wanderinghacker

I think you're right. I've avoided networking so far in my career but I have to overcome that silly sense of pride, because if anything is going to help, it's the personal references of those who do have the trust/pedigree. Honestly, I'm amazed I've even gotten this far purely on the strength of technical skills and moderate charisma.

Thank you for the academic advice.

> I am also puzzled by you dropping out halfway through a semester and failing multiple classes.

OK, I omitted something (not deliberately. It's interesting how we unconsciously cut out the more painful parts of our lives). Being a young fool, I got into some legal trouble at the time and had to make money to hire a lawyer. I also had a court date set for the summertime, which ruled out my Spanish teacher's generous offer for me to stay with her family overseas that summer. This meant that I was about to be homeless, not to mention lacking any way to afford the legal fees.

I was very lucky to get a good job offer as soon as I started looking. It meant that I had a three hour commute from my dorm, but I was able to save up enough money to land on my feet in two months. Otherwise, I would've been homeless.

I did everything I could to complete the courses at first (studying and writing essays on my stolen two-hour commuter rail ride, for instance), but I simply lacked the energy and perseverance to make things work. After a month of trying this, I had to stop so that I could at least do well at the job. Most of my teachers were devastated when I told them that I could not continue with the coursework because I'd done very well to that point and was more engaged than most other students (it was well past the deadline to drop a course).

Looking back on it, I'm amazed things went as well as they did. I do believe that this story would have gone quite differently for a person from a more privileged background than my own.

I never applied to these places, so take this with a grain of salt. But when I was recruited by Google several years ago, the recruiter was enthusiastic but got back to me several days later saying that she simply could not sell the hiring manager on me because of lack of degree. In LinkedIn's case, they mistook me for a recent grad due to creating a new profile on their website, and after setting up an initial phone call that revealed this error, I never heard back from them (truthfully, the latter opportunity was probably not what I'd want anyway).

You're right that I'm lacking in some skills, but it seems like the skill bar is set much higher for a person without a degree. You have to be truly exceptional to warrant consideration.

Thanks, and I hope the post didn't come across as aiming to be a manager, indeed that's the opposite of my goal. I'm mostly interested in becoming a principal/architect at some point and am worried that path is blocked. The sort of school you described doesn't sound very reputable... wouldn't that be a waste of money?

This is excellent advice, thank you. I think that after rising through the ranks quickly, I'm worried that my advancement (and earnings) are now capped for a while. Meanwhile I see less skilled developers fresh out of school making near what I make, getting signing bonuses, etc. and no doubt on their way to better pay at more interesting jobs. So there is an element of envy. Often it feels like I'm on the outside looking in on the tech industry because of all of the opportunities that seem unattainable (described here in another comment).

I don't know if a degree is the solution, I'm open to anything. Right now, it feels like the lack of education excludes me from the following opportunities: Engineer at a BigCorp, funded cofounder/first hire (investors seem to want that pedigree), and tech lead/architect at a non-tech company that relies on the degree heuristic for leadership hires. I frequently see exciting job postings that require a bachelor's/master's CS degree, no exceptions.