Reply #32: My lack of a degree is a benefit? [View All]

[Xithras]

Interesting take...I've never looked at it that way before. I should mention that I do have a GED (took the test and quit HS at 16 BTW, with the only perfect score in my districts history), but that my educational level has only been brought up once in my career...Intel once turned me away from a consulting position because I didn't have a BS. Other than that, it's never even come up. I'm not much of a threat to managers anyway; I went that route for the pay raises once and quit within a few months...the job was boring, I wasn't able to work with the technology anymore, and I just decided that it wasn't worth it.

As for your friends, sadly, I can sympathize. I also know several skilled, dedicated programmers who are underemployed right now simply because of the glut of unemployable programmers on the market. They WERE all unemployed until they took my advice and attacked a specific niche market. That got them jobs, but they're still working their way in. The niche solution DOES work, but it takes a little time. The whole market will improve over time as many of the unemployable programmers fall off the fringes, but it will probably take a few years for the field to stabilize again and open enough positions for the good programmers to get back to work. Getting Bush out of office would help too :-)

Oh, and I HAVE sat on hiring committees, and I NEVER turn away programmers that are more skilled than I. On the contrary, I attribute half my success to working closely with better programmers than myself and LEARNING from them. I realize I'm the minority on this one nowadays and have been in the situation you described, but keep in mind that not ALL employers have IT departments run by those kinds of short-sighted idiots.