Have you ever wondered whether you need to complete appropriate studies to become a programmer? Does a person without a college degree have a chance to become a programmer? If you have graduated and are looking for a job, are your university grades checked during the interview? Is it worth going to college if you want to become a programmer? You will find the answers to all these questions in this article episode.
Can you become a .NET developer without studying?
If I had to answer this question briefly, I would say that yes, you can become a programmer without studies, what's more, I know a lot of people who are programmers, and very good programmers, even though they have not completed any studies.
Why is it like that? Because what matters most in this job is your skills. What I'm talking about here is primarily technical skills, but also, to a lesser extent, soft skills.
There are many companies on our market that employ programmers and do not require a university degree, but there are also companies, especially corporations, for which the completion of such studies may often be a necessary condition. Also, if you want to work in a corporation, you may have a bigger problem, but I think that if you have the right skills, you will also be hired.
Sometimes it happens that the advertisement says that studies are required, but in reality it turns out that this is not entirely the case. Either way, you must remember that if you graduate, the employer will certainly look at you more favorably.
Another issue is that the grades you get on your diploma are never taken into account during job interviews, and I have never had anyone ask about my grades on a diploma during a job interview. Recruiters are primarily interested in your skills, whether you can actually program and will bring value to the company.
My tip
So as you can see, answering this question is not that easy. If I were to advise you whether it is worth going to university, first of all you need to consider why you want to go there, because many people do not realize it, but the studies themselves will not teach you programming, at most they will show you the path you can take. . They will show you what the possibilities are, what are the programming languages, development directions, basic frameworks, but they will not teach you programming, only the basics of programming.
Also, if you want to go to university just to learn programming, then I advise against this path, in my opinion there are much better ways to become a programmer. I know a lot of training courses that, above all, do not last as long as studies, and you will gain more knowledge thanks to them than during several years of studying. Moreover, they teach different paths at university, even if you choose computer science, you will have to study several different fields of computer science, because computer science is not just about programming. Also, if you want to expand your general knowledge, then I recommend you do it, but preferably part-time, so that at the same time you can develop and work as a programmer and not waste 5 years on studies alone.
As for the studies themselves, I graduated in computer science and so do you. Even though, as I mentioned, you will not learn programming, I recommend this path because you will gain general IT knowledge there.
I think that if not now, you will definitely appreciate it in the future. Especially since it may turn out, for example, in a few or a dozen years, that such a diploma of completed studies may be required, although I rather doubt it (but you never know).
SUMMARY
If you want to go to college to learn programming, I don't recommend this path. Studies are not required to become a .NET programmer, sufficient knowledge is enough and then the lack of studies will not be an obstacle for you. However, if you want to gain more general IT knowledge and broaden your horizons, I recommend that you go to part-time studies and, in the meantime, study and look for a job as a programmer. Then, after completing your studies, you can have up to 5 years of professional experience.
If you liked this article, be sure to join my community. Sign up for the free newsletter, where every week I share valuable materials, especially regarding C# and the .NET platform (free subscription - newsletter).
