How To Land A Software Engineer Job Without A Degree
Learn relevant tech skills
“With so many resources available today, you can teach yourself how to code in your free time. Consider starting with one of the easier to learn programming languages like Python or JavaScript. FreeCodeCamp, Coursera, and books like The Self-Taught Programmer and The Self-Taught Computer Scientist are excellent resources to start with,” said Cory Althoff, self-taught software engineer and author. “You should also consider joining the 75K+ people teaching themselves to code in his Facebook group Self-Taught Programmers. You can also try listening to a podcast like Learn to Code with Me to stay motivated.”
Consider going to a coding boot camp
“If you do better in a structured learning environment, consider going to a coding boot camp. A coding boot camp is an intensive program typically designed to help students get a job as junior software engineers,” said Althoff. “While a computer science degree can take four or more years and cost forty thousand dollars or more, you can learn the skills you need to program in a fraction of the time by going to a coding boot camp. The average coding boot camp takes 14 weeks to complete, and costs around $13,000. While $13,000 is a significant investment, the results can often quickly pay for themselves, with the average boot camp graduate earning an average salary of $69,079 in their first new job.”
Gain Experience
“Once you learn the technical skills you need to get a job, it’s time to start applying for jobs. One problem you may run into is most programming jobs require some previous experience. A technique called Climbing The Freelance Ladder [may work] to solve this,” said Althoff. “Here is how it works. Start with small $5 or $10 projects on a website like upwork.com. If you search for web scraping (a program that collects data from the internet) , you can often find small, easy-to-complete projects. Earn your first 5-star review by successfully building a web scraper for your client. Then, work your way up to bigger an bigger projects, eventually successfully completing projects that last several months. At this point, you are ready to apply for jobs, using your freelance experience as your previous work experience.”
