My experience in learning spans from some self-taught material, to learning and then teaching at university and many years of hiring and managing programmers. The following are my main observations, some which align with your experiences and comments.
The biggest danger with being self-taught is that you probably skip the boring fundamentals material and thus struggle with concepts which are in turn based on basic knowledge. The most common evidence of this is programmers who have learnt one language and then rely on frameworks to do simple things.
Exams which test memorization are inappropriate for most of engineering. The test should confirm that you understand the principles and are able to effectively apply them. For example remembering the arguments to specific API calls has little value because you can look it up. But knowing the impact of using recursion vs a loop in a specific algorithm is critical.
I have come across too many university educated engineers (not just in software) who stopped learning as soon as they graduated. These folks struggle as technological advances overtake them and typically escape into management roles. Those without the ambition to move into management are toxic to team efforts.
My biggest gripe is that many self-taught, self-proclaimed experts suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect. As a team leader I resent management hiring such people without the technical team being given a chance to interview them and make an assessment.
Yeah I agree with a lot of what you are saying :) Here in the USA, a college degree is pretty much what corporate employers use to screen out people from non-traditional learning backgrounds that may actually be good at the job, but don't fit arbitrary criteria.
And of course, nowadays most younger people have a degree, so employers have just started denying people for "not being the right fit".
Either way, if you can produce technology and code that other employers find valuable, then you can probably find work as a w2 or 1099 employee. But if you can't, then I'm not really sure what your options are, unless you have a ton of connections or money.
The biggest danger with being self-taught is that you probably skip the boring fundamentals material and thus struggle with concepts which are in turn based on basic knowledge. The most common evidence of this is programmers who have learnt one language and then rely on frameworks to do simple things.
Exams which test memorization are inappropriate for most of engineering. The test should confirm that you understand the principles and are able to effectively apply them. For example remembering the arguments to specific API calls has little value because you can look it up. But knowing the impact of using recursion vs a loop in a specific algorithm is critical.
I have come across too many university educated engineers (not just in software) who stopped learning as soon as they graduated. These folks struggle as technological advances overtake them and typically escape into management roles. Those without the ambition to move into management are toxic to team efforts.
My biggest gripe is that many self-taught, self-proclaimed experts suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect. As a team leader I resent management hiring such people without the technical team being given a chance to interview them and make an assessment.