You may have heard from various voices online that a Computer Science degree isn’t necessary to become a software engineer.

Though it’s true that there are tons of examples of successful engineers that didn’t take on a 4-year degree, in my experience, it’s a competitive market, and the knowledge and connections you obtain throughout the degree can give you an advantage over others and will thoroughly prepare you for a career as a software engineer. If you have the time and ability to get a formal Computer Science education, if you work hard and learn as much as possible, I believe it’s worthwhile.

My personal journey

Throughout my high school years, I was really into filmmaking. I was making YouTube videos, usually either comedy or music-related, and I had developed substantial skills in filming and editing content. I chose film-making as my career path. Hence, in my senior year of high school, I applied to multiple Film programs throughout the country, hoping that a bachelor’s degree in Film would give me the experience needed to succeed in the industry.

I was admitted to various Universities. My top choices were universities in California, such as UCLA and USC. I had read online that USC was the top filmmaking program in the US. Unfortunately I was not admitted to those schools. However, I was admitted to DePaul University in Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin. Since I was a Texas resident, I decided to go to UT Austin, because the price was more reasonable than private universities, and their Radio-Television-Film program had an impressive list of alumni and accomplished faculty members.

I packed up all my belongings and moved from my hometown of El Paso, Texas, to my new home of Austin, Texas.

I began my filmmaking studies in Austin. I learned how to write screenplays, basic acting lessons, and I watched multiple classic films with the intention of studying their successes and writing essays about them.

Though I enjoyed my filmmaking classes, I was disappointed overall with the program. I found that I was a very technically-minded person, and though I liked the computer-work side of films, which involved editing videos and adding special effects, I wanted something even more technical, such as math or science. I was also disappointed with the expected income I would earn as a film editor. After a 4-year degree, I was expecting to make around $60K/year, and it seemed that many people working in film didn’t have a filmmaking degree at all.

After 2 years of film studies, I felt unsatisfied with my career trajectory and wanted to explore other options.

Fortunately, my university had career advisors, and I took advantage of that service. I took a career exam to see what other careers I was well-suited for, and the results showed that I would do great in a technical role such as being an IT administrator. With this knowledge, I explored the other programs that my university offered, and I decided to take on the Elements of Computing Certificate, which is a minor in Computer Science that should prepare you for technical roles.

Upon taking my first coding class and learning Python, I absolutely fell in love with engineering. I felt that filmmaking was very restrictive. To make a live-action movie, you have to write a screenplay and get actors. You have to get permits to film in places and permits to do all sorts of things. With coding, I felt that my imagination was the limit. And, I felt extreme satisfaction whenever I solved a difficult problem.

I expected to finish my RTF degree and the minor in Computer Science. However, eventually I totally ignored my film studies classes and spent all weekend coding, as the CS courses were extremely demanding and took up all my time.

Upon my third year of college, I thought carefully about my future. At this point, I was spending so much time coding that my RTF degree was pretty much worthless to me. I knew that the minor in Computer Science could land me a technical role, but I was so fascinated by the field of CS that I wanted to learn everything about it. I decided to drop my minor in CS, and instead I chose to double major so I could obtain a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

UT Austin’s Computer Science program is incredibly competitive, and they normally only admit freshmen or sophomores to the program. As a third-year student who was almost done with his credits, I was required to submit an appeal, which involved writing a long essay to explain why I wanted to major in CS this late in my academic studies.

I was also required to take full-on Natural Sciences courses so that I would have one semester to prove that I could succeed in these difficult classes. Though I had already fulfilled the science requirement of my film degree, I had to take the more difficult versions of the courses, suitable for science students. I took Chemistry, Biology, and Calculus that semester, and these courses truly kicked my butt. I was spending every waking moment, including weekends, juggling coursework.

I also wanted to get ahead of my CS courses, as it requires many credit-hours to double major. Hence, I took a Credit by Exam for the first Computer Science course required by the degree. Because I already took Data Structures as part of my Elements of Computing Certificate, I knew that I already had the knowledge needed to pass the Credit by Exam. The one caveat to that, thus far my coursework had been in Python, and the CS-major courses were in the Java programming language.

I purchased a Java textbook and painstakingly went through the exercises one by one. I studied my butt off, and I aced the Credit by Exam.

I did great in my initial Natural Sciences courses and I completed the Credit by Exam, and this was enough evidence to show that I would succeed as a Computer Science student. I was elated when I received my acceptance letter, and throughout my new degree I worked extra hard because I was so grateful for the opportunity.

The CS degree ended up being incredibly challenging and rigorous. The Elements of Computing Certificate was already rigorous, but this was on another level.

I learned about the low-level details of how computer processors work. I learned Statistics and Linear Algebra. I completed courses in Discrete Math, Algorithms, and Operating Systems. It was a ton of work, but by the end of my CS degree I had an substantially deep knowledge of the field, and I felt very capable of working as an engineer at any company.

Finally, in the Fall of my last year of school, I got a job offer as a Software Engineer at The Home Depot in Austin, Texas. I had never seen an offer for so much money in my whole life, which was an offer of $80,000/yr. It was incredibly validating and rewarding to see that I still had 6 months of schooling left, and I already had an amazing job offer.

Since then, I worked at The Home Depot for two years, and I have now been at Google for 3 years. My Computer Science studies unlocked many doors for me, and I never thought I’d be working for such a prestigious and desired company.

Based on all these experiences, I believe that if you have the opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, the knowledge you’ll obtain in that degree will properly prepare you for a technical career.

Computer Science degree vs boot camp?

A boot camp program is generally regarded as a 6-month program that should give you all the technical background needed to get started in a particular field, and these programs are generally focused on a particular area, such as Data Science or Web Application Development.

A bachelor’s degree Computer Science is much more expansive, and it takes 4-5 years to complete. In the bachelor’s degree you will obtain a solid mathematical and science background, and then you will go on to explore many fields in Computer Science. Once my degree was complete, I had experience with Machine Learning, Statistics, Mobile App Development, and Web Development. Had I done a boot camp only, I would’ve briefly touched only one of these topics.

If you have the time to invest in a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I highly recommend it. You will be eligible for a broader number of roles.

Though it’s true that you can learn anything and everything on the Internet, it can be hard to know what you don’t know. A bachelor’s degree has an outlined set of courses which build on top of each other. You also get the help of instructors and classmates so you can build connections and get guidance and help along the way.

You can get guidance and connections through a boot camp and job placement agencies or other communities, but the degree gives you a standardized program that will give you the most competitive advantage over other methods, especially if you don’t have a lot of work experience.

On the other hand, if you already have work experience and do not have the capacity to take on a full bachelor’s degree, a boot camp is a more economical and effective way to get started in the industry. Though I haven’t done one of these programs myself, I have worked with many individuals who opted for the boot camp instead of a bachelor’s degree, and over time they were able to obtain all the skills needed to become effective engineers. In summary, a boot camp is a great option for those that are advanced in a particular career and want to transition into tech, but you should recognize that you will not be as competitive as someone who has a four-year degree. A boot camp will be better than no education, and it’s also a great way to get a high-level overview of what software engineering entails, and you can always get a more substantial degree afterwards if you want to.

Conclusions

I shared my personal journey, from studying Radio-Television-Film, to taking on a minor in Computer Science (similar in breadth to a boot camp experience), to majoring in Computer Science. The major in CS gave me an excellent, in-depth immersion into the field of Computer Science, and I felt capable and effective as soon as I started working for a large company.

However, a boot camp is a great option for those that cannot take on a four-year degree, and you will learn enough skills to get started, while a more in-depth Computer Science education can be obtained over time. You won’t be as competitive when searching for jobs, since there are more people with boot camp certificates than bachelor’s degree, but it certainly is possible to succeed with the boot camp education only.

Finally, it’s possible to get into the field without a boot camp or a technical degree. You can, for instance, look at MIT’s Computer Science courses, download their syllabi, watch lectures and do homework on your own. You can purchase the same textbooks that these courses use and read those textbooks on your own, which is how I passed my Credit by Exam for the first Computer Science course in my degree. Yet, you will lack the guidance and feedback of real instructors, and you’ll need to work harder to meet others in the field and build those social connections.

What’s your take on the degree vs no-degree debate? Is college still worthwhile in your experience? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!