Hi HN, I'm unsure what the next move is in my career. I'm in the US and have been in the industry for the past decade. I took classes at one point and did terribly, lacking motivation and being eager to return to the workforce. I spent my time there freelancing and left in the middle of the second semester, failing every class. My cumulative GPA is 2.0 at best. I can't stand school.
After that I worked my way up from low-paying "grunt" positions to high-paying senior/informal lead positions, delivering great results at every job. I've taught myself a broad range of technologies and techniques in that time.
Now it feels like I've hit my ceiling, and at 28 that's disappointing. I'd like to be a principal, architect, or even CTO. And I don't want to wait another ten years for the skepticism I meet at the workplace (due to the combination of a lack of education, and my youth) to evaporate. It makes it difficult to get the job done, especially when that requires the latitude to make sweeping technical decisions.
Places like Google and LinkedIn have recruited me in the past, only to fall silent before so much as a phone screen due to the lack of a degree. But vets whose work I respect, from BigCorps like Google and Intel, have told me I'm one of the best they've worked with.
How do I break this paper ceiling? Is it in my mind alone? Are there credible CS degrees that factor in work experience, so I could limit my laughable anguish in classroom learning? Would it even be worthwhile to pursue a degree, given my awful transcript?
The other paths to the jobs I want seem to require fortune (work at a very successful startup and either get acquihired into a leadership role, or get the reputation so it's a foregone conclusion) or serious sacrifice (heavy OSS development outside of work, but I already give 100% to my day job). I already dismissed one such gift-horse, unable to relocate overseas when a BigCorp was going to hire me as a senior during an acquisition.
After that I worked my way up from low-paying "grunt" positions to high-paying senior/informal lead positions, delivering great results at every job. I've taught myself a broad range of technologies and techniques in that time.
Now it feels like I've hit my ceiling, and at 28 that's disappointing. I'd like to be a principal, architect, or even CTO. And I don't want to wait another ten years for the skepticism I meet at the workplace (due to the combination of a lack of education, and my youth) to evaporate. It makes it difficult to get the job done, especially when that requires the latitude to make sweeping technical decisions.
Places like Google and LinkedIn have recruited me in the past, only to fall silent before so much as a phone screen due to the lack of a degree. But vets whose work I respect, from BigCorps like Google and Intel, have told me I'm one of the best they've worked with.
How do I break this paper ceiling? Is it in my mind alone? Are there credible CS degrees that factor in work experience, so I could limit my laughable anguish in classroom learning? Would it even be worthwhile to pursue a degree, given my awful transcript?
The other paths to the jobs I want seem to require fortune (work at a very successful startup and either get acquihired into a leadership role, or get the reputation so it's a foregone conclusion) or serious sacrifice (heavy OSS development outside of work, but I already give 100% to my day job). I already dismissed one such gift-horse, unable to relocate overseas when a BigCorp was going to hire me as a senior during an acquisition.