roblane09

Present day I find it very easy to land a development position in web/biz dev. and the compensation is so far fantastic.  That being said, I still find an enormous amount of discrimination by engineers & co-workers who have one (or several) degrees.  I'm not exactly the most secure person, and I've always had a shy personality (with a touch of social anxiety) so I don't exactly brush off co-workers jokes or remarks.  Really it makes me question my situation and assess my goals.

 

It sounds to me like that's your real reason for pursuing a degree.  You already have no trouble landing jobs and getting excellent pay.  If the only thing you're trying to solve is the problem of people looking down their noses at you, you may never be able to solve that -- certainly not by just getting a degree.  The piece of paper is not a magic portal to the land of respect of your peers. 

 

Take the degree if you want to learn.  Not because you want respect.

That's an interesting point to make because I've generally reversed your last statement throughout my life.  That isn't to say getting a degree held no value of learning, it's just something that's always been preached as essential for being a part of society.  It's interesting at this point in my life to hear the opposite so frequently, and it's obvious to me now that it's not a golden key to getting hired.  

I think the point you are making is that there will always be people that find a reason to "look down their noses at you", which I agree with.  I do however have direct experience with being treated differently because I have never attended college.  I'm starting to think however that this is more of an issue with the environment I'm in.  One idea for the short term I'm considering is just applying for a different department at my company(get on a different dev. team)...

At any rate thanks for the words, much appreciated.

Dude you have 10 years of experience. No new college grad is going to be able to beat that.

Get a degree if: 1) To get passed the HR filter (which you already have)

                          2) To fail at impressing your coworkers(like your coworkers tried impressing you, but failed)

                          3) To get knowledge in a field you have no clue about

 

Honestly I think its your friends who are the insecure ones. They have to justify their degrees to you because you

are more successful than them without one

 

If you already know about CS and wanna try EE then go ahead. But Warning: its crazy hard, get ready to buckle down and study full time

 

good luck

Thanks much for the positive words.  I understand a degree in EE would be difficult, but I have a pretty solid passion for computers and I think I can find a good program to build onto what I know.  

Do you have experience with EE degree?  So far my understanding is you can do "electrical track" and "computer track" (not sure if my terminology is correct here), I think I would want to go computer track but clearly I need to do more investigation.  

I also believe I would get a better foundation in mathematics with this type of degree, which can be beneficial in many ways.  At any rate thanks for the feedback, if you have any experience or suggestions on EE schools would be appreciated.

Thank you so much for the information, it is very helpful.  I know the problem I'm presenting is ambiguous and it's clear that I'm a bit confused, however this clear cut perspective is refreshing. I can find good information on jumping from biz-dev. to game development, and it's not exactly an easy task but nothing worth while ever is.  

Based on the information here I will probably be pursuing a EE degree just for the hardware knowledge I wish to have, but I'm still considering jumping from web biz dev. to game development.  I'm not exactly an old man so perhaps theres room for both of these goals.

Thanks again for helping steer this lost dev. in the right direction!

Sorry if my reply came off "snarky", I really do appreciate the information you provided

 Would someone in my position benefit from a Computer Science degree?

That is the core of your question.

 

And the answer to your question is answered in the FAQs.  

 

You have identified several reasons to go back, and several reasons not to go back.  

 

So there are two items:  Get degree; Don't get degree.

 

There are several other options available, such as getting an associates degree, bachelors degree, or masters degree.  Or, since you have a decade of work experience, getting an MBA or a combined CS+MBA option.  There are also shorter options from trade schools like DeVry and such.

 

If you decide the degree is worth it for you, you don't necessarily have to go to a traditional school with a bunch of 20-year-olds; there are schools that offer night and weekend programs, there are schools that offer 'distance learning' and 'continuing education'.  Personally I'd recommend avoiding online-only schools because there have been many scamming institutions.

 

Ultimately you're the only one who can decide what is right for you.

 

Hope that helps.

I have read through the FAQs and concluded that to break into the industry you need a degree, are you implying that this is in fact the case for someone with my volume of experience?  I appreciate the reference to a pros/cons grid, and I've done this several times already in my decision making.  What I'm attempting to attain is experience around this issue from others that have made the same type of decision and had a similar experience.  For example, knowing people that have 10+ years of experience without a degree, or perhaps knowing of someone that turned their career around by getting a degree.  I would also like some information on what intelectual benefits (what would I actually learn) should I go to school for Computer Science especially considering what I already know.  

I understand I'm the only person that can make my decisions, this is overly obvious.  I'm not asking someone to pick my options and tell me what to do, I'm looking for success or failure experiences before I decide to go get tens of thousands of dollars and change my day job to support school.  If you are saying "the FAQs say get a degree so get a degree", then I appreciate your insight and perspective, is this something you've done with success?