I already know that it is not necessary to get a degree to get a job as a software engineer or data scientist or mobile developer, etc, but how to survive in a market that the symbol of a degree, many times it shows safety, what would you do? Or what did you do?
Generally what I've found to be true is that connections are the most important, unless you're already established in the field. If you have no experience as an employee, then the best thing to do is find a way to establish connections through meetup.com or maybe through independent consultant work from mom & pop shops or small businesses; both require that you put yourself out there in one way or another, though the latter might require that you have work samples to convince the person you can do what you're selling them on.
From what I've experienced, recruiters only exist for interns, those about to graduate (but haven't already), and those who have plenty of experience, as it seems like the recruitment process is generally broken pretty badly, though recruiters will disagree strongly.
I believe, you do not need a degree to get a job if you are good at something. to prove the statement let me tell you a story(A true story) of a guy whom i met in a technical meetup.
On first look, i found him very simple looking and very good at programming but not very confident. so during the conversation with him he told me about him and his story is been quite motivational to me as well.
He used to work in a computer cafe and there is when he got his first desire to learn programming language after he saw some guys discussing and coding in his cafe, then he learned HTML, JavaScript by help of these guys and from google and different free resources. and finally got his job as UI developer in very small scaled company where he used to get Rs. 4000. I sure was good with technologies and eager to learn new things, he learned ReactJS which was new to that time, As for degree Initially he did not had degree but he did distance BCA for a degree and later on got job in very good MNC company.
Here is what is learned from this is:
Hope this answer will help you.
Happy coding!!
Steven Ventimiglia
Creative Technologist & Sr. Front-End Developer
Lead by example.
Show us what you can do. Learn what you can't. Then, show us some more.
Degrees are like High School Diplomas... fairly irrelevant to the work you are currently capable off. Deep dive into some personal projects and use those as examples.
When someone asks me about my work, my favorite answer still is, "Would you like to see some?"