Technology is not as fast paced as headlines make people think. For web applications, XHR (XMLHttpRequest) came from Microsoft in ~1998 and has essentially been used ad nauseam to do all sorts of dynamically rendering parts of HTML pages for 25 years. Its much cheaper/better than building client side software that has to be deployed and patched across a bunch of OSes. Sure there are patterns and frameworks, etc. that have come (and gone) for the web but the core fundamentals for building a web app are mostly unchanged. What about AI/ML? Companies 20+ years ago built out search engines, I see this as an evolution of that, indexing web content/text and providing more context driven outputs.
Some employers value degrees, some don't. Having a degree opens doors or rather you don't get HR/profiling to slam doors in your face because you didn't check the box.
My path was CS before Google was a household name (mid 90's). CS was just barely spun off of Math departments. I picked CS because I liked computer games and building PC's and doing stuff with computers was (and still is) fun. I found the CS program beneficial, establishing a core knowledge of how computers work and what happens when you run programs.
I'd say if you're in it for a career (aka a lifetime), get a degree. If you're in it as a stepping stone or changing careers or see the salaries and are chasing money, go to a bootcamp or equivalent to get up to speed to be proficient.
Comments
Technology is not as fast paced as headlines make people think. For web applications, XHR (XMLHttpRequest) came from Microsoft in ~1998 and has essentially been used ad nauseam to do all sorts of dynamically rendering parts of HTML pages for 25 years. Its much cheaper/better than building client side software that has to be deployed and patched across a bunch of OSes. Sure there are patterns and frameworks, etc. that have come (and gone) for the web but the core fundamentals for building a web app are mostly unchanged. What about AI/ML? Companies 20+ years ago built out search engines, I see this as an evolution of that, indexing web content/text and providing more context driven outputs.
Some employers value degrees, some don't. Having a degree opens doors or rather you don't get HR/profiling to slam doors in your face because you didn't check the box.
My path was CS before Google was a household name (mid 90's). CS was just barely spun off of Math departments. I picked CS because I liked computer games and building PC's and doing stuff with computers was (and still is) fun. I found the CS program beneficial, establishing a core knowledge of how computers work and what happens when you run programs.
I'd say if you're in it for a career (aka a lifetime), get a degree. If you're in it as a stepping stone or changing careers or see the salaries and are chasing money, go to a bootcamp or equivalent to get up to speed to be proficient.