People who tell me this in the spirit of telling me a great disclaimer, please note that I don’t actually recommend CS degrees to anyone [except rare exceptions].
I’m not sure how to answer this so I’ll give it a shot and tell me if I’m off:
Because usually they take more time, and are usually less effective at getting someone hired, than:
Do an online course
Write 2-3 good side projects
For example, in Israel pre-covid, having a CS degree (which wasn’t outstanding) was mostly not enough to get interviews, but 2-3 good side projects were, and the standard advice for people who finished degrees was to go do 2-3 good side projects. (based on an org that did a lot of this and hopefully I’m representing correctly).
There is more that I can say about this, but I’m not sure I’m even answering the question.
Also note that the main point of this post is to recommend people do side projects, as opposed to recommending they don’t get a CS degree. Maybe another point is “don’t try to learn all the topics you heard about before you apply to any job”, which is also important.
“I don’t even have a CS degree”:
People who tell me this in the spirit of telling me a great disclaimer, please note that I don’t actually recommend CS degrees to anyone [except rare exceptions].
May I ask why you do not recommend CS degrees?
I’m not sure how to answer this so I’ll give it a shot and tell me if I’m off:
Because usually they take more time, and are usually less effective at getting someone hired, than:
For example, in Israel pre-covid, having a CS degree (which wasn’t outstanding) was mostly not enough to get interviews, but 2-3 good side projects were, and the standard advice for people who finished degrees was to go do 2-3 good side projects. (based on an org that did a lot of this and hopefully I’m representing correctly).
There is more that I can say about this, but I’m not sure I’m even answering the question.
Also note that the main point of this post is to recommend people do side projects, as opposed to recommending they don’t get a CS degree. Maybe another point is “don’t try to learn all the topics you heard about before you apply to any job”, which is also important.