Do you think this is right........

Question

Now All-most company's in INDIA prefer that one who have a Master Degrees as compare to the person who have great knowledge about the platform on which company works.. So, do you think this is right....????

Sam Hobbs · Accepted Answer

I agree that it is foolish for comnpanies to require that a person have a degree, but it is the way the world works. Companies prefer to hire people that must be taught everything. There are many college graduates that can't do things that a hobbyist can do. I think it is much more useful to have a person that can figure things out themselves; that way companies don't have to pay extra to get an employee trained in something new. In other words, companies don't have to pay for training of people such as you and I but there are some people that won't even try to do something if they have not been trained in it. More important than that, if  they need someone to figure out the application systems that was developed by their organization for use by their organization that needs to be fixed and/or enhanced then there is no training available for that. Yet companies place a high priority on degrees for their staff and a low priority on documentation of their application software. It is typical that the management people must have a degree yet they are incapable of doing the system maintenance work because they are incapable of figuring it out.
In the United States Army, a degree in music qualifies a person to be a commisioned officer with much greater privileges and leadership responsibility than a non-commisioned officer.
There is something that is not emphasized for programmers outside of colleges and organizations; that is system design and system development methodolgy. When I was college-age, there was very little of anything taught in colleges about computers but it is my understanding that system design and system development methodolgy is taught in colleges and it is something that is important for good developers to understand. If you are unfamiliar with things such as requirements definitions, system specifications and system life cycles then it is worth learning about that; companies likely consider that to be important. Companies want developers that are capable of interfacing with the users of the application software and developing the requirements and developing from that without someone else that is the system analyst doing that. Skills such as that can be very valuable.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

This is true there can be better programmers without a degree. But a degree has a purpose. It tells us that this person has gone through some many years of readings and has learned (at least something) so many subjects, not just coding.
Sure! There are better street fighters than a black belt but a black belt tells us that this person has learned more than just fighting.
In the end, it biols down to how useful you are to a company. Having a degree means, company is taking less risk than testing your coding knowledge.
However, I agree with Sam and Mike, having a degree does not mean that you are a good programmer and vice versa.
That is the reason, we have Interviews and Tests. That is after the degree!
Cheers!

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Just to clarify things, I sure did not intend to imply that a degree has a negative affect on a person's ability to program and I did not intend to imply that no one with a degree is a great programmer.

Mike Gold · Answer

I agree with Sam to some extent.  Unfortunately,  a resume will probably not get past HR unless the candidate has a degree from accredited institution.  Sometimes better schools give larger advantages for a candidate.  Also managers doing the hiring often have degrees so they look for people having those degrees.  It's a vicious cylce that will unlikely be broken anytime soon.  Having said that, I've known super programmers who have no degrees and have known horrible programmers who have degrees from top notch schools.  The problem is that, only on the job do you actually learn what you need to know to become a professional software developers.   Schools simply don't teach what you need to know.  What schools teach is a background in the science behind programming.  That is because the teachers are researchers and are generally not working on typical software development projects.  Their ecosystem doesn't match the real world.   In my opinion, experience and a willingness and passion  to learn are the two best qualifications for a job in software engineering.  In practice,  the degree plays a large role regardless of your professional skill set.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

There is a reason companies prefer a candidate with Master's degree if you are starting your career. The obvious reason is, if you get that degree, company already knows you have certain fundamentals and knowlege you have earned during serveral years of studies. This is an obvious advantage over somebody who has just learned something without a college.

Mike Gold · Answer

Although I have such a degree, I think this is not right.  If I interview to individuals one with a Masters and one without, and the one without can answer my questions, then they would get my recommendation for the job.