I think it depends on the circumstances of your self learning. In general I think its harder to get a programming/software engineering job nowadays than it was 15-20 years ago without a degree. I mean, if you were self taught on PHP/Perl/Linux in the 90s, then you could've gotten yourself in on the ground floor without a CS degree. Likewise for any new tech stack that gets introduced, immersing yourself in it can certainly make up for not having a CS degree.
While I think it has gotten harder for non-CS degreed people to compete with CS-degreed people when viewed in terms of how hiring used to happen, due to limitations in ways to show experience, I think there are now many more ways to show equivalent experience other than a prior job in the same industry. A good Stack Overflow reputation and/or a Github account with some projects or contributions to known open source projects that have been accepted would go a long want in my book towards asserting someone could function as a programmer.
I'm not sure if it's true or not (and I was one of those self-taught in the late 1990s devs) that it's harder now, but I can tell you that even back then it had challenges even beyond getting a foot in the door: https://medium.com/@opirmusic/why-software-developers-should...
It was possible then, and it's possible now; it is definitely a lot more work than with the degree, though.
Interesting article. If you can go to university on a full-ride scholarship without getting yourself into debt, then by all means, you don't have anything to lose. But when you say that self-learning is a lot more work than a degree, I have to disagree with that. Getting a bachelors in CS is no cake walk, and after you graduate, you'll have to spend years getting actual experience with a company anyway. Either way, to be successful in a field, you'll have to work extremely hard. For some, paying for a college degree can be self-motivation to work harder, but in the end, everyone will have to work hard to make it.
I have several friends without university degrees that are software devs. The difficulty seems really variable. If you get that first job and can stay there for a couple of years, I would say it is often easier than going to University. Personally, I didn't consider comp sci to be a particularly difficult degree (in comparison to physics or pure math for example), but exams and assignments are definitely more stressful than what you normally run into in a job.
There is a lot of risk with going without a degree, though. Take the example of the person who posted a few days ago about working as an intern for 8 months, getting into a fight with his boss over money and finding himself without a job. I'll take the stress of an exam over that any day. Trying to find a junior position without an academic background often means putting yourself at the mercy of unscrupulous people :-(
I got a free ride through school, but I went through in the 80's when it was also comparatively cheap. At that time, I don't think there was much of a downside to getting a degree. If I were to do it again (on my own dime), though, I would seriously think about trying to get an apprenticeship at 18 instead. If you can work for those 4 years, I think you would be considerably ahead financially.
I'm glad to hear you had a more positive experience in that area. I'm speaking from my own experiences, and from conversations with degreeless peers over the years (started in 1997), whose opinions concur with mine; what I've witnessed may be more prevalent than you might think. Consider that not everyone may inclined to discuss it openly. It's not a particularly comfortable subject.
Very true--it does take much more motivation and skill nowadays to get into a job without a degree. But it can still be done. Getting a degree doesn't give you a good Stack Overflow or GitHub profile. It's experience in the field that gives you that. I've interviewed coders for dev jobs at the agency I work at, and 99% of the time, I won't even ask/care about a degree if they have an impressive portfolio.
