Hi David:

Is it fair ... no ... do I agree with you no.

I have an excellent friend who immigrated from Poland and whose work I respect greatly. We, on several occasions, talked about this issue. His answer was very enlightening ... he likened a college degree to a hiker in the mountains. The higher you go the more you can see.

I also have an uncle that has worked in the computer field for his entire life ... without a degree. His advice to me once I *graduated* the Navy was to obtain a 4 year degree ... at all costs. I took his advice and never regretted it. He, believe me, was talking from experience. Four times, the companies he worked for were purchased in LBO's. Each time, because of his lack of a degree, he started out at the bottom of the pile.

So, the answer to your question depends upon you. Where do you want to go? I can tell you one thing with confidence. An excellent programmer that has a BS, MBA or Ph.D. has one, two or three more tools to use than an excellent programmer without one. This is not to say that the excellent programmer without an advanced degree can't do the work. This is meant to say that the non-degreed programmer has alot more work to do proving a level of capability.

Another point ... one that I have not seen addressed yet. Each and every program I have written deals with solving problems in a company's very specific problem domain. These problem domains range from Accounting to Finanace to Statistics to Marketing, etc. The applicant who has a college degree (and a decent GPA), from a reputable institution, has studied and (presumably) understands many of these topics.

So, in conclusion, the message is this. Programs (and the programmers who write them) solve the problems that business people (who have the money to spend) do not want to take the time to complete themselves, manually. When they are presented on one hand with an applicant that simply knows how to program computers and on the other hand with an applicant that *should* understand the concepts of Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Statistics and yes, even Zoology they will choose, on average, the one that can intelligently dicuss the problems in *their* problem domain. Basically, saying you have a college degree and a well rounded education allows an employer to make a critical assumption, you know a certain amount about many things. This alleviates a lot of questions they must ask to find out about you. It allows them to reduce their resume stack from 1000 to 100. In short ... it allows them to be lazier.

It is all economics. Are their programmers out there without a college degree that can do some jobs better than a college graduate? Undoubtedly. The problem is that it takes a heckuvalot more time (read money) to find that golden needle in the haystack of several million programmers.

It sounds as if you don't like your current situation. Do everything in your power to open as many doors as possible. It that means taking the next couple of years to get the parchment ... do it ... the changes are good you'll have little or no regrets.

Best,

CTBlankenship
Flash Creative Management, Inc.