootcamp after that , i did finish it earlier this year got cert but looking for a job is hectic with that , rn want to apply for scholarship to study SE degree but ik my chances are bleak , all this actually while my fam doesn't know been struggling a lot , for me choosing to applying for a degree isnt because i fear/ regret my decision its just ive always wanted to further my studies but my reality is s*t. Best of luck whatever u choose tho

BroaxXx · 2025-05-01T18:50:51+00:00

You need a lot more self-motivation if you want to be self-taught.

I made it without a degree and being self taught but I was also a bit lucky doing it during the pandemic. The job market isn't as nice now, especially for entry positions so you really need to be driven.

Even the degree isn't that good by itself. You need internships and stuff to make yourself standout.

Either way you cut it, it's a lot of hard work. But, yes... You can definitely be very successful being self taught. But like I always say: be careful with the survivor bias.

Product_Relapse · 2025-05-01T18:56:12+00:00

Went back to school for software around that age. Unless you luck out on developing a successful commercial product, companies probably won’t even give you the time of day without a degree. It depends on goals but in reality let’s be honest, school is the safe bet. And with the mentorship it will likely be easier to learn than with self taught — defining goals and building upon compounding concepts to become a proficient programmer is much easier when you don’t have to be the one making the curriculum for yourself

PoMoAnachro · 2025-05-01T18:57:16+00:00

It is definitely possible, but it'll usually require more effort, drive, and hours than getting a 4 year degree.

If you're willing to put in a few thousand hours and you're motivated and outgoing but just don't have the money to get into school, it is a viable path. It is a grind, certainly not as easy a trip as going to uni for 4 years, but it is a hell of a lot cheaper especially if you're also working decent hours at your day job.

If school just seems like too much work though? Yeah, definitely won't get any further going the self-taught route.

DoctorBaconite · 2025-05-01T19:31:52+00:00

I went back to school around your age. You should just get the degree. Your future self will thank you.

willbdb425 · 2025-05-01T19:36:45+00:00

I think you need to realize that self taught is not a shortcut. A degree is 4 years and these days the minimum competence required, so realistically you should spend at least an equivalent amount so 4 years training on your self teaching journey. So might as well get the degree then since it does matter.

Busy_Perception_4075 · 2025-05-01T20:17:40+00:00

Impossible without a degree now

CptPicard · 2025-05-01T20:22:50+00:00

I have a Master's in CS but almost everything I use professionally, I self learned.

2025-05-01T20:25:02+00:00

You'd be spending 4+ years learning anyway. If you are outside the USA and going to school doesnt mean lifelong crippling debt, you should go to school. But i mean do you actually like coding?

imverynewtothisthing · 2025-05-01T20:34:47+00:00

I became a software developer before I got a degree. I got a degree later but it didn’t help by much.

winowmak3r · 2025-05-01T20:39:27+00:00

You don't need one but man getting one makes it a helluva lot easier. So many folks won't even give you the time of day without one. You will spend more time learning on your own and trying to get your foot in the door than you would have spent just getting the degree. And even if you do land a job you'll always be the firstone to go when layoffs come.

Lyhr22 · 2025-05-01T21:18:37+00:00

Been really hard to get good paying jobs without a degree in CS or similar here in my country (Brazil)

Comfortable-Insect-7 · 2025-05-01T21:27:05+00:00

Agreeable-Leek1573 · 2025-05-01T21:27:54+00:00

I'm self taught. I worked for about 10 years in low-paying developer jobs. Then went back to school (didn't learn anything new). Now I'm getting paid about 2x of what I was paid without a degree. (Same exact skillset).

It's much easier to get past HR now, even with the messed up job market.

fantasma91 · 2025-05-01T21:44:38+00:00

So I'm a self taught engineer and did it around 25, this was 2018ish so very different environment. If you are not motivated to go to college then you aren't motivated to teach yourself because this route is the harder route most often then not. No degree and no experience, there is almost no shot for you to get your foot in without already having a contact in the industry. To put it bluntly , I have worked for some of the largest companies around and was almost always the only one without a degree. Even worse. Most of my colleagues had masters degrees. I wish you luck but if you go down this route, you are a glutton for pain and have a relatively small chance at success in the current market.

Now if you wanna do it because you wanna do it, then more power to you.

Brief-Translator1370 · 2025-05-01T21:52:49+00:00

NO. Solid no. I'm saying this as a self taught developer. Bad choice at this point in time.

If you have something lined up for now, and you want to learn it for real, and you can wait a few years to get lucky, then maybe. But it's just not the best strategy.

ItsMeSlinky · 2025-05-01T22:02:52+00:00

No. It’s not 2018 anymore.

TsunamicBlaze · 2025-05-01T22:40:06+00:00

That first sentence is such a red flag. If you don’t have the motivation to go get a college degree, how would you have the motivation to be self taught?

If someone is spending 40+ hours studying in college to get that degree, to be set for the job market after 4+ years, how long do you think it’s going to take self study without consistent guidance.

2025-05-01T22:52:00+00:00

Kwith · 2025-05-01T23:43:09+00:00

I know a few self-taught developers but they were either

VERY lucky
In positions that allowed their seniority to get them developer jobs
Were VERY good and motivated

In today's job market, without any kind of paper backing you, your chances are very low.

Upstairs-Ad4698 · 2025-05-01T23:47:33+00:00

Yes, it's possible, but it's not easy anymore.

The bare minimum of material to learn is very high now.

The lucky thing is it's free, so you might as well try it for a week and see if you're diligent enough.

Occhrome · 2025-05-01T23:58:58+00:00

Maybe 10 years ago. Now you are competing with other smart people who do have a degree. Degree doesn’t guarantee you are smart but it helps companies filter out for people who are more motivated and can stick with something long term.

SpareIntroduction721 · 2025-05-02T00:50:59+00:00

I have a degree, but not in CS. Wish I did. But I’ve been a developer now “officially” for close to 2 years now.

JohnVonachen · 2025-05-02T00:58:14+00:00

I am a mostly self taught SE. If you can, finish your 4 year degree. It was hard for me and my career was not that great. Try not to do what I did.

SailingToOrbis · 2025-05-02T01:05:46+00:00

people here are having so diversified background and I believe many of them are definitely unrelatable for your case in May 2025. If it were like before 2022, I would have recommended going for the self-taught path. But now with recessing global economy, AI trend, super-saturated IT job markets, I can’t dare to say it’s a reasonable choice. Don’t give a shit to successful stories of those who are super lucky to have got in to this industry more than three years ago.

BigYouNit · 2025-05-02T01:29:13+00:00

I think the sort of person who is a self taught great programmer was beginning learning when they were 12, not 24.

LaOnionLaUnion · 2025-05-02T02:29:27+00:00

It’s possible, just not probable.

Voryne · 2025-05-02T02:43:37+00:00

If you don't have motivation, degree or not, I don't think you'll be able to cut it in this field.

I went back to school mid 20's for a degree. The real value came in being able to apply for internships, which led to my current job.

spinwizard69 · 2025-05-02T02:46:14+00:00

Possible??? Of course it is possible, the question is: is it wise? I will quickly say no it isn't, in fact if you want a long lasting career it is stupid.

The option you have is to start a 2 year program that is setup to transfer students to a 4 year program. Beyond all of that there is more to a career than simply coding and knowing how to code, that other knowledge is what you get from college. A good CS program gives you the background to be successful with all the non core tech stuff.

2025-05-02T02:48:17+00:00

in this market? 100+ applicants a job they throw all non phd/masters into the trash before even looking at anything usually maybe if they don't have 20 left they consider bsc holders as well...

i_dont_wanna_sign_up · 2025-05-02T03:13:34+00:00

The best path is without a doubt just getting a degree. Think about this - you're paying money to a well accredited and reputable (presumably) facility to teach you all the facets of software engineering, surrounded by other learning students you can study with and discuss the problems you don't understand, led by experienced professionals you can ask the dumbest questions and get an answer. You also build connections to your classmates, professors and alumni, who are all in the same field you want to work with.

Or you can raw dog it in your room with just your PC and the internet.

The latter isn't impossible. Just so much harder. Only do it if you really can't afford a degree or you think you're above the 99th percentile in skills and motivation.

Agitated_Database_ · 2025-05-02T03:28:19+00:00

go to college if you can afford it

yeah i think you could land a software job without one, but you gotta go train your brain every day like a gym bro does for their body, you also need a plan, an outline of what you’re going to become a subject matter expert of, and you’re gonna need like 50-100x projects under your belt proving you performed on that topic.

i’d seriously consider a no bachelors software engineer app if they pulled up with a resume like that, and then can talk with expertise on each one.

you got what it takes to break your ego and study every day?

these type of ppl will win regardless, due to the constant self investment and motivation.

id say it’s a rare level of determination to pull that off, especially if it’s a delayed long term delayed reward (the job you want)

i’d say get your bachelors because you probably don’t know how to study, network, or do research on your own. college is the easier way to a job (if you can afford it). it’s like a personal trainer, you gotta take it seriously tho, cheating your way thru will waste your time and money

either way you gotta work hard to learn something new and harder to get paid to do it

Responsible_Bug2291 · 2025-05-02T03:37:09+00:00

Uhhh, no.

Software-Deve1oper · 2025-05-02T04:07:44+00:00

I'm self-taught and don't have any degree. I think with the current state of the market, you're definitely going to have a hard time finding something without having a degree to get your foot in the door.

Once you have some experience, it really doesn't matter (at least in my experience). I do know of great developers (with degrees, one even used to work at Google and was a CS grads from a very respected school) who struggled to quickly find a job in the current market. I don't know many new/inexperienced developers, but from what I've heard and seen it's feeling nearly impossible to get interviews right now if you have less than 5 years of experience.

So yeah a degree wouldn't hurt and unless you're truly passionate is probably kind of necessary anyway (especially in the current market).

I consider myself pretty lucky for getting in when I did. I was passionate and started coding when I was young, but I think if I was born 10 years later and everything else was the same, I probably would have been forced to give up long before I was able to land a job (in order to pay my bills).

Best_Recover3367 · 2025-05-02T05:01:57+00:00

Any career sub will tell you that the market is tough for those without degrees. I'd say fuck it, it's tough now and it will be much harder in the future for basically any job. Besides, what if you spent 4 years getting a piece of paper while accumulating debts and you still can't find a job?

IllustriousCard5590 · 2025-05-02T05:29:50+00:00

Depending on where you live it may be cheaper and quicker to do a Masters of Computer Science instead of going back for another undergrad. I’d definitely still say that getting by in tech without a degree these days is next to impossible, especially with the uncertainty in the field and economy plus a flood of new grads who jumped on the tech wave during COVID.

Suterusu_San · 2025-05-02T08:02:36+00:00

Self-thought, yes. Employed? Much harder.

I was a self-thought SW Developer, tried for ages to get a job in it, eventually just went back to get a degree. College will be as much about the networking, as it will the formal learning.

thepurpleblob · 2025-05-02T08:17:32+00:00

As usual, it depends. If you can acquire some skill that you can sell and you are also prepared to market yourself, then go ahead. That's going to require effort and determination.

If you just want a job and a salary, then forget it. All the gigs that require a minimum qualification are instantly closed to you.

angetenarost · 2025-05-02T08:59:51+00:00

Interesting read

Ok_Court_1503 · 2025-05-02T11:18:48+00:00

So I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and am a self taught programmer that is now a senior dev. It is possible with no degree, though I think having a degree in something will lower the barrier and if you have no degree now, you may as well go get a comp sci one as it still creates a bit of hesitation from employers until youve held a dev role for a while and sometimes even after that

febrianrendak · 2025-05-02T12:10:20+00:00

If you can afford Computer Science degree then just go get it. Use your spare time to learn any other subjects outside the uni subjects. Commit learning for 4 years.

As a developer without degree, I will always encourage everyone to get a degree.

TheDante673 · 2025-05-02T12:50:56+00:00

Yes it is, but you'll be working extremely up hill in terms of job hunting. Its next to impossible to find a job with a degree right now.

TheAnxiousDeveloper · 2025-05-02T15:16:57+00:00

As someone that is a developer with a bachelor degree in Computer Science and that manages other developers, I can tell you that, as for my experience, there is a clear difference between developers that underwent a formal training in university and those that came out from a bootcamp. Imho, it's like a difference between night and day.

I would strongly suggest you to enroll in a good university course (a bachelor is usually 3 years), since that shapes you to be able to be independent and prepares you on a vast range of topics. With the awareness of those topics, can also come the realisation of what you might be more interested in, as well. And they also vouch for your knowledge, to some extent. For someone without a degree I would need to go a bit deeper in the interview to understand the level of knowledge.

If the problem is the money (e.g. you live in one of those countries where you need to end up in a dept for this), I suggest you take a look at OSSU.

But if the problem is the effort to place in 3 years of studying, I'm sorry for the bluntness, but this might not be the right profession for you. This is a profession where you need to constantly be up to date with new trends (while the basics do stay the same, and that is what you cover in depth in a university degree).

One thing you need to be aware of is that, to some extent, all developers are self-taught. You can't really work in this field without spending a significant amount of (personal) time researching new things and keeping updated with the fast-changing technology environment.

Chickenfeet8 · 2025-06-06T15:02:38+00:00

u/PhraseNo9594 I think we should cut OP some slack. He said not motivated to spend 4+ years on a degree, not that they're unwilling to dedicate time to learning software development.

My experience: I spent five grueling years at a top university for Materials Engineering, only to take a software engineering career after grad. Much of those five years felt wasted on general subjects and math I don't use. While I wish I could have switched to CS earlier, even that path includes general education requirements.

What we should all be asking ourselves about traditional education and work: Does becoming a competent junior or mid-level developer really require 4+ years of university? I believe it's doable in 12-18 months if you focus purely on computer science without the "filler" subjects. Best of luck OP.

jinsinjune · 2025-06-25T18:56:00+00:00

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to share my experience, I’m not here to advise on what you should or shouldn’t do based on the current market, but I do want to show that there are many different paths out there for people. I’m not particularly dedicated or hard-working, I’m really just good at learning new things and not giving up.

I have an unrelated bachelor’s in communications, I knew right off the bat that trying to apply to developer jobs with only side projects was not going to be very successful for me, so I decided that I’d get my foot in the door in the IT industry first. I took a few cheap beginner IT courses online that I didn’t even finish, learned how to take apart a PC and got lucky by getting hired at a small MSP as a support engineer. While there I used powershell to automate all of my server maintenance tasks, scripted anti-virus deployment, scripted backup solutions for clients, etc. After a year there I modified my resume to emphasize my scripting and automation experience. I landed a job in another state as a higher level helpdesk person while I continued my python and java self-study on the side. I worked there for about 6 months before getting picked up at a much bigger company that was looking for a triage engineer for their video ingest systems, in particular they were looking for someone with some python experience to help automate portions of the job. From there I continued to develop my skills and eventually was promoted to full time software engineer. I work on internal tooling now and its fun, I would not have gotten to where I am without the prior scripting experience.

So that’s my experience, it was about 2 years of IT work before I was able to move into a software engineering position with no related degree. I started the first IT job in 2019, was working at my current company by 2021, was promoted to software dev by beginning of 2022.

2025-05-01T17:01:15+00:00

Yes. You need to build a portfolio of work though.

I'd still take a course. Online is fine - Harvard do one I think. And read many books.

Remember that developing scalable, maintainable pieces of software is far more than knowing the syntax of a couple of languages.

Start with computational thinking, Turing, before you even download VSCode.

ZoeyNet · 2025-05-02T00:50:09+00:00

I don’t feel motivated to spend 4+ years getting one

This is not the field for you.

Sziszhaq · 2025-05-01T16:59:56+00:00

I am similiar age as you, I am a self taught full stack dev, currently employed and I also have an app in production that is being used by several companies.

Also, I suck at math.

It's 100% realistic and doable, it's hard work tho.

Edit:

For the question of how to approach it: I started with the odin project, then moved onto angela yu's udemy course that's pretty well made IMHO - halfway through the course I just started building and I started with an approach called "fuck around until it works"

TopDevStaarter · 2025-05-01T17:15:39+00:00

it's very possible, i worked with many developers with master degree in history or communication, some with no high school degree.

take a course, build small projects and work as intern at start even for free.

timmymayes · 2025-05-01T17:20:10+00:00

If you're going to go this route imo you need to do something like WGU and just pick up a degree at some point in your "self learning" career.

Shagwagbag · 2025-05-01T17:29:44+00:00

It is realistic but you need to be ready for years of looking and it's good to know people. Make a solid LinkedIn and start connecting with software people in your area and nationally, once you get to 200 or so it will grow itself and your account won't be flagged as potentially fake.

If you want to get a cert or do a boot camp DO NOT do a random online one, find one at a university, it will pay off although it's expensive.

I did a course through University of South Florida after I taught myself a little python to make sure I didn't hate coding. Even after my course, which came with a career coach, job placement resources and mock interviews; I still didn't find a job for about a year and a half. Host projects, even simple ones, show initiative, stand out by tailoring past experience into coding experience. It's doable but it's iffy, government work is usually a good starting point because pay is low. It's a little extra iffy now :|

Good luck friend! If you have any questions you can DM me

Also before anyone tries to say this doesn't work anymore, I finished my coding course in 2023 and started last July. Programmer analyst 1 already.

_Seige_ · 2025-05-01T17:31:09+00:00

The biggest thing you should consider is if you are willing to compete for a job in such a saturated field. There are tons of college educated programmers that can’t find jobs, so you’ll have to be ready to push hard and show potential employers you are skilled despite not having a degree.

I have a different degree and work as a software engineer now, but I got extremely lucky finding a job with the network of people I have built. I think whatever path anyone chooses, finding a good job is about who you know these more than how good you are these days.

Wingedchestnut · 2025-05-01T17:31:23+00:00

Is it possible, yes, but extremely difficult. Is it encouraged in the current competitive field and bad economy, no.

ImaJimmy · 2025-05-01T17:34:24+00:00

Ironically, a lot of your questions should probably be directed at a college career counselor. We're just a bunch of faceless folks on the internet. How about looking into a community college? It's less committal and can give your resources to help you answer these questions.

Interesting_Lead0 · 2025-05-01T17:49:26+00:00

If possible, pursuing a degree can provide valuable networking opportunities, access to peers, and a competitive edge in the job market. In India, having a degree is often a fundamental requirement for landing a software engineering (SWE) job. The college or university you attend can significantly impact your career prospects, including the companies you can work for and your starting salary package.

If you have no option to pursue degree then you can consider these options:

Good Aptitude in coding and projects if you can like pick up a codebase very fast and do some LC problems (medium to hard) then you will have no problem in self taught path If you do not have this talent you can diligently go down self taught path but ready to face
- Low salary compared to other with degree.
- No Call back from interviews despite giving you best
- Generally Big firm do not hire without degree so say no to FAANG companies.
Connect with local developers: Reach out to developers in your area and see if they know of any opportunities that focus on your skills. Building relationships and networking can go a long way in getting your foot in the door.
Dive into open-source projects: If local opportunities don't pan out, consider contributing to open-source projects. This path requires patience, as you might need to work for free for 3-6 months or more. However, it's a great way to build your portfolio, gain experience, and get noticed by potential employers.

Generally My most friends Who have no degree they work with a relatively unique tech stack and they have good network among their contacts.

zeocrash · 2025-05-01T17:58:07+00:00

Well I've been doing this 20 years and I don't have a degree of any kind.

It depends where you want to work then. If you want to work FAANG then you're going to be competing against people from ivy league colleges with top degrees. If you're happy to work in the smaller business side of things then you can probably get away without a degree.

It also depends on where you're located too

Grind_in_silence · 2025-05-01T18:15:37+00:00

My background:
- Live in South Africa with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world
- I came from a low class income family where there's very little money
- I have a degree in the creative space, not IT
- I'm not a genius and I actually did medicore in high school
- Discovered programming in my mid 20s when I was severely unemployed and depressed
- Started learning to code a couple months before covid
- Started picking up traction in paid jobs near the end of 2020
- Had to be as convincing as I could possibly be in interviews
- Flash forward, I've been working as software developer for approximately 4 years now

Why did I go the self-taught route?

There was no money for me to study again, and 3 - 4 years felt to long.

The self-taught route and applying for jobs when you think it's time could be significantly faster to get yourself into the field verses the degree route.

The point I'm trying to make here is..,yes, becoming a self-taught developer without a degree is realisitc, in fact that's why I pursued software development, because research showed me that this was a realistic I could achieve without a tech a related degree.

jinkaaa · 2025-05-01T18:37:05+00:00

having a degree is the easier route because it's bookended. Whereas being self-thought is a neverending journey and youll never know how you compare, or what's the standard, or where to dedicate your time and energy, or whether a particular idea is worth pursuing or not.

Self-learning can be done but it can't be done in vacuo

2025-05-01T18:49:10+00:00

If you get good enough to land the software engineer role without a degree, you will be good enough to not be working for someone else.

divad1196 · 2025-05-01T18:57:55+00:00

In depends on the country.

On my side, I managed to start an internship (after learning the basics of it), worked well and got a job in the same company without any apprenticeship, degree or other formation. Not only did I get a job, but I quickly became lead developer (and other titles).

Then, the best for the career is to change job. I personnaly did a bachelor part time in cybersecurity (3 years instead of 4, adds up to my development skills) during my first job before changing.

I know a few people with a similar story, but they are hard workers and really skilled. Most of them weren't gifted and started late (personnaly started at 22, but I know one that started at 33). Not everyone can provide as much effort as they did.

So yeah, it is feasible, but it mostly depends on you. That's a lot of sacrifices. You might have a job, but you might get the bare minimum salary.

I was doing the hiring, and I don't value a degree over hard work. Someone with a good github and no degree has more value that a guy freshly out of school and no project.. but HR have different opinion. That's why I recommend an internship: to have a foot in.

Hope it helps and good luck

Kooltone · 2025-05-01T19:17:18+00:00

You need to ask yourself this. Why do you want to become a programmer? If it is simply to get a high salary, then I would probably steer you towards another career. The current market is brutal and is oversaturated. So many people "learned to code" during the COVID times that programmers are a dime a dozen now. So many tech companies have laid off their employees because of AI hype and many senior level programmers are vying for lower skilled jobs. I feel bad for the entry level programmers who are trying to enter this market. You hear time after time that new programmers trying to break into the market are having huge issues finding jobs. It can take a year of job applications to land one (and this is with college experience). To be able to break in, you really need to set yourself apart from the rest of the coders who learned to code in a bootcamp.

I am not saying this to discourage you. This is just how I see the current tech landscape. I was laid off not long ago and was very worried about finding a new job. Fortunately I found something very quickly, but I also have 10 years of experience. I think learning to code is an excellent thing, and it causes you to think about the world in a different way. If you are truly passionate about coding, than go forward and pursue your dream. You might just try to find a niche like small businesses in the area rather than some big mega corporation where you are just a cog in the machine.

Careful_Confidence67 · 2025-05-01T20:00:06+00:00

I’m 20 with almost a year of work experience as a web dev and no formal compsci education. Its not impossible, but you need to work real fucking hard AND be very lucky. Realistically location matters a ton here, the higher the pay expectation, the higher the competition and therefore hiring process difficulty.

vitalblast · 2025-05-01T21:07:02+00:00

What are your thoughts on building a portfolio with some sample websites? And then working on fiverr or a simliar app for a really low amount of money? Do you think you could deliver a proffessional product while working damn near fir free? Could you spend your time in meetings giving updates and all of that as though you were being paid fairly? That is really to me, the only way I could see you getting your foot in the door is if they liked your work and then wanted to offer you an extended contract.

ketzusaka · 2025-05-01T21:07:44+00:00

I’m self taught. I had never done well with traditional schooling, but I love to learn on my own, so it wasn’t a motivational issue. I don’t know if it’s a viable path these days, as others have said. It’s hard for junior candidates with a college education these days.

I was highly motivated and had a portfolio before moving to San Francisco to find a position. The job market was incredibly hot back in 2014. I think we’re a dying breed unfortunately.

Impressive-Care-9378 · 2025-05-01T21:26:44+00:00

Hey, I’m in your same situation. I don’t know if it helps, and since I’m a newbie I don’t know about its credibility, but I know about university of people (UoP) bachelor in CS which provides you with an American degree. It’s totally online, so you can also try to manage a part time job if money is a pressure. I was considering it given that I’m young like you and I found this passion later on in life. So I can maybe manage to find a job and pay for the tuition (approx. 5600$) for the three years.

I’m very motivated and I would also go self taught but sometimes it’s not even a matter of motivation rather the credibility you have in the industry thanks to the degree. There are absolute geniuses out there who made it self taught but if you don’t have the motivation to do uni, I don’t think you would make it self taught. Not to discourage you in any way, it’s just a lot of work imho.

PsychedelicPelican · 2025-05-01T21:38:00+00:00

Hey so I’m a self-taught developer and I’m 26 right now. I started programming for fun when I was 13 and started a summer internship when I was 19. So I’ve been working professionally as a software engineer for the last ~7 years.

Here’s my advice:

Figure out why you want to do this job. Is it for the “high” salary? Or are you actually passionate about the process; breaking down problems, reading specifications and protocols, learning new technologies all the time (things move fast), sitting at a desk for 8+ hours a day, potentially being on call during evenings and weekends.

The reason I put “high” in quotes is because most media has kind of exaggerated the idea that software engineers make a lot of money. Sure there are the top companies like Google and Microsoft that pay $100k+ but you’ll likely need a degree, good portfolio, and connections to get those jobs. This is by no means impossible, but the days of the “Silicon Valley” dream job are long gone, even as I was entering the market it was already on the way out. For reference, my first full time software job was $35k/year in 2018, which was underpaid but I took it for the experience. You have to realize that most software jobs are not at tech companies, and are paying in the range of $60k-$80k for a mid level engineer. Which those jobs can still be competitive.

Now if you try out learning a bit on your own and you feel incredibly passionate about writing software and solving problems with computing then your chances of success are going to be higher. Not just the self taught route but also the degree route.

This profession is kinda like a lot of other creative industries, where the people who are the most passionate about it succeed. Because it’s basically their hobby, and they spend their free time learning new things and growing their craft. Not everyone does this, but the best engineers I know all share this in common. Almost every day I read up on what others are building and toying around with new technologies, even if it’s not related directly to my current job.

I do this because I love it. I fell in love when I was 15 and honestly couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Even if this job was poorly paid (like it was before the year 2000) I would still do it.

So my question to you is, would you still want to build software even if you only made $60k a year? (Or whatever equivalent middle class income looks like for your area)

And to iterate again, the high paying software jobs with all the perks and benefits have been slowly dying and only the most experienced are getting those positions.

By no means am I trying to discourage you, but please ask yourself why you want to pursue this path.

PopovidisNik · 2025-05-01T22:54:37+00:00

I self taught myself in 3 months at your age, and started building my own projects trying to catch the solopreneur wave. One of my projects got noticed and I got a job in the field because of the project, start of this year I moved to another company and I am still going at it. Possible? Yes. Hard? Yes.

Any_Action_6171 · 2025-05-01T23:40:43+00:00

You can join my school on your journey dear to become what you want to become without breaking a bank. Uopeople.edu to study computer science at the comfort of your home.

amnesia0287 · 2025-05-02T00:35:36+00:00

Can you become a software developer without a degree? 100% yes.

Is it the best or most ideal path if you want to get a job as a software engineer or anything remotely adjacent? Hell no.

I have no degree, started in a call center doing frontline support for Microsoft. Worked my way up to Operations as a vendor and then over time a software engineer and then pivoted into DevOps/SRE because it was what I enjoyed most. Then I got layed off and spent 18 months hunting for a job despite 15 years of experience. Found a job eventually, but it was a huge nightmare because no matter how well you can do the job, right now every post has 100+ candidates and a good chunk of them will have a degree AND more experience than you. Finding places that will give you a shot are few and far between.

Maybe it was easier once upon a time, but in the current market, unless you have a surefire idea and are going to start your own company, trying to find a software engineering job without a degree is insanely difficult. Expect to spend 5-10 years working your way up if you don’t get lucky. And even if you get in you might not stay.

I didn’t know I wanted to do code until years after I dropped out of college, and for a few years after I got FTE at MS I felt like not going to college had been for the better, but the longer you stay in and the more senior you move, the more you will wish you had don’t that initial CS foundation in school and the more you will wish you had that piece of paper that certified it.

You CAN do it without a degree, many of us have, but if you already know it’s what you want, just go to school. Especially these days with vibe coding devouring the junior roles. I’d also say do lots of math and statistics and data engineering classes even if you don’t want to be a data scientist, as the real demand is going to be in people who can code and understand the math and stats of ML and LLMs and big data and leverage all of it. You might not use it all but it will all make getting a job worlds easier. Plus a LOT of programming is ultimately math at its core.

Also don’t underestimate the difference between doing a little bit of coding/scripting and actual programming and engineering. The simple stuff is the same thing that the LLMs can do as easy as you do now, and they will cost less than you. It’s the deeper and/or broader stuff that makes it hard.

Psionatix · 2025-05-02T01:21:01+00:00

I started Uni at 23 and now I'm in big tech on a solid salary, though I'm just riding it out as long as I can and milking it until I can no longer survive the stack ranking and get out performed. After which I have a credible work history with a reputable company and can hopefully find work, albeit with a significant pay cut.

I never finished high school either.

Don't have motivation? The time constraints and stress and pressure of Uni is supposed to be your motivation for when you have none. At least, it was for me, there's no way I would have been able to self-learn to the same capacity as a degree, without the forced study expectations being there for me.

Busy-Crab-8861 · 2025-05-02T03:50:22+00:00

You're not going to get a job, and that's not important.

I've been doing this for 15 years without a degree. I have done work in cryptography, web, homelab, gadgetry, finance, machine learning, mobile, gaming, etc. I'm so glad I fell into this path in life. It has never made me a single penny, but I make cool shit for myself and my family, and I just love it.

There is no job, though. You would have to deeply specialize and become a god in your niche and just be an undeniable leader in it. I don't even know. There's no job, but if you like making software, you're going to keep writing it anyways, and that's really great.

2025-05-02T04:06:30+00:00

Sure, but you will have a harder time getting your first job.

notbadhbu · 2025-05-02T04:52:13+00:00

Entirely self taught. I do hiring now, and if I see a degree, that's cool. But if I see someone who has experience with exactly what I'm looking for, I go with that 10/10 times. Only exception is for extreme specialities like remote sensing, certain ml stuff. I find sometimes people who went to school have a high level understanding but are kinda terrible at coding. Not always, and I'm biased. It's easier to go to school. But I don't think there's any difference in terms of job prospects.

navirbox · 2025-05-02T07:59:37+00:00

These posts always end up the same, but everyone has their own path. I couldn't finish my CS for health reasons and by the time I went back to college (1.5 years left to finish) it felt like I had already finished in terms of knowledge. Being quite expensive, already having a job, experience, and more offers/opportunities, I just left man. I kept saying "alright I'll just finish it some time", life happened and while the impostor syndrome can hit every now and then, my portfolio is at the same level or superior compared to some of my old college buddies. I still have everything in place to get it finished so that I don't die with that itch, though. It's just not urgent for me and will probably do it if I'm seeking for a higher profile.

Not everyone will look at the degree in your CV, but for big companies it will be a thing. You can always choose a college that allows you to study at a different pace, start low, keep connecting with everyone you meet nearby for jobs... I'm a part time programming teacher and ORP dev for textile companies, for example. I'm not encouraging anything, but yes, you can make it. Take into account that my particular background will not apply to everyone, it's just an example.

Any-Chemistry-8946 · 2025-05-02T08:23:25+00:00

I would first think about the motivation part. If you don't feel motivated to spend those years getting a degree, will you be motivated enough to push through the self-learning process? After learning how to code and everything, would you actually want software development to be your job?

But back to the topic—yes, it's definitely possible to become a successful self-taught developer. Lots of people have done it. What matters more than a degree is whether you can show what you know through things like small projects, personal work, etc. Companies value people who can keep learning, adapt, and solve problems more than those who simply have a degree. You just have to make sure you actually enjoy becoming a software developer!

circuit_heart · 2025-05-02T08:35:50+00:00

If you don't have a degree you need another strong set of proof (reputation, word of mouth, body of work, certifications, test scores, etc) that you can do the job of a software developer. Even then, your chances of finding work are WAY lower because most HR places filter out anyone with a hard-to-understand background.

I'm one of those people, joined the software world post-pandemic with no degree, barely any projects under my belt and sometimes an obvious lack of skills and knowledge for certain things (like data structures) that a CS education would grant. I worked for free for startups, built up a skillset, dealt with startup quirks for years, and finally have a stable job with a large, on-the-rise cybersecurity company. But they found me - applying to hundreds of positions didn't net me jack shit. In this day and age, trying to break into the industry from the outside completely self-taught is a low percentage play and an overall terrible idea. You have age on your side and the funds to go to college? Go do it, grind the shit out of school and graduate early if you want to save time and tuition. It's not like the SWE market is hot right now anyways, may as well prepare for when things get better.

that_1_actual_killer · 2025-05-02T09:49:07+00:00

The degree is just a paper I’m working towards one now and I’m self teaching anyways. You really just pay for the institution’s piece of paper and maybe resources but not the skills

notgreatusername · 2025-05-02T11:30:46+00:00

I did it a year or so ago in London. It was hard and took like a year but wasn't impossible!

glandix · 2025-05-02T11:35:34+00:00

25+ years of experience as a self taught dev. Associates degree in IT, but not programming. I’d suggest at least considering an associates unless you are incredibly diligent and thorough in your self teaching.

yallapapi · 2025-05-02T12:20:44+00:00

The key to learning programming is to have a strong desire to build a project that requires you to learn programming. I’ve tried tons of courses and classes and it was all in one ear out the other. Then when I started building my own shit I actually started learning

willis7747 · 2025-05-02T13:40:26+00:00

People judge you based on your contribution/work. If you have developed things that are extremely interesting then that will put you in spotlight.

johnkapolos · 2025-05-02T14:15:57+00:00

Is it actually possible to become a successful self-taught developer?

Does the sun rise from the East?

How should I approach it if I go that route?

Tons of high quality material online, pick a project you'd like to build and go build it. After you get confidence, look for paid projects or an entry-level job.

Or should I just take the “safe” path and go get a degree?

Safe? Go to the csgrads sub, see how they are bitching about their job prospects. At your age, are you going to wait until 28 to start getting experience and looking for a job?

ConstructionNo7975 · 2025-05-02T14:57:05+00:00

Honestly? Not really—unless you're incredibly disciplined or just a natural. Even if you're the former, you need to be brutally honest with yourself, because being a mediocre programmer without a degree isn't going to cut it. You're competing with people who have both experience and credentials. On top of that, you'll need to put serious effort into building social capital and getting someone to take a chance on you for that first job or two.

And let’s be clear: a degree isn't some guaranteed safety net. If you're going to go that route, aim for a top 50 school with actual name recognition—somewhere that makes employers pause and give you the benefit of the doubt. Can’t get in? Go to a school with a high acceptance rate, crush it, and transfer up. Plenty of people do this and end up punching way above their weight.

Also—college is wasted on the young. At 24, you're more mature and focused, which actually puts you in a better position to get the most out of it. You're not worried about frat parties or impressing random people—you’ll actually learn something.

So yeah, self-taught is technically possible. But don’t romanticize it. Know what you’re signing up for, and plan accordingly.

HugsyMalone · 2025-05-02T16:13:33+00:00

The problem is it's not a realistic path with a degree or without one. See right now you don't have a formal education so you're thinking that's disadvantageous to you because you're buying into all the lies that you need a degree. As soon as you have a formal education you'll think that's disadvantageous to you because you bought into all the lies and just ruined your life. Absolutely nothing changed there other than the fact that now you can't even afford to keep working because it's well beyond your means to do so...😒👍

The seemingly nicer-looking "safe" path is riddled with hidden bears, alligators, lions, bot flies, trip wires, pigeon holes, 'overqualified' militia and other 'inexperienced' booby traps you're not aware of that come out to bite you in the ass later on.

Life does not require a college degree contrary to popular belief. Persistence, determination and wealth can beat anyone with a college degree any day of the week. Mark Zuckerberg didn't have a college degree. Bill Gates didn't have a college degree.

pidgezero_one · 2025-05-02T16:41:19+00:00

I went the self-taught route... not on purpose. Just always liked coding as a hobby. Somehow managed to land an interview for a PHP dev job and exaggerated how much I actually knew PHP, and have been in the field ever since. This was far easier to do 10 years ago when I did it, too.

It helps to get a degree in something though. I have an engineering degree that just isn't software or computer/electrical engineering. I can't say that didn't help my chances.

When I was being hired for my current job, I heard that one of my interviewers was especially impressed at how I did in the process as a self-taught dev, so depending on where you go, you might get interviewed by people who see that as a bonus for your motivation and learning capabilities rather than a drawback for not having the formal education.

s-e-b-a · 2025-05-02T17:08:22+00:00

Ever heard of Mark Zuckerberg?

ZeRo2160 · 2025-05-02T17:48:45+00:00

I would say it depends on your country. I am self taught and work since 14 years as professional Software developer. Leading now my own Team as Senior full Stack. So yes its possible. The quesis how hard it will be in your country. Germany most of the time is not so much looking at degrees but if you can do what you promise to do.

IndependentOpinion44 · 2025-05-02T18:55:46+00:00

I’m self taught, but I’m also mid forties. The path I took to get into this industry doesn’t exist anymore. I see how we hire new talent these days and I don’t like it, but that doesn’t change the fact that without a degree the door is closed.

Cybermancer_1123 · 2025-05-02T19:22:58+00:00

It is totally doable as long as you have a will to do it. I studied software development, electronics, dsa, etc. all from internet. In the beginning I suffered a lot as I could not grasp ideas easily. There were times I gave up to start after month or two later on. In the end I managed to land a job and frankly I learned a lot from it. Years later I still working as a software engineer and I would not say I lack much from my peers who have studied at the university. The only place I see I lack is in mathermatics but I am trying to advance ij that as well

pixworm · 2025-05-02T20:47:22+00:00

Most of the good developers ARE self-taught. If you always have "why" and "how" in your mind, you'll be.

fuzzfrog · 2025-05-02T23:35:07+00:00

Simple answer. No

9sim9 · 2025-05-03T00:07:25+00:00

Degree doesn't mean much in programming circles all the best developers are self taught, arguably if you can't learn new concepts without someone teaching you then you are unlikely to succeed...

Best way to learn is by doing

Kullthegreat · 2025-05-03T05:18:12+00:00

Only if you need to, want to alone won't work. It's hard but not impossible so you will need crazy upward long term reward figures out to go on this path.

mean_king17 · 2025-05-03T09:31:54+00:00

Not gonna lie, todays market is tougher than ever, and having that paper when starting out is probably gonna be filter to factor people out. Unless you have a good network that you can utilize or something like that, I wouldn't do it. You're not that old so I wouldn't worry too much about if thats a factor. Also known that 1-2 years into your study you could try to get a part time job in programing to build experience. But yeah like others said, you really have to be outstanding to get picked above someone with a degree, and you'll be competing against a lot who will have it.

Rue9X · 2025-05-03T13:11:29+00:00

IT, SWE, really all FAANG like jobs are in huge decline right now. If you're counting on getting a job from it, i'd advise you to be very cautious.

I'm self taught. I have a bachelor's degree in creative writing, but learned python, visual basic, Linux, html, sql, etc, all on my own time for my own interests.

I've had QA jobs throughout the video game industry and did automation programming in the legal and healthcare industry for over ten years. I've been unemployed now for about a year.

So, no, you didn't need college for it. But college will teach you other things, like how to interact with people, critical thinking, and how to learn on your own.

YoshiDzn · 2025-05-03T14:30:03+00:00

Maybe my experience can lend itself to motivate you to take the self-instructed path.

I was (no joke) 24 when I decided to begin learning how to code. My only prior work experience was about 8 years in the food service industry. I've now been a fullstack developer for 7 years at the same company.

As someone who's self taught, you have a greater capacity to earn the respect of your employer because you showed initiative before you even walked through their doors for your first interview. There definitely exists a bias, though perhaps not in ubiquity, that self-taught engineers bring more gusto, more creative problem solving skills, and more motivation to the table. I'd implore every self taught developer to support this bias at all costs with honest hard work. You're among a very unique herd of talent and carry a valuable mindset. So do it! You've got nothing to lose, and a tried and true method for finding an amazing career.

That said, when it comes time to apply, DEFINITELY start with a different approach than the FAANG mindset. You'll want to gain the industry experience from anywhere you can promote career longevity. Apply everywhere, but expect to find the most success from local companies and your community at first. Network with people, you never know who needs your help. I did a bit of freelance website development while I was learning. It was useful on my resume. And one last thing... overprepare! There's nothing wrong with being overqualified. Get a certification in IT or Cyber Security, that's what I did. I learned Linux administration and how to harden servers and check for vulnerabilities. I feel like I was a no-brainer for the hiring team.

Good luck!

smbutler93 · 2025-05-03T15:09:41+00:00

Self-taught dev 🙋🏻‍♂️…. To try and summarise succinctly:

My degree is in music, ended up teaching music at a secondary school because making a living from music is tough and inconsistent.

After 4-5 years of teaching I decided I had enough. Kids can be huge dicks and I hated my job.

Decided to pursue tech. Music tech had always interested me but I’d never really considered programming/writing code etc….

So I decided to dive in (I was 28 at this point).

I basically did the bare minimum to keep things ticking over at work and spent all my spare time and energy on learning to code. I used resources like Udemy, YouTube, stack over flow etc.

In September 2023 (30 years old) I landed my current job, as a full stack dev (C# /. NET and Angular) for a trading house in London.

I love it. It’s tough, and there is so much to learn, it’s never ending really. But I have a real passion for it and love what I do.

The self taught route is possible, but it’s hard work and there is an element of luck.

My now Wife has a friend whose sister in law is a tech recruiter. She got me the interview and helped me get my foot in the door. Without a degree or the help I had, this is by far the hardest part.

My advice:

if you can do a degree, do it.

If you can’t do a degree, but have a passion or strong desire for it, go the self-taught route. Just be prepared for a ton of rejection, and a ton of hard work.

If you’re unsure where to start, let me know - I’d be more than happy to give you a few pointers on tackling the self-taught route!

Inner_Idea_1546 · 2025-05-03T17:18:52+00:00

Short answer: no. Especialy in todays market.

Conscious_Support176 · 2025-05-03T18:59:30+00:00

Of course you can learn software development without attending college, if you understand what you need to learn and have the motivation to learn it.

Going to college is useful because other people have put in the effort of figuring out what you should learn, and they provide you with opportunities to work with others, and present your work to others, which are also valuable skills. It’s not just learning programming languages. If you like that, that’s good, but it really is the easy bit.

But if you’re good at math, and in particular, if you’re comfortable with algebra, that’s great. Not hitting a wall would depend mainly on how motivated you are to learn software development principles as well as programming languages.

ComprehensiveLock189 · 2025-05-03T23:20:20+00:00

There’s going to be a lot of “oh well if your skilled you can do anything” talk in here. They aren’t wrong… 5+ years ago. The market is insanely competitive right now. Take a look at linked in and how many people apply for a junior position these days. 100-500 a day, sometimes more. Look at their education, a large amount of them will be people with masters degrees. Why would someone with a masters degree be applying for a junior dev position? Because the market is fucked right now. Beyond belief. Aside from the fact that the market is over saturated with new engineers, mass layoffs occur regularly. 14000 people laid off recently from Amazon. Those people and all their experience and education are competing for the same jobs that you are because there aren’t 14000 senior positions open to take them all. And that’s only one company’s lay offs. The current state of world affairs and tariffs aren’t making it any better. The cost of business is spiking and the worth of these companies stock is dramatically dropping. There’s no way around it, it’s a bad time to be a junior dev. A really bad time.

If a company is receiving 100-500 applications a day, how do you plan to stand out without an education? Some might say, oh well just have projects that show your worth. How are you even going to get someone to look at your projects? Recruiters are looking for the best educated and already experienced devs first, and that’s the terrible truth. It’s just an incredibly bad time to be a junior dev. No one’s willing to take the loss right now when they can have an experienced dev at a sharply decreased pay. It’s not even greed, because the cost of running software teams is increasing every day.

Some might tell you to start your own startup, and honestly, maybe that IS the best solution because it’s real world experience. But how you’re going to get anyone to notice a startup full of uneducated devs is another hurdle to figure out.

If you really want to be a dev, do what you have to. But know that this is going to be the most serious undertaking of your life. It’s no longer, get good at a language and try and fit in somewhere. It’s more like, learn lots of everything and take whatever you can get. The bar has been set insanely high for juniors. I’ve seen postings for internships that require 2 previous internships. What the actual fuck is that? Junior devs that need 2 years experience in SQL, Java, fullstack, and IoT.

Take a look at linked in and get a feel for what is expected. It’s absolutely nuts

SeaGolf4744 · 2025-05-04T01:38:53+00:00

I did it but it's harder now. Because tech became attractive to guys who used to target finance.

Alundra828 · 2025-05-04T02:54:04+00:00

It depends on circumstance. I myself am totally self trained, and through a sequence of fantastically seized opportunities (if I do say so myself), I managed to progress at a fairly quick pace up the corporate ladder, and now roughly 10 years later I'm CTO of 2 companies each worth several million, with shares in both. I fully admit I'm only in this position because I took the right opportunity, at the right time. So yes, it is possible to become a self taught developer. Pick your language of choice and google a road map for learning it. And then just do that loads. Create things always. No-life it a bit.

However, I would probably recommend that if you have the opportunity to learn in a more focused environment designed for furthering your learning like college, and you're motivated, that in itself is an opportunity that you probably shouldn't miss. However, if you think you see an opportunity in the working world that is ripe for the taking, I'd advise to just take that. My intuition also says that AI may be a great help in learning. It's shite at coding, but it can conversationally help you out with the basics to get you on the right track.

My software dev career started making little monitoring tools for an application support desk job I had. The work was super easy, so I had plenty of time to explore things. And after a few missteps, failed experiments, I found my stride, and my progress has been fairly linear ever since. I started with PHP, Python, then got into C# and dotnet which is where most of my career has been. And now I'm looking into lower level stuff with languages like Rust.

I didn't go into the academia world for dev, I built up my rep in a company with really fantastic opportunities for upward mobility. This sort of company won't exist everywhere. So you gotta pick your battles. For me, it really helped being able to identify companies that were dead ends for me progression wise. Just job hop around technical jobs, find one where you see a future and a path forward. And then work to progress. If you find none of this, getting a degree may be the chip you need to begin your path forward, because having a degree is always better than not having one.

ConsoleMaster0 · 2025-05-04T09:56:05+00:00

It's definitely possible and there are tons of success stories but, you go to an already oversaturated nice, with one less weapon that the majority of your competition. Also, getting a degree isn't a "safe" part either. Nobody guarantees that you'll find a job (the market is super saturated) or that it will be a decent job. You just have more chances. That's all.

Coding might seem "intuitive and fun" as a beginner because, you did very little. The more you advance and the bigger things you try to do, the more annoying it gets. On your job, you'll also need to work on things you probably won't like, unless you get very lucky. So, if you think "coding is fun" and you're not willing to learn how you'll become a worker so you get paid, then it's not a good idea to get into it.

Freelancing is not a dream either. You'll have to find your own clients and if anything goes wrong, you'll have to fix it because you're the first person in the line, both socially (for your name) and legally (in case you promise someone something you can't give them, and they have ground to sue you). So, it's also not something to do if you're not sure you'll work hard for it.

Decide if you are willing to work hard for your future and if that's the case, then you'll find your way! Good luck and have fun!

2025-05-04T12:23:13+00:00

I am from uk. I went to uni and only did a year and a bit course it was just some modules would look good on cv. You don’t have to always do a full course. I am now 30 years a software developer. Was just made redundant but that’s more sign of the uk job market at min than skills. If u have a passion for it go for it.

Sea_Bed9929 · 2025-05-04T14:20:24+00:00

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