Do I need a College Degree to work in Tech?

This starts a series of blog posts on Career Advice in the tech industry.

I spend some of my free time mentoring people that want to get into the tech industry and this is the number one question for everyone. Do I need a college degree to work in the tech industry? The answer to that question, while complex, can also simply be no.

I\’ll start off with a couple of articles recently published that show top companies like Google and Apple are no longer requiring that candidates have college degrees for a majority of the jobs. A job search on their website will also reveal that many of the technical jobs no longer show a college degree as a requirement.

CNBC Article

Axios Article

A lot of high school graduates are pressured into going to college because society tells them the good jobs require college education. (this blog post is all about tech, I\’m not talking about doctors) Going to college is a business and personal decision. It\’s a business decision first because you\’re probably signing up for a large amount of debt. A personal decision as some just want the college experience.

Ok enough rambling already…are you saying don\’t go to college? Here\’s where I try to break the complex answer down to simple facts. First let\’s look at what life is like if you go to a university and earn a college degree in the tech industry:

PROs

• Coursework really helped you understand algorithms and other things crucial to a specific technical aspect in your career.
• You possibly had some of your best moments while attending college.
• Made a ton of friends and professional connections.
• Earned IT certifications through classes that use certifications as their final.
• Degrees can help you on the management/leadership track.
• Degrees can help you earn a bigger salary.

CONs

• Graduate with at least $40k USD in debt.
• The certifications you earned (in some cases) were low level and won\’t help you obtain a job.
• The coursework at your university was outdated. You get to your first job and realize you know nothing.
• During the 4-5 years you spent in college to earn a Bachelor\’s degree you could have gone from a junior to mid-level role and purchased your first home.
• The place you go to work at doesn\’t value degrees.

To be completely fair, technology moves at hyper speed and it would be unrealistic to expect a traditional university to keep quality in place while always teaching new material. They are running a business and need to fill classrooms with students. It would be difficult to offer the latest coding framework of the year as a course that semester and expect to fill the class. I know the CONs section can appear that I\’m not in favor of a college education. I personally went to college and earned a Bachelor\’s degree. I will have a post later in this series on my personal reasons for going to college with some reflection on if I would do it again.

Click here for part 2 of this series where I talk about getting a job in tech with no experience.