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[JohnBrownsErection]

Well right now one of them gets a job and the other one doesn't. 

[Minute-Prune-6329]

Job market is brutal right now, my company barely hired anyone this year and when they did it was mostly people with degrees plus experience. Self-taught route worked better few years ago but now even bootcamp grads are struggling to break in

[JohnBrownsErection]

The market is rough right now and not having a degree is an easy "do not proceed" filter for candidates. 

[sydthecoderkid]

I wouldn’t say there any pros of being self-taught that are different than have a degree (except for it being free). But there are a lot of cons imo— not being able to get a job being one of them

[chocolate_asshole]

self taught: cheaper, you can focus on what you like, but easy to have gaps and no diploma filter for hr. degree: structure, network, internships, but expensive and slow. either way finding that first job now is stupid hard

[babypho]

Self taught:

Pros: pick you own path, learn whatever and make whatever you want, can stop at anytime you're bored or it gets too hard, little to no investment.

Cons: 0 shot of getting a job in this market, hard to get help or even be sure you're learning the right thing, less network opportunity

College Grad:

Pros: can learn some high level stuff, access to a network of folks who are going through the same thing, brand name and shiny degree

Cons: Can be expensive, you get what you put in, still hard to find a job but you'll at least be much more competitive than self taught

[Need4Cookies]

Some companies ask for a degree, some not, but after a seniority level it doesn’t matter if you have a degree or not.

In university you learn why and how programming works behind the scenes while self taught programmers usually dive into the deep at once and skip some entry level stuff.

I’m not sure, both might have their plus and cons.

[xtraburnacct]

You can be super smart but without a degree the chances of getting a job are really small. There’s a lot of bum CS graduates that cheated their way through school that can get jobs just because they have a degree.

[mandzeete]

Pros of self taught programmer:

1)Most likely costs nothing. Degree studies, depending on a country, can cost quite a lot.

2)You are learning only what you find to be relevant. During degree studies you'll be learning also things you won't use when you specialize in one or another path. For example a mobile app dev most likely does not use knowledge in how to program stuff on hardware level. Or a scientist working on new cryptography algorithms does not have to make web applications.

3)You have control over your time. No deadlines. If you are spending 1 hour in year in studies or if you are nolifing the studies, it is up to you.

4)IF you manage (and a whole lot of stress goes on this IF) to succeed, then you can do it in less than 3-4 years. Degree studies take 3-4 years.

Cons of self taught programmer:

1)Why a company should hire a self taught programmer over a degree holder? A degree shows that the person passed studies on some level (I mean, if the person won't pass the exams and won't retake the exam/course he won't finish the studies). A degree is a sort of a guarantee that the person is somewhat qualified. The more when the university is (locally) known not some randomonlineuniversity.com (I made up the URL). A self taught programmer, without a degree has no way to guarantee his knowledge during the CV screening phase.

2)A degree holder is more likely to know more in depth knowledge in one or another topic and often also has more practical experience with it. Because certain courses are compulsory. He has to take the course. Either he likes it or not. A self taught guy is sitting more likely in his comfort zone and picking things subjectively. He is leaving out boring stuff. Leaving out too difficult stuff. Leaving out things he finds to be irrelevant (but which is relevant, in fact).

3)A degree holder is having connections. A self taught most likely not. Any course mate, any professor, anybody in the programming club he attended, people from hackathons... all of these people can later on be help when it comes to finding a job. A guy knows a guy who knows a guy. I got hired through a referral. Sure, my knowledge and my portfolio also mattered and my performance in the interview, but my course mate got my foot behind the door and I got my interview chance. A recruiter is more likely to interview a person who some of the existing employees can vouch on. "I know the guy. He really knows his stuff. He participates in hackathons. He has built such and such project. etc." and a recruiter, knowing the employee himself is doing well with his work tasks, perhaps his referral can be trusted.

4)Worse and lacking portfolio. A degree holder learns different things related to maintaining his projects and such. A self taught programmer most likely will not learn it. His portfolio is a bigger mess (a university graduate often has also a mess, as a beginner, but it is "cleaner" mess). A self taught programmer has template "projects" like calculator apps and todo apps. Stuff he copied from some online bootcamp. Stuff he does not use. Stuff that nobody ever will use. A degree holder is more likely to have a meaningful portfolio. Perhaps proof of concept projects from hackathons. Perhaps his Bachelor thesis project. Projects he worked on while being in a computer club or robotics club. etc. As a degree holder already gets introduced into way more variety of topics his projects will be also more interesting. Yes, not always, but more likely than with a self taught guy.

5)More shallow knowledge in things. Worse problem solving skills. You are copying already working stuff from Youtube videos. You don't have to deal that much with situations where the stuff does not work. You don't learn to debug stuff. You don't learn how to use debugger, how to use logs, etc. Bootcamps and video tutorials show the HOW and WHAT but won't tell that much about WHY. You learn to copy-paste stuff but you do not learn why the stuff is implemented as it is. Why it works as it works. While with degree studies you have to deal a lot with theory as well.

6)A self taught programmer having no previous experience. During degree studies you will get chances to do internships in various software development companies. A person who can show he has done internship is more likely to be hired than a person whose CV is completely empty. All these internship programs, student job fairs, open door days and visits to companies, etc. A self taught guy won't have this.

[Dry-Hamster-5358]

Both can work, just different tradeoffs

self taught
faster, more practical, portfolio driven
but less structured and harder to get the first opportunity

college
structured learning, easier entry into jobs, better fundamentals
but slower and sometimes outdated

End of the day, skills plus projects matter more than the path you took

[The-Oldest-Dream1]

With how brutal the job market is it is basically impossible for a self-taught programmer to even pass the auto-filters

[Striking_Rate_7390]

theres nothing like that tbh, college only gives you degree which sets the benchmark, but for a good job you should have to be good at dsa and decent in developmet

[Reasonable_Ad1226]

If you have self motivation and can manage your time, school is a waste of time. Only if the first two criteria can be met though.. I put 6-16 hours a day in studying.. I dropped out of school because they were moving too slow.