How do I become a successful developer without a degree?
Can you have a successful career as a software developer without having a formal computer science degree?
The answer is clearly "YES", according to Srdjan S. and Melanie K. Melanie has a degree in sports science and is currently working as a software QA engineer for a medium-sized software company in Vienna. Srdjan does not have a university degree and is currently working as a software developer in a BI team at a medium-sized manufacturing company in Lower Austria.
We're not saying that it's easy without a formal education, or that a college or HTL degree isn't beneficial. However, the two IT professionals mentioned are of the opinion that by completing an intensive training program and by implementing many of their own projects, a junior position as a developer can be sought within 12 to 24 months.
In this article you will get an insight into the four-stage change process you have experienced and also helpful tips for your developer career.
Design your own educational program
In order to be able to design a successful start, you first have to find out which skills you absolutely have to learn. Don't try to learn a lot of different programming languages and frameworks that you may never need or use.
Evaluated university job postings and IT curricula for must-have skills. Then create a list of courses that match your specific learning and career goals.
"It helps you to know what specialization you want to pursue, like web development, mobile development, BI, etc.", recommends Srdjan. If you're not sure, try an introductory course covering Algorithms, Data Structures, Testing, Design Patterns, Software Development Lifecycle before deciding which programming language you want or need to learn.
If possible, talk to experienced software developers about the necessary skills and requirements. Don't just learn from tech professionals, but also take advantage of online courses from universities or other schools. Some of these curricula also take into account the schedules for working professionals. Here's an example from GitHub and Google.
Although Melanie started her IT career in software development by enrolling in an online web development course, she still recommends a different approach. "The learning curve for developers is like a hockey stick," she explains. "Start thinking like a programmer and study the structure of programming languages, once you master the first language you can learn the second in a week," she continues.
Both interviewees also took free or low-cost programming courses from CodeAcademy or Udemy. Software development textbooks are another way to speed up learning. Srdjan recommends: “Learn Python or C# first.” From there, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, HTML, and CSS as well as SQL should be easier to understand.
Practice what you learn
Use your newly acquired programming skills immediately. Create small projects like a website, mobile app, or SaaS program in your free time to implement what you've learned. You will not only gain practical experience with different frameworks and libraries, you will also create a portfolio of different programming samples to show them to potential employers. Of course, the more you practice, the more confident you become.
Immerse yourself in a technical environment
In order to be able to pay the bills during your training, it is worth doing a job that is already in the programming environment. Jobs such as testers, quality assurance or technical support are possible. This way you get to know how developers work, how they work on the code. Furthermore, by actively participating in the team or in the Dev department, you can also acquire non-technical skills such as teamwork or problem-solving skills.
You may also have the opportunity to take on more challenging “undertaking” tasks such as writing code or implementing configuration changes.
Plan your career start
You really don't need to know everything about programming to apply for a junior position. For example, after completing a few courses and programming projects and putting his LinkedIn profile online, Srdjan quickly found a junior developer position. Although the company was originally looking for someone with a university degree and three years of professional experience. Srdjan and Melanie recommend that you list all the courses you have completed in your application and be ready to talk about your projects without difficulty.
Once you've found a job, you can learn new skills and take additional courses. Believe me, if you have a little professional experience, you will no longer be able to defend yourself from all the recruiting inquiries. That, even though you don't have a university or HTL degree :-)
