I knew some bad devs that didn’t have CS degrees. They joined because they thought the money would be good and the companies wanted to reduce labour costs.
It’s really hard to explain to someone what loops are that doesn’t get it.
However some of the “worst” devs that I’ve worked with aren’t incompetent coders. They’re good “coders” that are fucking shit to work with. They refuse to fix their own bugs, blame you for their mistakes, ignore your feedback and management fucking loves them and gives them carte blanche. I’m talking over ten years ago but we implemented some cache system who refused to publish their docs online to “strengthen” relationships with their customers. Anyways, the dude implements it, doesn’t document anything (much like the product itself). Days past after implementation and I see what looks like a cache bug and I say, “Sergii, can we look at this together?” His reply? “No, I’m sick of looking at it” … I go to the manager and he says, “yeah I get what he means, I’d not wanna looks at it either” … great.
I don’t have a CS degree, but my first real experience with college was in an English course (that I ended up testing out of, along with all other English courses, but which was designed to bring students up to speed for college) going “oh my god they let functionally illiterate people into college now… is this even worth doing?”
And the answer was ultimately no, financially-speaking, but yes from a personal perspective. Sounds like CS has the opposite conclusion; not really worth it from a personal perspective, but worth it from a financial perspective.
Can confirm. Back when I worked with a team of exclusively CS degree holders every day was a nightmare. Not only were their “solutions” absolute garbage, they were also totally convinced of their genius. Strong Dunning Kruger vibes throughout, it was so exhausting.
Strong Dunning Kruger vibes
the irony lol
Not having a CS degree and being a bad programmer is an assured way to not having a programming job.
A CS degree help you pass HR and keep your job as a bad programmer.
100% of the worst devs in firmware have EE degrees.
What degrees (if any) do the best ones have?
None. They’re all terrible.
Having been a somewhat experienced developer who later attempted to get a degree, it’s not surprising based on how many times I wanted to get in arguments with professors over their awful teaching
Also worth mentioning that universities generally see themselves as research facilities first and foremost. They teach students, because they want to get the next generation of researchers.
Sure, they’ll also do job training to some degree, because it’s a good argument to get more funding, but yeah, just not their primary goal.
I am a teacher and I’m well aware of what you’re talking about. There is so much more I want to adress, but there is only so much time in a semester. You cannot accomodate every level of experience simulatiously, so you tend to go for the lowest common demoninator.
A good school teaches you the basics of programming, best practices, frameworks, basic tooling and probably more. A school, good or bad, can not make you a good programmmer. You have to make yourself a good programmer.
