[LRUG] Important to be a graduate? (was Re: Code samples: To do or not to do)

[Andrew McDonough]

I'm not sure that I agree that having a degree is absolutely
essential.  Sure, if you want to work for a large, faceless
corporation where the HR department automatically bin any CV that
doesn't tick certain boxes, you're better going down that route, but
if you want to work for a smaller, more dynamic company then the three
years might be better spent getting some actual experience.  I know
there are a few really good people in the local community who have
passed on the opportunity to get a degree to concentrate on businesses
they started at school that had already taken off.

I think my most valuable experiences at university weren't the
lectures or tutorials but rather having the opportunity to hang around
with a bunch of smart people with a thirst for knowledge.  University
is a great place to do this, but it's not necessarily the only place.
I do think degrees are useful, and I'd love to be given the chance to
spend three years reading about computer science (and wish I had
appreciated it more the first time), but I certainly wouldn't write
off an applicant just because they didn't have a degree.

Andrew