[walrus1066]

Personal experience on this. My degree (physics) was nearly completely orthogonal to my career (software engineer).

But I have no doubt it helped me get not just my first job, but also subsequent ones, probably due to 'his code/tech talk could be better, but he seems smart and has a physics doctorate from a prestigious institution'.

Think software hiring+quality would be much better if we had an apprecticeship culture, instead of based on perceived prestige from excelling at University.

[sorenn111]

I agree but the very employers who are the literal gatekeepers to a good job often use credentials as signals right from the start, which contributes to the credentialling arms race that I think we've been going through.

Apprenticeships and trade schools will become a strong alternative path as soon as employers accept them to be. Moreover, often times the credential itself isnt the big deal, just its viewed as a competition and someone who got a good GPA from a top school seemingly displayed an ability to do well in that competition.

I wish it were different, but I don't see employers changing their game anytime soon.

[AchieveLife]

I've met a disturbing amount of employers who love coding schools because they provide underpaid code monkeys.

IMO, things must change if we are to survive future obstacles.