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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I had a degree, roommates and cooked at home when I was in my 20s.  That was the 1990s.  Not sure things are so very different now.[/quote]

In 1996 I was 20 years old, kind of sort of going to community college.  I answered an ad in the jobs section for temp work. I got a job at a telecommunications company doing admin work. Within 3 months I was offered a FT position as an entry level troubleshooter because I was a quick learner. Before the end of the year I was making 60k and had modest RSUs. I eventually switched jobs and moved up. By 2000 I owned my own home in Vienna woods, at age 23. Then shortly the bubble came crashing down , but it didnt matter, I had 5 years work experience in technology and a network of contacts. My peers who had spent time in college or grad school and now needed jobs weren't so lucky. Some opted to stay in school and are probably still paying down debt.

18 years later I still have no college degree, I'm a VP at a technology company, and recently sold that Vienna Woods house for a 550k profit.

No it is certainly not the 1990s. Those were the good old days. Things are very different.  Though I will say tech is the one area that college can't keep up and if you are bright, you most definitely can navigate your way without a degree and I can say without hesitation that nobody is impressed that you went to an ivy or some expensive SLAC. If my company is looking for entry level new hires we often partner with George Mason.[/quote]

Your path is no longer one that is available!* Why do you all refuse to see that? You don't get an interview for entry level without a degree, and a year or two of experience, while also stating up front before you even understand the role and benefits that you'll accept $35k/year. And then even if they love you, they still may hire a "contractor" they can pay less than that and no benefits.

*I take that back. If you're a connected white male, you can still probably do whatever you want. [/quote]

I do want to add that I'm a Hispanic female. I also did not state that this path is currently available to anyone. [/quote]

Yes you did. You insinuated that if people were like you (smart and hardworking) that they can navigate the tech industry withiut a degree. If you have anything to do with the hiring process, you know that isn't true. Your company isn't hiring kids out of high school. You cant even get an admin job without a degree and years of experience. How does one get experience now? Working for free or next to it. We're expected to do this while deferring monstrous loan debt. [/quote]

NP here. I own a software company. We don't care about degrees at all. If you are a good software developer, I'll hire you. I know it's one of the few fields where degrees mean little, but that really is the case, at least ast smaller companies.

I've seen bigger companies where they put in useless degree requirements for no reason. I remember once years ago seeing an ad for a senior software developer with 10 years of Java programming experience. Clearly that ad was not written by a technical person -- Java had only been in use in that context for 5 years at that point! There was no one on this earth would could have met the requirement.[/quote]

Yup. VP here. We specifically, with intention do NOT require a degree for any of our positions. The only time we put in a degree requirement is if we are working on a government contract that requires one. From the top of management chain to the very bottom you will never see in our job req's with a degree requirement. We don't want to be hog tied. We are a 500 person company and have a fairly young workforce.[/quote]

Okay, and that's great for you and your company. The reality is that most companies DO require a degree and several types of experience. [/quote]

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