I'm in the same boat as you (American, no degree), and I mostly agree (though I think that a debate around the value of college itself should be had, because I think there are too many cases where it isn't as high as people think it is).
1. The way I handled this was to insinuate on the resume that I had a degree. I went to a university for a couple years (before flunking out) and before that I did a couple summer classes at an extension program. Those add up to four years, and I point out that I studied computer science (which is true). If they don't outright ask that's not my problem. And if they do then I explain that something personal came up, and not completing it is one of my biggest regrets in life, but at this point I don't see how a degree would help my career blah blah blah.
This has only actually affected me once, and it's for a role I'm starting this week. The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it because I don't have an "Engineering degree".
3. A degree doesn't resolve that. I interview people every week for a role at my MAGMA company, most of whom have degrees, and most of whom act like they have impostor syndrome. Practice it. Do interviews for companies you don't expect to join just for the interview practice in a low-stakes setting. You'll get over it.
"The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it"
Where is this? There are plenty of people in Software Engineering (with Engineer as their title) without engineering degrees (or college degrees at all), even at large companies like Facebook/Google etc.
Without being super cagey, let's just say I understand their rationale, and it's not entirely un-legit. I found the role via a Hacker News "Who's Hiring" post. My title is going to be "IT Consultant", and it will have zero impact on my compensation. I don't really have a problem with it.
This is the rule in Canada, at least. I wouldn’t be able to call myself an Engineer here with my CS degree, despite having had several such roles in the US.
You wouldn't be able to be call yourself and engineer even if you had an engineering degree.
You need the professional accreditation. Which you can incidentally get without having done an engineering degree, but it requires passing a lot of exams.
That sounds like some weird company/person specific thing.
have heard this come up with respect to professional engineering certifications in some states. But I believe those don't even exist in the US for software at this point--and even in some states where there are supposedly restrictions on using the term, those seem to be pretty widely ignored.
It's a weird company-specific thing. I think part of it is that the company does a significant amount of traditional engineering under the same contracts.
It’s about the political pecking order at a company.
If you’re working at a law firm, non-attorneys are often a lesser stratum of human. Likewise, engineers in some engineering company will see IT people as pretenders to the engineering throne.
Some people gain joy in finding creative ways to be assholes. It’s just how humans are wired.
And certainly at least Big Law (at least up to the point where you become a real rainmaker--which you probably won't make without the other things) has a lot of fixation on schools, law review, and clerkships.
In most other Anglo countries you can get engineer in your title as a developer (and it is beneficial as it tends to be higher compensated than programmer or developer titles in my experience).
> "In a worst case scenario, the hillside can liquefy and actually slide into the community," Assembly member Pilar Schiavo, D-Santa Clarita, said at a news conference last month.
Once again, proving that Idiocracy (2006) was prophetic, and not just satire.
I've been going lighter and lighter and am down to a backpack that I carry (mostly just meds and electronics) and a small suitcase that I could carry-on, but I usually check. But my spouse packs heavier and heavier every year. It's a way to cope with anxiety; you think of everything that can possibly go wrong, and you make sure you have that mitigated with something in your carry-on.
And that's why on our last trip we had 9 pounds of dog food for our service dog, in cold packs, in our carry-on. "But what if there's a problem with the flight, and we lose our luggage, and we can't get to a pet food store for the whole two weeks?"
Spoiler: The cold packs didn't last, the food spoiled, and we had to go to a pet store.
Yep. That's why I tend to overpack, though I've been mostly traveling with a single backpack these days if I'm traveling solo.
I'm trying to convince myself that I can afford to buy many things when I arrive somewhere, including paying for laundry. The biggest annoyance is time - if I have to do laundry on a trip, that means either sitting next to a washer and dryer for a few hours, or findind a wash-and-fold laundromat - which comes with its own set of anxieties.
I have had success with washing wool or technical garments in the sinks of hotel rooms. I don't actually do that very often but knowing that I can helps with the anxiety of running out of clothing.
It's not completely irrelevant, especially if you're planning to move back eventually.
If you're a decent software engineer, living in North Elbonia, making $20,000 / year, that's just enough to cover mortgage on a $100,000 house and live. In 30 years you've got a house and that's it.
Or you could move to the Silicon Valley and make $400,000 / year and that's just enough to cover mortgage on a $2,000,000 house and live. In 30 years you've got a house and that's it.
But when you sell your house, move back to North Elbonia, and buy a house there, you've got $1,900,000 banked. I'd take that deal.
My in-laws never had the money to save for retirement, so they got suckered into a reverse mortgage in Florida. They saw it as a way to have some spending money in their old age, but now that they've spent it and they're upside down it's a prison. They want to move to another area, closer to family, but they have no equity, and so no means to get a new place.
I'd imagine that falls into the bucket of a boomer with a mortgage.
1. The way I handled this was to insinuate on the resume that I had a degree. I went to a university for a couple years (before flunking out) and before that I did a couple summer classes at an extension program. Those add up to four years, and I point out that I studied computer science (which is true). If they don't outright ask that's not my problem. And if they do then I explain that something personal came up, and not completing it is one of my biggest regrets in life, but at this point I don't see how a degree would help my career blah blah blah.
This has only actually affected me once, and it's for a role I'm starting this week. The net effect is that my software engineering title can't have "Engineer" in it because I don't have an "Engineering degree".
3. A degree doesn't resolve that. I interview people every week for a role at my MAGMA company, most of whom have degrees, and most of whom act like they have impostor syndrome. Practice it. Do interviews for companies you don't expect to join just for the interview practice in a low-stakes setting. You'll get over it.