[nfbcs] Research

[Christopher Chaltain]

It is true that a CS degree will not guarantee you a job, and it's also 
true that not everyone working in the technology field has a CS degree. 
I've been a hiring manager in the technology field for over 15 years, 
and I've worked for three different companies during that time. Most of 
the positions I've helped staff have required a CS, CE or I degree or 
equivalent experience. Obviously, if you're a recent college graduate, 
it's going to be hard to have that equivalent experience if you don't 
have a technical degree.

My advice to anyone going into the technology field would be to pursue 
the appropriate degree. If you want to go into software engineering then 
I'd recommend a CS or a CE degree. If you want to go into some other 
area of IT then an associates degree or a relevant certificate may be 
appropriate.

Whether you have a technical degree or not, internship experience is 
key. As I think someone else pointed out, nothing prepares you for the 
real world better than experience. Volunteering or contributing to an 
open source project will also help you stand out by showing your 
commitment and demonstrating your experience. All college graduates, 
especially from the same university, look the same. Internships and 
other experience can help you stand out.

On 25/02/17 14:19, David Andrews via nfbcs wrote:
> Greg, I have no doubt that what you say is true. On the other hand, most
> people who hire entry-level people are going to consider blindness a
> strike against a person. Not having a CS degree is another, and this
> isn't baseball -- two strikes and you are out.
>
> We always need that little extra edge to end up in the same place.  You
> can talk about overcoming countless accessibility obstacles to get your
> degree. This is a plus.
>
> Dave
>
> At 01:49 PM 2/24/2017, you wrote:
>> This is going to sound odd but I work for a major technology company.
>> I can not think of a single person in my group with a CS degree. More
>> common in fact are fine arts degrees, like mine, history and
>> humanities and music. We have some people including a supervisor who
>> have no college degree at all, he came out of the military. We are all
>> doing very technical work much of which involves coding which we all
>> seemed to have learned as we needed it.
>>
>> So is having a CS degree a guarantee of a good job at a technology
>> firm? Silicon Valley is filled up with CS graduates working at
>> Starbucks so the answer is clearly no. IS not have such a degree going
>> to keep you form a career at such a firm, well my experience the
>> answer no as well.
>
>
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-- 
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail