The short answer: no.
Sure, a 4 year degree in computer science definitely looks good on a resume. You can learn quite a lot, find life-long friends and meet others who can help your career grow after graduation, but it isn’t something that is mandatory. In today’s age, you can learn just as much (maybe more) through a plethora of free online resources. Not to mention boot camps for specific technologies cost a small percentage of a 4 year degree, and takes just a fraction of the time.
I have seen just about everything within my short tenure in software engineering. I have a bachelors degree in computer science from the University of New Mexico, then I spent a year and a half with a contract company where I was trained in full stack, monolithic applications. From there I moved to being full time within the financial industry. Across my years, I have participated on both sides of dozens of interviews, met hundreds of other developers with all backgrounds of experience, and seen first hand the trials and tribulations people have to go through in order to get hired. Let’s talk about it.
Software engineering is an industry big on experience. Will a hiring manager look at your github commits and see what code you write before giving you an interview? No. Nobody has time for that. That is what the coding interview is for. But listing the projects you have worked on, either professional or personal, and highlighting the tech stack that you leveraged (from the language and frameworks you coded in to the platforms you used for deployment, if applicable) is the best way for hiring software to flag your resume and push it to the next round of reviews. So you do have to do something tangible, but it does not have to be tied to a 4 year degree. But make sure that you do have experience with the information on the resume. I once had a recruitment company add technology to my resume that I had not used (without my knowledge) and was completely flustered in the interview. If it is on the resume, they will ask.
So how do you get the experience? Boot camps are the next logical point for gaining experience with a subject without needing to pursue a grueling 4 year degree. But it still costs money, which can be a tall order. They can help, since getting the tangible experience with a certain technology in a fast moving environment will definitely prepare you for the real world. And boot camps are good opportunities for networking, which drastically improves your chances of landing interviews and getting hired. But I don’t think you should immediately jump into a boot camp. Spending an average of $15,000 on something that might not be a career you want to pursue is not great. What should you do instead?
Begin with tutorials on YouTube, or hell, even pick up a programming book from a local bookstore. While YouTube videos usually don’t get into the specific details for the “why”, it is still a great place to start. Small projects like implementing your own data structure (ie. binary tree, hash map, etc.), creating a Tic-Tac-Toe game you can play against a computer, or implementing a calculator application. There are many layers to these projects and allow for you to share in-depth details of your approach and thought process to the challenge. And they are great for being unrestricted by language, where you do not have to pick only one language to code in. Find the one that clicks with you, since there will always be opportunities no matter how specific the language is. And the problem solving you will develop while tackling the aforementioned projects can be applied to all software engineering.
A rising tide lifts all boats. Programming is an industry that could use less elitism and more sharing, so let me know where you are in your software engineering journey and what questions you may have for moving forward!
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