No, you don't. I'm my little experience in life, I've come to understand that university degree is unrelated to the practical skills and prowess needed to be a professional programmer. University degree will feed you the theoretical aspect while immersing yourself into studios learning can make the difference you wanna see.
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Do you need to have a degree to be a professional programmer?
- Thread starter AruneBend
- Start date
Kennysplash
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You don’t need a degree to have a career as a programmer. All you need is to have an impressive portfolio that will entice your clients. But if there is an unusual need for it, you can get some certifications from online academies.
I don't think a degree is the big difference in getting a job as a professional programmer, I know many people who have studied programming in a self-taught way and without a degree and have gotten a job as professional programmer, nowadays IT companies do not look so much at degrees but at skills.
A degree is definitely not required to become a professional developer (or designer, for that matter). In fact, I feel like self-taught programmers often are able to demonstrate more skill compared to people who have only just received a degree and 'should be job-ready'. In the past, I have successfully secured positions that 'required' a degree (as mentioned in the job postings) of some sort, despite not having a degree related to design or development myself either. And well, I am now working as a creative director doing both and managing a small team of designers (and I am a freelancer - design + development - as well).
So ultimately, your skills and experience matter way more than that degree. Whenever I had to talk with a potential employee, I honestly was never all that interested in their degree - if at all. I always looked at the portfolio they sent in first and then had a look at their curriculum vitae (primarily to check if they were simply not job hopping too much).
A little side note though: I do appreciate it if people at least do have some degree (but not in IT / design per se). It does show some perseverance, after all.
So ultimately, your skills and experience matter way more than that degree. Whenever I had to talk with a potential employee, I honestly was never all that interested in their degree - if at all. I always looked at the portfolio they sent in first and then had a look at their curriculum vitae (primarily to check if they were simply not job hopping too much).
A little side note though: I do appreciate it if people at least do have some degree (but not in IT / design per se). It does show some perseverance, after all.
Uptrendfinancialsignal
Trusted Contributor
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I couldn't agree more with your assertion! Skills and experience are what matters in the programming and design world. I’m so surprised to see how self-taught programmers and designers demonstrated more practical expertise.A degree is definitely not required to become a professional developer (or designer, for that matter). In fact, I feel like self-taught programmers often are able to demonstrate more skill compared to people who have only just received a degree and 'should be job-ready'. In the past, I have successfully secured positions that 'required' a degree (as mentioned in the job postings) of some sort, despite not having a degree related to design or development myself either. And well, I am now working as a creative director doing both and managing a small team of designers (and I am a freelancer - design + development - as well).
So ultimately, your skills and experience matter way more than that degree. Whenever I had to talk with a potential employee, I honestly was never all that interested in their degree - if at all. I always looked at the portfolio they sent in first and then had a look at their curriculum vitae (primarily to check if they were simply not job hopping too much).
A little side note though: I do appreciate it if people at least do have some degree (but not in IT / design per se). It does show some perseverance, after all.
Well, if you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense that they demonstrate more practical expertise.
Most people who teach themselves programming or design initially started learning out of genuine interest. Learning new skills without a standardised curriculum gives you the freedom to acquire your skills in a way suited for your individual learning style, you only learn whatever you are truly interested in / want to specialise in, and, perhaps even more important, it keeps it fun to learn. And well, enjoying it is important to keep yourself motivated to learn and to become better at what you do.
If I look back to when I started learning design/development, I barely even ever followed tutorials, since I personally could never remember anything simply by reading and then doing. I simply started doing, and finding my way around the different types of software, only looking things up whenever I got stuck (which is what made me remember solutions to problems I ran into much better).
And believe me, I actually did give formal education a shot, trying out both design and development courses at different universities. But honestly, for someone who's self-taught, a lot (if not all) of the classes were either too basic to be interesting, or they did not have my interest at all (because some of the mandatory classes just did not have anything to do with what I specialise in). So, I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this if you already have experience, and it's probably only a good idea if you want to start your design/dev career from scratch but don't know where to start. Do always keep in mind that a portfolio consisting of completed school assignments is hardly ever impressive, and you will need (to develop) genuine interest in the field and practise / build on your portfolio whenever you can in your free time, too.
If you're a self-taught designer/developer but want to get a degree of some sort, I would recommend going for something in a related field. Want to specialise in UX design? Perhaps go for psychology. Graphic design? Try marketing communications. You're a UI / web designer but cannot code? You might want to go for information technology. Just try and expand your skillset with something useful.
No, you don't necessarily need a degree to be a professional programmer. Many successful programmers are self-taught or have completed coding bootcamps. What's often more important is having a strong portfolio of projects, practical experience, and proficiency in relevant programming languages. Networking, contributing to open-source projects, and gaining certifications can also help you land programming jobs. Ultimately, skills and experience often weigh more than formal education in this field.
kierronkiingk
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I would concede to you, but I think you should also consider that learning to code is something you can do in multiple ways and not only through earning degrees or online platforms. You learn about coding through practice, and these experiences in the real world tend to teach you more than what static images and guided lessons would.
