Is it possible to get a software engineering job at Google without a CS degree? How can I prepare myself?
Absolutely. Former Google VP of People Operations Laszlo Bock stated 14% of the people on some product teams have no degree. You just won’t do that without enough professional experience.Get a software engineering job at a company selling software in their product which usually requires a CS degree. Implementing business logic someplace where engineers aren’t essential won’t provide relevant work experience. Change jobs after the later of 2 years and when you’re no longer learning. More frequent changes suggest you don’t stick with things, may be job hopping for more money, or are being forced out because you don’t perform well. As a senior software engineer with 10 years of experience you’ll have no problem landing a job because you’re a lower risk than new graduates who may be incapable of growing into self-sufficient senior engineers.Usually getting hired with no degree or professional experience is not possible because there are more people with ABET accredited CS degrees who want to work as software engineers than jobs, especially at companies like Google. Those people are lower risk due to recognized practical experience including a two semester capstone project where they worked in a group as they would in industry on a commercial scale project.Studying by itself won’t help because you won’t get an interview without enough evidence suggesting you’re more likely to pass the hiring bar and do senior engineering work than new CS graduates.Open Source is not as good as professional experience because it’s less likely to require working closely with a team and following good engineering process as you’ll need to do as an engineer.2–3 years on a master’s degree starting with some other bachelor’s or 4–5 years for a BS CS is a shorter and more certain path to companies like Google.
Pros and Cons of being a Software Engineer?
1) The biggest "pro" is the opportunity to work in many diverse industries. Almost every type of business needs Software Engineers - from hospitals to military to video games to telecommunications. The biggest "con" is that 99% of software projects are poorly planned and you'll almost always be working to catch up. 2) If you have decent math skills and problem solving ability, then the content can be learned IF you're willing to do the necessary work. It's not a degree that you can sail through. 3) Don't expect to find a software engineering position at Google or Yahoo unless your grades are excellent (top 5%) AND you do intern work before you graduate so that they can see the quality of your work. Most software engineers find less glamorous jobs, but can be just as professionally fulfilling.
Becoming a software engineer in my 30's.?
Absolutely you can get into software engineering. It's a diverse field, though most people get into computer programming. What are you interested in--programming, database administration, testing, systems administration, business/systems analysis? Look at what is in high demand (job sites like Monster and Workopolis) in software. If you have a bachelors degree, you could easily up your chances of landing a good job if you were to get either a certificate in some area of software development (even something simple, like IT management), or a masters degree (several schools have simple software engineering masters degrees, as well as other computer science/information technology degrees). If you like the HTML/XML stuff, try to learn more about "Web 2.0". Yahoo and Google provide excellent APIs for rapid application development using simple scripting skills like javascript. Learn how to do mash-ups, work with AJAX, JSON, and REST. Another very important point: it is NOT mandatory for you to take courses to learn these skills; if you are capable of reading, experimenting, and learning on your own, you can become a good programmer without going through formal training. It depends partly on the kind of person you are. If you are one of those people that needs to hear an instructor and see someone show you things in person, then you will probably want to take courses. But if you are capable of reading articles on web sites and learning by code snippets and examples, you will do fine on your own. Another thing about programming: don't listen to people who insist that you need a four-year computer science degree--these people are typically dumbfounded at how many good programmers never got an CS or IT degree. Programming is more of a talent, and you have to have PASSION for it in order to excel at it.
Are there software engineers at Google without college degrees?
In short, yes.Here's a story by former Google engineer, David Byttow: Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree.These articles may interest you as well:How Google Picks New Employees (Hint: It's Not About Your Degree)Why Google doesn’t care about hiring top college graduatesGoogle Has Started Hiring More People Who Didn't Go To CollegeWhy Google doesn't care about college degrees, in 5 quotesAnd...Amin Ariana's answer to Google: Is it possible to get a software engineering job at Google without a computer science degree?