Poll of the Day > Is it realistic to think that a coding job could be attained without any formal

(+) Yeah! (+)

I must have these answers.
---

Depends on how willing you are to blatantly lie on your resume and during the interview.
---

depends on your luck

---

I think it depends on the place and you probably need to have at least something to show that you aren't a complete gamble.

---

obviously it depends, but as far as I know, no it's not realistic. the difference between average and expert programmers is extremely large, which is why there are so many programming jobs that ask for senior developers and almost none that ask for junior developers.

then again, there are also many places where just being able to communicate effectively and work diligently puts you light years ahead of everyone else, regardless of your experience.

---

You have to have some kind of real-world project you can use to demonstrate your abilities. Amateur coding typically doesn't teach you important skills like how to comment your code properly and collaborate in a team setting the way more formal instruction will, so your work will need to be top notch.

---

I was offered a few coding positions back in the day because I coded on Muds in C++ with a bunch of other people (mostly professional coders who did it for fun on the side). I had not at that point gotten my AA in info tech, or had any formal training, though I did create a few games myself when I was in elementary school (but didn't sell them or anything).

Basically if you find a way to work with other people in the industry and they see/like your work, get along with you well, are able to interact with your code (you leave good rem messages etc, though I guess with call outs that would be less important now), you will probably get offered jobs over time.

Then again that was like 30 years ago, who knows if that is still possible now (probably not from coding on muds at least lolz). But I guess creating your own apps/games etc could also showcase your coding skills etc and possibly get you a job today.

---

Yeah but theres a lot of non professional coding projects that just about anyone can join that will involve working with others and commenting your code and dealing with multiple build branches and stuff. Just kinda depends what you've done.

I think if you really want a professional coding job without formal training, it's very doable, you just have to make sure you can show that you know how to work on code projects but at the same time, why wouldn't you just work for yourself at that point?

---

If someone is that skilled that they may think about applying for a job without a degree, I would ask them why they would want to work for someone else and not themselves.

---

everyone here is a liar, the best coders never went to school
a school is jus something you use to make connections
coding is so normal now they could start teaching it to 12 year olds and they'd be jus as good as the people I've met in college
anyone can code, text books are irrelevant


---

companies prefer people with degrees but we're talking about like 20-30 people in an entire year
not a whole classroom of people, experiance is more important than a degree
a degree jus says there's a less likely chance they have to sue you for some misjudgement

---

Realistic to expect? Probably not.
Possible? Absolutely!

The amount of times more years of experience with a program than it has existed is noted as a requirement is kinda funny tbh.

No, you're fucking delusional.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Depends on how willing you are to blatantly lie on your resume and during the interview.

And he's instantly fail the on-site (I guess we don't do on sites anymore with COVID, but he's fail any webex/zoom interview).
Hell I've had hard over the phone interviews.

Plus nobody is hiring right now, and you've got to have some major balls to company hop in the current climate.


This tag has proven to never lie.

---

20-30 years ago it happened all the time. Nowadays it is a lot more rare (if it even happens). Every job I have interviewed for has wanted me to program a small project, or at the very least write up a solution on the fly on a whiteboard. You get weeded out pretty quick if you didn't know what you are doing.

Plus what people don't realize is the difference between an amateur coder and a professional coder is that professional coders don't write code, we modify existing code to work with new problems. That is why the position is typically called "Software Engineering", because your job is to litterally engineer a solution out of existing software. No one sits in a room and writes a piece of software from scratch anymore, it is too time consuming. All software is just combined from hundreds of other pieces of software with some code/configuration to get it working the way you want.

---

Dikitain posted...

20-30 years ago it happened all the time. Nowadays it is a lot more rare (if it even happens). Every job I have interviewed for has wanted me to program a small project, or at the very least write up a solution on the fly on a whiteboard. You get weeded out pretty quick if you didn't know what you are doing.

I think the topic is asking about people who have the skills to pass such hurdles, but don't have a degree in the field.

---

I could be wrong, but I believe the coding world has moved on to projects being your resume. If you get involved in several projects and have a solid batch of projects, say on github, that is how you can get hired without any 'formal' training.

Most formal training now (associate degrees) is structured so you have this resume to show employers that you are capable of the work.

zebatov posted...

If someone is that skilled that they may think about applying for a job without a degree, I would ask them why they would want to work for someone else and not themselves.

The obvious answer is that they aren't interested in/good at running their own business, which rarely has any bearing on their ability to perform at the job in question.

---

From what I have read in the past, most people who code are for the most part self taught so I doubt you need a degree in computer science to become a coder.

---

Also the use of the term "coder" itt is triggering me.

---

I had a job for two years that was nearly all coding and I only took two classes involving programming and programming wasnt the primary function of either class.

I know many Physics/Math majors who only took one scientific computing class or a one-credit intro to mathematica class and now work in software development. Knowing is to code isnt a requirement of either of those degrees at many colleges.

If you have a STEM BS degree you should be able to get hired in a coding job.