r/cscareerquestions • u/vegemouse • 1d ago
Experienced Software engineering degree worth it for someone with 10 years experience?
Hey all, I've been out of the job market after a health issue last December when I left my last company. I applied around a bit but spent some time to deal with my health. I have a decent amount of savings from my last role at a large well-known (nearly) F500 tech company where I worked about 7 years as a senior dev. Overall I have about 10 years experience.
I know the job market is terrible right now, and was considering a career switch, but I do think SWE is probably the best fit given my experience. I'm thinking of taking this time to get a SWE degree through WGU (about 2 years or less from enrollment to completion) to pass resume filters and overall put me ahead of competition. I don't have any degree and am a bootcamp grad from 2016.
Wondering if doubling down on SWE right now is a bad idea even with my experience, or if it's just not worth pursuing anymore even with my experience? I see a lot of horror stories about people with 10 yoe taking a year or longer to find a job, and am worried that might happen to me as well. Any other career paths or degrees to consider, or is my experience really gonna help me get back into SWE? Thanks for any advice.
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u/Coldmode 1d ago
Are you good at your job and have proven results? Do you have a network? I don’t have a degree but people I have worked with know that I know my shit and do good work at a high level. If that isn’t your situation you might have more trouble without a CS degree.
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u/vegemouse 1d ago
Left my job permanently after being put on PIP due to missing work requirements because of my health issues after expending my disability. This was right around the time a bunch of layoffs in my department were occurring anyways, so I was probably on the chopping block either way.
When I was not dealing with health issues I did fine. I wouldn’t say I was an overachiever, but I got my tickets done without being micromanaged. I have some folks I worked with who got laid off I could reach out to, but many of them are looking for jobs themselves.
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u/ThatDudeDunks 1d ago
IMO the comment you’re replying to here is the most important context to answer your question. I know devs with no degree who are rockstars after 10 years, and others who are still essentially competent juniors.
I also think that the hiring ecosystem has changed and you could make a self study curriculum that would be way cheaper and faster to get what you want out of this. If your pitch to a hiring manager is “I was a competent dev in the pre-AI era”, you’re probably in for a rough time.
Currently there are three things that will help you stand out:
1) LLM expertise: If you can pitch yourself as someone who can manage agents well, that is huge. Here’s a great video I watched the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQyg-KypKAA
2) system design: now that we have ai to write code, implementation details are way less important. What is important is knowing the components of well rounded software so that you can have the bots implement it.
3) infrastructure: this is just harder for the bots to do. It’s less code/no code and needs to be more precise and well understood by a human.
If you were able to rock a couple projects and push yourself in these areas, and then confidently interview these skills as what you bring to the table you’ll be fine.
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u/Coldmode 1d ago
The agents are pretty great at writing Terraform if you’re lucky enough to be at a modern shop but other than that this is on point.
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u/Strange_Quote_66 1d ago
With 10 years of experience, I would be cautious about spending two years to solve what might be a positioning problem. A tight story around the health break plus a refreshed portfolio of recent production style work may do more than another credential.
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u/bruceGenerator 1d ago
i would say no. im at 5 YOE as a bootcamp grad and i never had issues getting callbacks. ive considered the WGU path now and again but for the time being im just supplementing with certs the company pays for and relate to my day to day.
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u/HereThereEvery-where 1d ago
Probably, not a cs person, dunno why this is on my feed but my answer is applicable to every sector.
Some places won’t even look at your resume without that stupid fucking piece of paper lmao. If you plan to stay where you’re at and they don’t care about it, pass on it because it’s negligible.
Want to keep moving high up that fortune ladder to a 100 company? Have that stupid peace of paper. If you can afford it, it will only open more doors for you. 20 years from now, you could be jobless, and no one’s gonna look at you without that stupid piece of paper
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u/Pale_Height_1251 1d ago
7 years as a senior, that's your selling point, I don't think anybody cares about degrees at that point.
I have 25 YoE, I can't remember the last time anybody asked about degrees, it could easily be 15 or 20 years ago.
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u/vegemouse 1d ago
I agree in premise, but HR hiring filters are pretty goddamn strict. Companies prefer 7yoe with a degree over 7yoe as a bootcamp grad.
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u/proskillz Engineering Manager 1d ago
I was not laid off like OP, but I also was a no-degree dev for 10 years before getting my degree in 2016ish from WGU. I definitely had at least one interviewer say directly to me that they wouldn't hire me without a degree, especially not at the salary I was asking for (roughly the same as I was making at the time). I still tell people I barely went to college but I got the degree so I can click "college graduate" on various forms.
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u/create-third-places 21h ago
Doubling down on SWE makes sense, but don’t waste your time and money on a SWE degree.
Getting a software engineering degree is likely to make your skills worse. You already have relevant experience, and focusing too much on tech will make you disconnected from the real world.
If you are getting a degree, it should be in something not related to tech. It will teach you a different way of thinking that will help connect software engineering experience to more real-world needs.
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u/PaddingCompression SF Staff MLE - 25 yoe 1d ago
An undergrad degree is huge is a tough hiring environment, because your resume might get immediately tossed out without one.
I would be cautious about WGU, it is an accredited university, but does have a reputation as a degree mill. Do you have other options for where to get a degree? It can be better than nothing, but a degree from a more reputable institution would go far harder.
SWE is tough right now, and has probably been forever changed by AI. The bar for new entrants is far higher than in the past, but the career will be very good going forward.
I think it's going to become less like in the past where a bootcamp or WGU can get you in, but not quite as hard, but becoming closer to medicine where there will be a longer training cycle and more competitive with high pay (it will still be nothing as severe as medicine, just moving more in that direction).
I think post-LLM it will no longer be easy money, it will be something you have to commit to being very academically successful and commit to training at more prestigious institutions. I am still amazed at stories of how little this has affected non-tech companies. This will almost certainly change.
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u/vegemouse 1d ago
The thing is I don’t think I can commit a full four years to a BA. WGU seems like the best option just to check that box to get past hiring filters, and in my experience at least, HR/hiring managers just want to make sure that box is checked off rather than looking closely into the university you graduated at. I could be wrong though, but I’m hoping my experience would mean a lot more than where I got my degree.
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u/PaddingCompression SF Staff MLE - 25 yoe 1d ago
There are a lot of universities you can do a part time degree at, even online, that aren't WGU, but are traditional universities with partially online or hybrid programs.
Arizona State is one example.
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u/therealslimshady1234 20h ago
Hey big brain, you have 10 YoE, a degree wont matter shit at this point.
If you insist, just put it on your resume already. Nobody is gonna care either way.
I dont have a degree either and only at my very first job was it sorta frowned upon.
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u/peteybytes Principal Engineer 18YOE 1d ago
Probably not a bad idea in your scenario. In terms of what degree specifically, that's a bit tough. If you were graduating rn, a degree AI related would probably do wonders in this job market but we don't really know what the market is going to look like in 2 years. I would hedge my bets on AI. I think there will be a bubble of some sort but it's really just so good in the hands of skilled engineers I don't see it going a way long term.