How To Become a Software Engineer Without a Degree | USF Bootcamps

What Does a Software Engineer Do?

A software engineer is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining software applications and networking systems. It is a highly technical profession that requires coding and technical design expertise. The final goal of a software engineer is to build innovative, high-quality, and fully performing software optimized for a specific purpose. Typical job responsibilities include:

• Designing and writing testable code

• Analyzing user requirements

• Creating technical specifications and determining operational feasibility

• Troubleshooting and upgrading existing systems

• Researching and developing new computer software and OS applications

• Monitoring and correcting for software defects

• Integrating existing software products with newer frameworks

• Consulting with clients to evaluate software performance

• Working closely with colleagues such as project managers, UX designers, systems analysts, and sales and marketing professionals

• Complying with project plans and industry standards

Do You Need a Degree To Become a Software Engineer?

The short answer is no. You do not need a degree to build a career as a software engineer. Although a software engineering job is very technical, you can acquire the necessary skills through bootcamps or online courses.

Tech companies look for a good balance of technical and soft skills in the applicants for software engineer positions. It hardly matters whether these skills come from a four-year college degree or a six-month bootcamp. In fact, self-taught candidates might even have an advantage over the average recent college graduate. Fresh graduates often lack the skills and experience to write production-ready code. 

On the other hand, high-quality bootcamps and online courses are designed to make graduates workforce-ready. Learners who enroll in a comprehensive web development or coding bootcamp can gain real-world experience developing and testing complete solutions.

How Much Does a Software Engineer Make Without a Degree?

According to Indeed, the average base salary for a software engineer in the U.S. is $119,960. Most engineers also receive significant cash bonuses and long-term incentives from their employers. This data remains consistent across professionals with or without an engineering or CS degree.

Most businesses and organizations, especially the larger ones, focus on candidates’ skills and qualifications, not their academic degrees. Online courses and bootcamps are just as intensive and much more economical in the long run. They allow you to build the expertise to become a software engineer at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bachelor’s or master’s degree.

How To Become a Software Engineer Without a Degree

As a beginner in the tech field, it can take a while to build the right skills for a software engineer job. But if you’re willing to commit the time and effort, you will soon have a fulfilling, rewarding career.

Master the Prerequisites

The first step toward building your technical skillset is understanding the fundamentals in-depth. You will need comprehensive knowledge of programming languages, web development tools and platforms, and server-and-client-side technology. Containers, cloud platforms, and version control tools (like GitHub) are some of the most relevant topics in the modern software industry. 

Strengthen Your Coding Skills

Once you have a firm grasp of software development’s theoretical and technical aspects, you can move on to improving your coding skills. This is the most valuable skill for a software engineer. Software engineers spend most of their time designing, troubleshooting, and updating code. So it only makes sense to dedicate a good amount of time to refining this key skill. Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and SQL are the most in-demand programming languages in the field today.

Practice With Independent Projects

The next step is to gain real-world experience with stand-alone coding projects. This will be the most important part of your resume if you don’t have previous work experience as a software developer. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate the practical applications of all your expertise. You should choose projects that show various skills such as full-stack development, using standard frameworks/libraries, setting up a development environment, and/or creating mobile apps.

Join a Software Community or Find a Mentor

Word-of-mouth and referrals can significantly help your career in the initial stages. Joining online communities like Github and finding an industry mentor can provide valuable professional guidance. If you decide to enroll in an online course or bootcamp, make sure you take advantage of the extensive network of mentors and career counselors available.