Description:
I wonder if employers value hands-on experience over formal education these days. It would be great to know if there’s a practical path for someone eager to pivot into tech without going back to school for years.
1 Answer
Back in the day, I was working a job that had me fixing to hit retirement and suddenly thought, "Why not shake things up?" I didn’t have any fancy degree in computer science or tech behind me. Hell, most of what I knew about computers was from messing around on a busted laptop my nephew handed me. But I dove headfirst into coding tutorials online—stuff from free sites and some cheap online bootcamps. I was baking meatloaf in the oven while trying to debug JavaScript errors late at night. It was a grind but rewarding. After months of practicing, I started freelance gigs for small clients just by showing them what I could do on GitHub and a portfolio site I cobbled together.
Employers these days can definitely spot real hands-on skills and passion even if you don’t have a diploma from some big university plastered on your wall. A lot of companies, especially startups or smaller firms, value practical knowledge way more than formal degrees. Besides coding chops, if you show you can learn on your own and solve problems, that can be worth more than a couple letters after your name. Just gotta hustle, build projects, document your journey online, maybe contribute to open source or something to get noticed. It’s absolutely doable without going back to school for years; plenty folks are doing it and landing solid roles in tech by proving their skills instead of flashing degrees.
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