Hey carpainter, I think the answer is "it depends". You are required to have a "computer" degree (computer science, computer engineering, software development, computer information systems) to work as a programmer/software developer for some companies/institutions, while others are not so picky. I'll relay some first-hand experiences I've had to give you a feel for what to expect since my employment in development since 1997. I worked at Lexmark as a coop student, in their technical support center, then they hired me after I got my first degree in Physical Science. I dropped out of UK as a senior in electrical engineering unfortunately after my wife was expecting our first baby, but that first degree helped get me hired, so I didn't look back. My first manager there told me they were picky about who they hired to write their software (printer utilities and print drivers), but I was a special case on the build team. I only helped build the tools to build the software, not build the actual software going out the door on the CDs. It was a good learning experience when I eventually got to work on our C++ command line tools with PVCS APIs and helped me understand the need for a masters so I have a real "computer" degree. That manager told me they preferred University of Louisville or Purdue grads, but "would take" University of Kentucky people. That was a carry over from the old IBM days (Lexmark is a spin off from IBM and had a bunch of old IBMers when I joined them in 1992) where they were picky and demanded grads who went to good schools with good GPAs. One guy I knew worked for IBM in Lexington and worked on the old PC bios and he told me that he had trouble getting his wife into IBM because she only had a 3.14 GPA. That's IBM. I suspect Hewlett Packard may be somewhat the same, but they also know there's some guys that can code and not have a degree. I was also interviewing in Louisville for a job (maybe a bank, but I can't remember) several years ago and they had hired a guy because his skills were such a good fit for the job but then had to rescind the offer because he didn't have a degree. Folks without a college degree can lose out on some good (better?) jobs just because they don't have a piece of paper. They told me that HR found out he didn't have a degree when they reviewed his application and kicked him out.

That said, I also worked at a place called ELAN Home Systems in Lexington, KY and worked along with several high quality electrical and mechanical engineers and guys with degrees in computer science and software development from Purdue. One of the better guys had a degree in electrical engineering and another in computer science and was well-respected. My office mate had a masters in electrical engineering. This was my first job after I finished my masters and I got a 26% salary increase by leaving ACS (affiliated computer services) in 2006. They just weren't going to give me anything for that degree, so I was forced to leave if I wanted more cash. (Not bragging here, just relaying some of my experiences for you). Those degrees do help, bottom line. One of the four guys on our software team didn't have any college, and he did okay. He had navy electronics experience, but not sure of the details. He was impetuous and a little scary in the way that he refactored code, but he did fine. He later went to work for ACS and as far as I know is still there. He worked initially at ELAN in the technical support area and got into the back door doing software development because he worked hard at night learning on his own. I'm not sure he would have gotten in the door as a software developer off the street without a degree, because, as far as I know, no one else in engineering or the software team was without a degree.

ACS is a different story. After ELAN dissolved, we all got laid off. We helped get this guy on to ACS - without any college I believe, but it took at least two interviews. He wasn't strong at all with SQL Server and he essentially failed the technical interview when they asked him questions like "What would you do if you had an application that was running slow" and other SQL-related questions like "What's a primary key" and other basics like that. He told me that he said "I'm not sure" several times so it's pretty obvious he wasn't a good fit. But I gave him some primers and told him to bone up on his SQL skills and he could probably get in, and he did.

So, that long-winded discussion brings us to this point. Degrees help a lot. Certs can get you an interview, but you still have to know your stuff to get the job. The career lab for the Nashville .NET Users Group here - http://nashdotnet.org/2013/01/january-17th-career-lab/ has a lot of very good career/interviewing information that is critical to understanding how to get a job. It's an hour and a half recording of their career panel of hiring managers and recruiters and it's very eye-opening. They had so much good information that I took extensive notes and would be happy to PM/email that to you if you want it. They say they don't look at programming certifications much at all if I recall correctly. I don't have that in my notes that they said that, but I'm pretty sure they're where Grant is on that. IMO, it's generally known that the MS programming certifications are just memory work and they don't really prove a thing. And, definitely don't mean that you know how to program. I believe the networking/Cisco certifications are different. The two guys on our team here at work (not at ACS) have extensive certifications for servers and/or networking and are very skilled individuals. They back up their certs with bona fide skills. If you don't have a degree, some hiring managers will skip over your resume/cv very quickly if some accomplishments aren't apparent. It always helps to know people and network with those you know. Experience, know-how and good skills trumps everything most of the time.

Hope that helps. It sure took a long time to write. : )

--Steve