A Confession: I don’t have a degree

I ran into a blogo-sphere discussion recently about the merits of having a CS degree. I found this particularly interesting because, well, I don’t have a degree. Shocking, I know, coming from someone who claims to be a “Software Architect” (well, that is my job title). I’ll give you a minute to recover.

To be very cathartically honest, I wish it were not true. I have a full-time+ job and a full-time+ family, but if I had an opportunity to pursue a degree, I’d seriously consider it. So there you have it. There is at least one non-degree-possessing person in this world who thinks having a degree is a good thing.

On the other hand, a lot of what I read about the purported merits of having a degree is…just crap, in my opinion. I believe and accept the fact that a lot of people have learned a lot of things in a college or university setting, things that they would never learn in “real” life. I believe and accept the fact that for most people, there isn’t a better way to get a well-rounded education. I do not believe those things are true for me.

It has been well established that there are at least a few different ways that people learn best. I think it is also reasonable to conclude that what any person has learned or been exposed to in his or her life is going to be unique to that person. For these and other reasons, concept “A” might really “click” with Alice, while Bob just doesn’t get it. For concept “B”, it may be just the opposite. In a classroom setting, the extra time it takes to teach concept “A” to Bob is a waste of time for Alice. The extra time it takes to teach concept “B” to Alice is a waste of time for Bob. This leads me to conclude that classroom learning is not particularly time-efficient.

I think the primary benefit of learning in a college/university classroom setting is the fact that most people do not have the motivation or, in some cases, the ability to educate themselves.

I love to learn. It might be more correct to say that I’m addicted to information…of any sort, really. Truly, I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered any subject matter or concept that didn’t interest me, at least a little bit. People have told me that they are intimidated to have a conversation with a subject matter expert concerning said subject matter. They’re afraid of asking an ignorant question. I can’t relate to that. I’ll happily make a fool of myself, asking that person a thousand stupid questions, just for the chance to learn something.

One idea I often encounter is the idea that a self-educated person is going to have a “narrow” education. Maybe they can become competent in their field, but they’ll be weak in other areas, which might hamper their overall performance. I think this idea “rings true” with a lot of folks. It seems logical and fair-minded. On the other hand, I’ve never encountered “hard numbers” to support this idea.

Of course, I can’t give you any hard numbers, either. In fact I can only offer one data-point: myself. If I were to be given a general knowledge test covering various aspects of Math, Science, History, English, etc., I feel confident that my score would compare very favorably with scores obtained by administering the same test to a random selection of college educated people.

Having said all that, why do I wish I had gotten a degree when I had the chance? Two reasons: First, I did attend college for three semesters. It did not go well. I spent too much time in the computer lab when I should have been in the classroom or completing assignments. Basically, I feel that I failed at college and that bothers me. Second, “Perception Is Reality”. The vast majority of people I work with and, I would guess, the vast majority of people in my field have a degree. I would venture that the majority of these people “perceive” that having a degree is better than not having one (the example set by Bill Gates notwithstanding).

I know of at least one case where I was not even considered for a position on the basis of not having a degree. I doubt that was an isolated case. If you’re dealing with an overwhelming glut of resumes, you may very well decide to trash all the resumes that don’t appear to “measure up” in all respects.

This reminds me of the recent experience I had doing the initial interview of several candidates for a Software Developer position in my division. This was a first for me, and the experience was…fascinating. I am thinking of one candidate in particular. This person came with all the right credentials. Not only did this person know everything, but this person had been working for several years at a “big name” company, and before that another “big name” company (we verified this person’s employment history). This person had an MBA.

On that basis, I was shocked, truly, at what this person did not know about Software Development. The point in the interview that I began to understand the situation was when I asked “It says on your resume that you have experience with technology ‘X’. Can you tell me more about how you used that technology?” This person’s answer was something along the lines of “Well, I didn’t use technology ‘X’ directly. My job was to review and approve other people’s work and send it up the chain.” Imagine several more responses along the same lines. Finally I asked this person to demonstrate how to solve a particular (fairly simple) problem using the language of their choice. Imagine a blank stare. I found myself describing the problem in simpler and simpler terms. The blank stare remained. I eventually realized that this person could not tell me what a “string” was. Yikes!