I'm a self-taught programmer and I've been looking at this curriculum longingly for a while now. I've been working up the courage to quit a cushy but unfulfilling job to study CS full-time (also math and physics, but that's just for fun).
I fell in love with programming after I started working, and have spent the last 7 years automating everything I can in my job. I'm confident in my ability to solve problems, but I'm missing a solid understanding of the fundamentals.
I already have a BS in Materials Engineering, and I have mixed feelings about returning to university. Tuition has doubled since I graduated, and I'm perfectly capable of teaching myself. The authors of teachyourselfcs.com have some strong opinions on CS masters degrees, though I would consider it if I found a topic that really called out to me AFTER I had built those fundamentals.
I have plenty of savings, but I'm worried that my effort will be wasted if it doesn't come with an exclusive piece of paper at the end. Will it be an obstacle, or am I worried over nothing?
Maybe do the Gerogia Tech Online Master's in Computer Science? If you're considering studying full time the fees ($10,000) are trivial compared to the foregone earnings. You don't even need to finish before you start interviewing.
Or you could "just" learn in public and chronicle it. Make a Twitch channel or livestream on YouTube. Do enough that people you don't know personally will vouch for you for a FAANG interview. Do three months of Leetcode and go to a few meetups and someone will do that.
It should be pointed out that joining Georgia Tech's OMSCS is not trivial. It's a limited-enrollment, fully accredited master's degree program. You need strong test results and convincing letters of recommendation from former faculty or mentors to be admitted.
OP has an Engineering degree. He is not going to have much trouble getting admitted. GA Tech has been quite clear that the goal is to admit everyone they think can pass who has a Bachelor's degree. They're not even aiming to make a profit, just cover costs. They're kings.
I definitely got significant value out of studying CS in a structured/academic context after being self-taught; it helped a lot of concepts that I already fuzzily understood gel together. For instance, I had written little config file parsers, and even most of my own (mini) programming language, but taking a course on programming languages, studying grammars, lexers, parsers, etc. helped make everything click and feel less shaky.
I'm not sure the diploma is a huge deal, as long as you have some industry experience (sounds like you do) and can demonstrate your skills. Having some references who can vouch for you is good to have, too.
> but taking a course on programming languages, studying grammars, lexers, parsers, etc. helped make everything click and feel less shaky.
I'm currently trying to learn all of this and wish I had completed my CS degree since you have peers going through the same thing, and a professor for office hours. I find it a little difficult to get through on my own, but I hope to get far enough to participate in PL.
You don't need a CS diploma but you need to know how to program. You'll get either a take home project or white board problems during the interview. If you can pass those, you aren't lazy, and you aren't a jerk you are hired.
This is not necessarily representative. Leetcode interviewing is so common now, it gatekeeps many companies.
By all means take courses. But before you quit to just take time off and self educate, read the long threads on here about what it is really like out there in tech hiring.
Be prepared not only to be good at programming, but great at tech interviewing which is not the same.
Just watch YouTube videos about how everything works too. Operating systems , compilers, data structures , modern computer systems. Look up elementinfs of computing systems or whatever has all the info u need.
I fell in love with programming after I started working, and have spent the last 7 years automating everything I can in my job. I'm confident in my ability to solve problems, but I'm missing a solid understanding of the fundamentals.
I already have a BS in Materials Engineering, and I have mixed feelings about returning to university. Tuition has doubled since I graduated, and I'm perfectly capable of teaching myself. The authors of teachyourselfcs.com have some strong opinions on CS masters degrees, though I would consider it if I found a topic that really called out to me AFTER I had built those fundamentals.
I have plenty of savings, but I'm worried that my effort will be wasted if it doesn't come with an exclusive piece of paper at the end. Will it be an obstacle, or am I worried over nothing?