Hi all, looking for advice on whether to seek a CS degree. I’m an older guy about to successfully make a career shift in to SWE. I graduated bootcamp last may and I’m about to start my first jr. engineering role at Oracle OCI. I’m in my late 30’s with a couple of kids. Is it worth it for me to seek a CS degree at this time? I’m not afraid of the extra work, but wondering if the eventual payoff would worth the effort. Also I’m concerned about having the skills needed to get Sr. quicker.

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It wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not necessary. It may depend on what type of engineer you want to be as well. These days, it’s less about the degree and more about the experience. If you devoted the same amount of time you would spend on school work to doing self study and building a portfolio of projects using technologies you’re interested in, you may be better off.

Side note: Idk how old your kids are, but I went back to school to get my MS CS while working full time, and I’m so glad I did it before my kids were born or it would have been 2 years of never seeing my family or 5+ years of part time never seeing my family. A CS degree is no joke if you’re actually looking to learn. You might be able to skate by if you just want the diploma for potential career advancement.

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When I was 40 I did an ROI analysis of an MBA degree. I was already a Sr Product Manager. Calculated out the increase in income over my working career and determined that I wasn’t going to get enough increases to warrant the $100k investment at that stage of my life.
I was able to be present at school/sports, have decent vacations, pay son’s college, and I only have a couple years left on the mortgage. Life’s been awesome.
A full degree is an investment. Do your due diligence and you will find what’s right for you.

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Yeah my employer has some amount of tuition reimbursement. I would expect to pay less than 10-15k out of pocket. The time investment is a consideration, but I think manageable for our current situation as long as I'm only doing part time. Thanks for the info.

Depends on if you need it. If you can code and understand algorithms and design... Why get a degree? After a couple of years of experience, you don't even need to include your degree on your CV (especially for SWE).

Bottomline is if you can code and can pass the interviews, you are probably going to do well.

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Good info. I've already made it past that step so it may be worth focusing on my new job first and not splitting my effort. I will at least give it 3-6 months to get a feel for the pace. Some of the programs I'm looking at require 3-6 months advance application though so I'm considering applying and deciding later.

You’re in a good spot to grow professionally. My advice would be no. The next advice I would give is be super curious and dive into a lot of different things. Software engineering isn’t just making web pages. It’s way bigger than that.

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