RE: Experience vs College Degree

Short answer:  A degree definitely helps.

Why?  If you're competing for a position, and the other person has the same
level of experience as you, but he/she has a degree, chances are the hiring
party will take the degreed person.  This *might* level off somewhat as you
gain more years of experience, but I believe there will always be a tendency
to take a degreed person that has similar experience.

Second short answer:  You're programming on the AS/400 platform, right?
What are AS/400s used for?  To run businesses, right?  It's one thing to
know how to code, but it's a whole 'nother beast to understand business
processes.  This is *purely* my opinion, and I'm sure there will be widely
diverging ones in response to your query, but usually businesses want to
know that you'll be able to grasp business processes quickly.

Third short answer:  If you think there's even a sliver of a chance you'll
want to advance (?) into management roles, chances are high that a degree
will be required.  I know, you're young, you love programming, but will you
love it in 20 years?  I've been programming for 15+ years, and still love
it, but I can see down the road that I'd want to be challenged in a
different way.

There are other compelling reasons to get a degree, but those are the main
ones that come to mind.

The cons, as you mentioned, are costs (but I would argue that degreed people
probably earn more than non-degreed people doing the same thing).  Also, the
time invested.

Does your employer offer tuition reimbursement?  If they do, take advantage
of it!

- Dan Bale
(I am *NOT* "Dale"
http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200105/msg00281.html )