u/pfistergood wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Elegant position, u/michaelnovati, I agree with you whole heartily. More specifically I agree with what you said about a top-tier CS school being the best route for some. Especially for someone in high school. I would be a fool if I tried to tell anyone that traditional coll
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Yeah lots of agreement here. Highly depends on a lot of things. I know self taught people with great fundamentals and they just need to connect some dots (a few months still but like definitely faster than a degree) to get pretty close to a CS-degree level theory. I also know self taught people who don't know any theory and it tends to take longer, as expected, to get interview ready and it feels more painful and confusing along the way.
In terms of practical skills, it's really those internships that make a difference. University of Waterloo is the best case study - people do SIX LEGIT internships in their degree and it takes 5 years to complete instead of 4 years. People come out almost at a Facebook E4 level (even though they are hired as E3 and typically progress to E4 quickly).
I could see a bootcamp grad being able to hit the group running faster than a CS college grad that has had zero work experience.