🌈 Josh

Here, inside Microsoft at least, I don't see many in leadership without an alma mater. Especially way up there. There are some coders, I suppose, but in terms of career, I see it as limiting. Oh, you'll "get a job" but when you zoom out, not sure that should even be the measure.

I think that if your ambitions are to reach the upper echelons of a massive tech company, yeah not having a CS degree might be limiting. You could also say that because I didn't take up hockey in my childhood, I'm limited from becoming the next Wayne Gretzky.

I asked a year after I was hired why they decided to take a chance on someone without a degree and no experience. It came down to the speed at which I learned/improved and my design skills. I worked A LOT on my portfolio when applying to try to standout as a newbie.

If you want the other side of the story, I can tell you why, as a hiring manager, I hire people without a CS degree.

Please do tell...

I had a pretty developed React todo app that I had built during my time @codebar. I talked about: 1. How I had re-architected it over time and experience (showing I could learn) 2. Show that I could use CSS, JS, and state management. 3. Prioritise features.

Demonstrated another project where I had learnt how to TDD as well as a more fun personal VR app. During the take home I used TDD, could give some explanation of why I had take certain routes and general assumptions.

I showed passion and dedication through how much I had learned in my spare time (whilst being a full time teacher). I also had recently focused on web accessibility and this was a huge area for my now employer.

Amazing - I’ve been thinking for a while that accessibility is one of those growing-demand-but-low-supply skills that could really help new devs stand out. Plus it’s also nice to build inclusive products!