Should a developer have a higher education? On the one hand, many companies do not look for a developer with a degree, on the other hand, some, on the contrary, consider only a candidate with a degree in Computer Science. To explore this topic, we collected the opinions of recruiters and developers.
What do the statistics say?
According to a Stack Overflow survey , 75% of community members have at least a bachelor's degree. It turns out that every fourth programmer works without a diploma of higher education. Of those surveyed who write code professionally while attending university, more than 62% have a degree in computer science, computer or software engineering, and only about 10% have a degree in another engineering field. Nearly 10% of those surveyed have a degree in business, the humanities, or the fine arts. According to the DOU survey, the majority of IT specialists have completed higher education. Despite the statistics that speak in favor of higher education, it does not mean at all that the quality of education allows you to get a job as a developer. Rather, it provides the necessary technical background. More than 86% of IT professionals surveyed have independently learned the language, frameworks and development tools they need, according to a Stack Overflow survey.
Opinions of programmers
Artem Goy
Now I am studying at the university with a degree in cybersecurity. I've been a developer for several years now. I decided to go to university, because there was a feeling that there was not enough basic knowledge, for example, on the operation of processors, assembly language programming, C language, algorithms and data structures, networks and the Internet. I am sure that learning the base will help me quickly understand new technologies and other programming languages that I may need in the future (at the moment it has happened: learning C / C ++ has slightly accelerated the understanding of Swift, which I needed to solve problems under iOS). Could this knowledge be obtained outside the institute? I am sure that yes, but the advantage of higher education is that at the university all the information is already collected in one place. And there is also additional motivation (i.e. sessions), so as not to stretch the study of the material for a long time. A very good opportunity to communicate with teachers, both "theoreticians" and practitioners, who can always improve their understanding of the material, answer questions. In any case, you need to sit yourself, figure it out, practice with code, technologies, be it courses or an institute. Good programming can only be practiced. As far as I know, they very rarely ask about a diploma at interviews: the main thing is to have an understanding of your subject area. Good programming can only be practiced. As far as I know, they very rarely ask about a diploma at interviews: the main thing is to have an understanding of your subject area. Good programming can only be practiced. As far as I know, they very rarely ask about a diploma at interviews: the main thing is to have an understanding of your subject area.
Dmitry Titov
I graduated from the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Engineering of the Kyiv Polytechnic University. I can say that the educational program is definitely outdated. And the fact that I didn’t get the knowledge that I use in my work is also a fact. But the university gave many other things: the opportunity to move to Kiev, free housing in a hostel, a legal slope from the army, friends / acquaintances / connections, and finally a piece of paper at the end of my studies, which helped with employment in Norway. The university also helped me find my first job already in my third year, through courses that were at the department. There were benefits, but they are all indirect and not directly related to the educational program. The very same diploma was asked from me when I was employed as a developer at a university in Norway. There he was closely studied: both grades and the thesis itself.
Recruiters Opinions
Anna Geletey, Talent Acquisition Team Lead, Proxet
Our company works on the “outsource and outstaff” model, and we also have our own product. Our clients are companies from the USA. They are all different. For example, we have one client for whom it is critical that the candidate has a higher education in Computer Science technology,” ed.). Today, the IT market is overflowing with offers from companies, which has led to a significant demand for specialists. Applicants sometimes receive up to 30 offers from employers a day. As a result, recruiting processes have become much more complicated. Therefore, sometimes we can show people without a degree in Computer Science, but always with a higher technical / engineering or mathematical education. If we talk about our clients, for 30-40% it is really important that the developer has a higher education in Computer Science. We have vacancies in which we indicate that the presence of higher education in this specialty is mandatory. Such candidates are valued by customers and are in high demand in the market. We understand that a person without an appropriate background simply will not pass a technical interview with a client. Looking for engineers technically strong specialists already with experience in development, and not those who decided to change the type of activity and chose IT as a more promising or simply interesting direction for themselves. There are also other types of clients for whom education is not so important, and they are ready to communicate with the candidate if he is a strong specialist. Now we have several positions open for which we are ready to consider juniors, but with a mandatory technical education. And its presence will be a significant plus for the candidate. We are ready to consider candidates with an economic education, a liberal arts degree or a diploma in International Relations. We also show such candidates to clients. But it is necessary to understand that for a client in the IT market, it is at least important to have a technical education, and as a maximum, relevant relevant experience.
Olga Zhukova, HR manager and CodeGym recruiter
Today, when looking for a programmer, we first of all look at his hard skills: the stack of technologies he owns, the programs in which he worked, examples of developed sites / applications, and so on. Only after analyzing the coincidence of our requirements (in which, by the way, the presence of a high school diploma is not indicated as a mandatory criterion) and the candidate's skills, we decide on a possible interview. Among programmers, especially juniors, a situation is very common when higher education does not at all intersect with programming, which a person decided to do at the current moment. Or it simply does not exist, and a person, for example, has been programming since school. All this will in no way be able to strengthen or weaken the status of a candidate in front of rivals who have graduated from a university earlier. The reason is very simple: courses, studies at school or university are theory, but when asked, how a person shows himself in practice, only his portfolio, passing a technical interview or completing a test task can answer. Of course, we can argue for a long time whether a modern person needs higher education in principle, and several philosophical treatises can be written on this topic. But most likely we will come to the question: what in general should this higher education give to a modern person? And this, most likely, is a conscious choice of one's professional development vector, the ability to work with large amounts of information, find solutions to new life tasks and achieve one's own. And now answer your question: are such skills acquired only within the walls of academies and universities? I think no. But hard work, hundreds of lines of code, a good mentor and real projects help to become a good programmer. So if you decide to become a programmer - program. And when you reach the positions of Middle/Senior and there are cool projects in your portfolio, believe me, the recruiter is unlikely to be bothered by the presence of higher education. You will just be hunted and bombarded with offers.
conclusions
Higher education for a programmer is not at all necessary, but it helps to strengthen the developer's technical knowledge base.
A degree in Engineering or Information Technology increases your chances of getting a developer job on projects that are based in the US or Europe.
In Ukraine, Russia and Belarus they often do not look at the tower and it is much easier to get a job without a diploma than in the USA.
Tell us in the comments if you have a higher education and in what specialty? And did it help you in getting a job as a developer?
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