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rachelweaver
15,876 PointsShould I apply for a job that requires a degree when I do not have one
I don't have any references outside of a few professors and I have no experience. 90% of the front end developer jobs I have seen listed require a degree, experience and most often both. Should I apply anyway and does human resources really care if I have a github?
5 Answers
edward hong
1,183 Pointswas wondering the same thing.
Andre' Jones
26,671 PointsApply. If u can prove your skills you'll get a shot.
Colin Marshall
32,861 PointsIt never hurts to apply. Worst that can happen is they say, "No, we can't hire you because you don't have enough experience," and you already knew that. Beyond that you can learn a lot from the experience. I'm sure the Treehouse staff has a lot to add to this.
A lot of this stuff is probably covered in the Business courses here on Treehouse. I am about halfway through them and find them to be very informative.
Patrick Cooney
12,216 PointsBefore I launch into my answer let me say, don't take this as me saying don't apply. By all means you should apply.
However, with that out of the way let me tell you what you can possibly expect based on my experience looking for graphic design jobs without a degree. Expect to not hear back about most of the jobs rather than getting a "sorry, you don't have enough experience". Even if you have a lot of prior experience in the field (I had 4 years of graphics in high school). Odds are the job you applied for has 20+ other applicants, many of whom have degrees in or related to the field. You're immediately at a disadvantage. Maybe you have a killer portfolio though. Well out of those 20+ others with degrees maybe 5 of them also have stellar portfolios. So now you're competing against people with a degree and a portfolio equal to or better than yours. At that point you have to hope it comes down to salary requirements by the other person or some other factor that will cause the company to disqualify them.
I know this sounds sort of depressing and bleak but its how the design field goes. Everyone who is a little creative or artistic wants to be a designer of some sort because they see it as a way to remain creative without being broke like a fine artist. C'est la vie.
rachelweaver
15,876 PointsWell thanks for being honest, it's just pretty rough for someone fairly new to the field. I know a degree would help open doors and while I loved my computer science professor and classmates, I just didn't like college and will probably never go back.
Andre' Jones
26,671 PointsI've heard there are a shortage of Developers so your odds will be better. I have a friend that's a Software Engineer and he gets calls from recruiters daily. He has a degree and about to get a masters u should still get that point that there are more jobs than there are developers. He mentored a friend and in a year from scratch he got a job as a ruby on rails developer.
Watch some of the Career Foundations courses.
Patrick Cooney
12,216 PointsYou're not wrong, there is a shortage of developers... back-end developers. Everyone wants the (minor) glory that comes with designing and developing the part of the site that everyone sees. The back-end sort of gets the reputation of being boring since it's just a bunch of code. A designer can create and develop the most beautiful front end you've ever seen but without the back-end guy (or gal) its just a really pretty mock-up! There is definitely no shortage of artistic people graduating looking for a job that allows them to express their creativity. There is also no shortage of former graphic designers trying to learn HTML and CSS to keep up with the changing times. Front end development also doesn't have as high a barrier to entry as back end stuff due to the ease of learning css and html.
I was going to post some numbers from linked in on the click throughs for front-end jobs but they don't list how many people clicked on a job ad link anymore.
P.S. Rachel, that's how I felt about college after my first semester at Arizona State (Graphic Design). However after a few years of being unable to find a job in my field my tune really changed. Now I'm back in school for CS. Don't completely rule it out. I'm not saying your situation is going to be the same as mine, however in this economy employers can afford to be super picky about who they want to hire. My goal isn't to discourage, just to relay my couple of years of wisdom on the matter. Being a 25 year old sophomore sucks and taking math classes with kids that were in elementary school when you were already in high school is sort of a downer.
Katrina M
Courses Plus Student 2,780 PointsDo you have a LinkedIn page? Put your skills on your page, and you may find recruiters emailing you...