Computer Programming Is a Trade

Computer Programming Is a Trade; Let's Act Like It

Excerpt:

If you're a young person who is thinking about becoming a computer programmer but can't afford college, you might think about skipping college altogether, says Ryan Carson, co-founder of an online coding school. And he isn't alone. In interviews with other code-school founders, I heard the same story again and again: Committed programming students are getting jobs whether or not they have a college degree and whether or not they are starting careers or switching, midlife, from another field. The most intensive schools, like Seattle-based Code Fellows, are so sure they can get students work they will refund a student's tuition—$12,000 for 16 blitzkrieg weeks to get a person from zero to trained—if that person doesn't get a job. .... it turns out that a computer-science degree isn't necessary to get a job in programming. Fourteen percent of the members of some teams at Google don't have a college degree, and 67% of the programming jobs in the U.S. are at nontech companies where other kinds of industry experience are more likely to be valued. Computer programming, in other words, has become a trade. Like nursing or welding, it's something in which a person can develop at least a basic proficiency within weeks or months. And once budding coders learn enough to get their first jobs, they get onto the same path to upward mobility offered to their in-demand, highly paid peers.

Comment: codefellows.org Imagine ... a high paying job after 12 weeks of training.