Post #2903450

2026-05-27 18:25 UTC

Question for people in tech industry doing software engineering or adjacent (anywhere in the world TBH, I'm in the USA for reference) What would you value more? What do you think a hiring manager at your company would value more? - I currently have a Bachelors (4 year) Degree in Liberal Arts and have been writing code in my free time for just shy of two decades, mainly focusing on desktop applications in languages like Java, C#, Rust, Python, and experienced with many web stack languages and such. - I am considering getting a Software "Engineering" Associates Degree (2 year) at a local technical college to try and get my resume more appealing and to pad out my skills in case there are any gaps (the program mainly focuses on web development) So the either or is which would be appealing, before or after completing this degree? There are definitely additional factors in my decision like how the tech college partners with local businesses to get their students into quality internships which really helps with getting hired. #GetFediHired

Replies (3)

@utterlymundane@hachyderm.io 2026-05-28 11:16

@queenofsquiggles@transfem.social the current market is… special… but I’d say that many places that are snobbish about self taught will *also* be snobbish about an associates degree. But if the college actually has internship or job placement programs that will be massively helpful in getting past the first hurdle.

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@nahratzah@mstdn.social 2026-05-27 18:37

@queenofsquiggles@transfem.social I'm not a hiring manager, just a regular 'puter babysitter. :) Prefer the first one. <3 The first one is a decent one: - mentions having completed an education - free-time code means you can probably show that code (like a link to github) Whereas the latter sounds like you have done nothing, and aren't even sure you want to get an education. Also, scare quotes around "engineering" definitely have me wondering why you're doing that.

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@kapellosaur@mstdn.social 2026-05-27 18:36

@queenofsquiggles@transfem.social I'm not exactly sure what the hiring landscape looks like right now, but coding has historically been one of the most accepting of self-taught folks, with job ads usually stating "Computer Science degree or equivalent experience." Given your hobbyist coding, I don't think the associates degree would add all that much. What I'd focus on would be demonstrating that you can work on larger codebases over a longer period of time (maintenance is important) and ideally some teamwork.

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