How Important is a Computer Science Degree for Software Developers?

welcome to this episode of Dev questions with Tim Corey join us as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development understanding the industry and new technology if you are just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer this is the place to get your questions answered now here's your host expert developer and online educator Tim Corey how important is a computer science degree for software Developers this is a question that came up on the suggestion site and it's one I want to tackle in today's episode of Dev questions so is a CS degree important for software developers a computer science degree well let's talk about the benefits of a computer science degree first the first benefit is it absolutely provides you with a checkbox on your application I got looked for remote c-sharp entry-level Developer jobs in my area so yes they are remote they are in my 100 mile radius of of where I live in Texas every single one asked for a degree in computer science or related okay so what does that mean well what it means is if you have an I.T degree sure if you have a web development degree sure if you have some kind of Technology degree sure so they don't really care about it being a computer science degree but they want a degree of something kind of relevant so not a history degree necessarily all the reality is they probably wouldn't care now that does provide you with that checkbox yes I have a degree in here's the thing though every single one of them while they asked for that under the requirements they also said or relevant experience every one of them so you can either have that I have a degree or and some of them said one year two year three year even four years of work experience instead of a degree now I will tell you that having been taught having talked to a number of hiring developers having been in the industry for a long time if you came in and said I don't have a degree but I have four years work experience yeah that that's worth a whole lot more than a degree so there is a weird Tipping Point there where they may say we require either a degree or four years experience but if you have three years experience you actually would probably be ahead of the person who has a degree so the computer science degree does give you that checkbox which helps you early early on your career for your very first job now it's also going to provide you with a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things so for instance you'll learn about networking and operating systems and computer hardware and servers and interactivity and firewalls and the things that are around software development that aids software development and that are not necessarily software development themselves so you'll definitely have a more rounded education than if you just focus on software development okay you'll have a better understanding of a theory around a lot of electronics now again how much you really learn that and not just past tests but actually learn it will depend on how well you actually get value out of it but that is a valuable part of the computer science degree that rounding will help you as a developer let's talk now about the drawbacks of a computer science degree number one is cost now this does depend on where you live certain areas you get a degree for free sweet that's probably worth it I'm gonna say probably because not necessarily worth it but it's probably worth it so in the U.S you're gonna spend at least well in most cases at least a hundred thousand dollars twenty five thousand dollars a year now a lot of colleges will charge more than that if you go to a local state school it might be a lot less than that you may pay fifty thousand dollars but you're gonna pay a significant amount of money for and here's the next thing four years computer science degree is a four-year degree which means that for four years of your life you'll be paying someone else to teach you computer science be spending four years of your life doing it at the end of this you will have very little practical knowledge yes you will have lots of theory you'll have had lots of classroom time you have had lots of homework assignments you have built a few little applications even potentially probably not many me a couple but you'll have very little practical knowledge for the most part you are not going to work like you would in a real business so you'll not be learning how to work in a real business so therefore when you do get a job you will not have experience and have a do the day-to-day processes of working as a software developer so the limitations are cost time and a lack of practical knowledge or a limited amount of practical knowledge so let's put it this way if you spent four years of your time learning and building software on your own for free you would be overqualified for most entry level positions if you spent four years studying it building practice projects getting better at for four years you'll be overqualified but let's take a step back what if you spent one year learning one year learning and building okay so that's one year of your time and then you spent a whole year looking for a job that may feel frustrating it's been a whole year and not getting a job taking a full year before you finally get something BS think about this if you spend a whole year studying a whole year looking for a job that's two years well now you're going to have a job for two years before you would have graduated you will literally be hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead imagine entry-level job forty thousand dollars it's a pretty low salary for entry level but let's just say forty thousand dollars a year for two years that's eighty thousand dollars you will have made College it's going to cost you at least a hundred thousand dollars in most cases so that will have cost you that much so not spending a hundred thousand dollars earning eighty thousand that's a hundred and eighty thousand dollar difference in two years Okay so do I recommend a computer science degree not really no not for software developers now is it important no I can't really find a case where it is of value now can it help absolutely can help again it's a check box on your application that can get you your first job that can be important but the question is is it worth four years and a hundred thousand dollars plus of your money plus the loss of that work experience and that income you could have been making I don't think so now what I recommend it no I wouldn't in fact my oldest son is now 20. and when he graduated high school he said you know what I don't want to do college and I said I can't blame you because I spent all this time saying it's not really necessarily worth it for software developers which is what he wanted to be well he spent a year working at the local hardware store not exactly the high paying job you love to have however he now he spent a year he found a software development job guess what by the time his peers graduate he will have had three years of work experience and three years of income and zero college debt that's huge that's a big deal difference so his career will always be further along than if he had gone to college and you know what I see that as a win I don't see how it would have been helpful to him to potentially go into debt to spend all that time and the end result would be to hopefully have a piece of paper that would hopefully maybe get him a job he's already gotten and the thing is that's what I did too I didn't I went to college for one year I dropped out to pay for I didn't want to go in a debt and I got a job full time working as a software developer so it can be done now again will that degree help you sure again it can get you that first job it's just is it worth the cost now if you're already getting a software development job or a software development degree if you're already in a computer science degree should you drop out I genuinely I I usually would not encourage that um there are a few times when maybe sure it might be the right choice you have to make that I can't make it for you but you know what if you already down the road and maybe you're at your you know sophomore year or something like that well that's probably a good time to stick with it because first of all completion's important being able to say hey I finished it I didn't just drop out that's important but also if you if you've gotten through your sophomore year at least in the U.S the way things are usually structured in college is that you get your your liberal arts uh stuff out of the way first your math science English literature Fine Arts those kind of things that are just general for most people you get those out of your way either way early and as you get into your your Junior and Senior year your last two years of college is when you get more and more of the computer science stuff and the more the stuff is specialized for what you want to do well that's the stuff that's going to be helpful and so absolutely you want that stuff if you're already in the process and so then you get the degree the other thing that is valuable about a degree is it will allow you to then get Advanced degree and sometimes an advanced degree can be helpful a master's degree or even a doctorate okay I actually now have my undergraduate degree so when I was working as an it director I also went full time online it was brutal I went full time online and got my degree because I wanted to have that piece of paper to say yes I have this because I wanted to be able to build on top of it now I never ended up building on top of it I tried to get a master's degree and just didn't work out the timing and which one I wanted but that was something I wanted to prepare myself for so I was ready and able but it was also because someone else paid for it I didn't pay for my degree so I never had any debt from college so it's important to to figure out what works best for you not every situation is best for every person but in general if you were to ask me is a computer science degree worth it my answer would be no it's just not worth it you can learn what you need to you can spend the time you need to to practice and learn in a a year time more than you'd get from college in fact the c-sharp master course is designed to if you take your time and if you are working full time you only have part time to give to it you can still go through it in a year and in that year to go from I know nothing about c-sharp to I can be employed as a c-sharp developer and know more than a person who graduated from college one year and this time I was recording 500 well that's a fraction of what it costs to get a degree that's a guided path through the end and it's in one year and again if you spent another year looking for a job and then you got a job you would still be hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of where you would be if you got the degree that's why I just don't find it of value that's my opinion you can absolutely have a different opinion if you find different positives or negatives to the degree and again it also depends on the region in which you live and what the cost is for a degree all right so that's my answer later down the comments what your thoughts are if you're watching on YouTube and if you're listening on a podcast you can come over to YouTube and leave comments still but thanks for listening either way and as always I am Tim Corey thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: IAmTimCorey

Views: 7,714

Keywords: .net, C#, Visual Studio, code, programming, tutorial, training, how to, tim corey, C# course, C# training, C# tutorial, .net core, vs2022, .net 6, software engineer, computer science, software engineering, software development

Id: B2RF_LcaFmQ

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023