Entering software or web development as a recent graduate with no CS degree

Well, you did take Maths. Though, most employers would rather people with a degree in that subject, but since Maths is entwined with it, you will most likely have a small chance, but a chance is a chance. You will however be way behind if any of the other prospective workers have a CS degree. What you could do though because of your background, is freelance as a web dev. HTML, CSS isn't that difficult to learn and you're already familiar with PHP. You would also need some graphics skills but that isn't difficult to learn.

A conversion masters in Computer Science will put you slightly at a lower level than an Undergrad CS, but a lot of employers will consider them the same, so that would be the best option if possible, but as you said is very expensive.

I've recently accepted a job doing software development, and I've taken a rather convoluted route to the career. I did an undergraduate degree in maths and physics, a masters in particle physics, and most recently a PhD in MRI Physics. I've never formally studied computer science, but I have had a strong amateur interest in programming for many years.

If you want to get into development without prior experience or related degree, then I would strongly recommend you learn a programming language or two, and actually try and write some non-trivial programs in them. Take some online courses (I can recommend this one https://www.coursera.org/course/algs4partI especially if you have prior Java experience), read some of the many online tutorials. Look into how programming and dev job interviews are conducted, read about the typical kinds of questions you will be expected to answer. If you can demonstrate an ability to learn complex skills on your own initiative then this will work in your favour.

Let me know if you want some more advice.

What if you could afford it?

I would recommend it if you can afford it. Not for the degree, but for the knowledge.

Depending on how much you know already about software development, you may be able to get into a non-conversion masters, too. That's what I am doing. You'd be able to learn much more from a non-conversion degree.

As for requiring a degree to find a job, that's not true. Software dev is a very skill-focused field. If you have the skills, you will get hired. I know plenty of people working without a CS/SE degree, though they do know as much or more than people with a degree.

Thanks a lot for the response. I am considering a non-conversion masters in Computer Science or Software Engineering in either 2 or 3 years time while I save up. Which one of these two masters would you recommend me?

P.S. I took a look at your profile and I saw that you are coming to London to do a Masters in Advanced Computing in Imperial. Why did you choose this particular Masters? Is it so good that it's worth traveling from Canada all the way to London?

I am not OP but I would love to hear more advice from you.

Obviously your mileage may vary, and it seems that it's perfectly possible to get onto software development grad schemes without having any prior experience, as long as you demonstrate an ability to learn, and an aptitude for the kind of problem solving that is required.

In my interviews I was able to talk about my experience using multiple different types of programming languages, from C/C++/Java, Python, and even some functional programming languages like Scala and Haskell. I couldn't claim to be an expert in any of these, but I at least had the ability to talk about the different language features, i.e. compiled vs interpreted, Object Oriented vs Procedural vs Functional, weakly typed vs strongly typed etc. If you claim more than basic familiarity with a certain language then you can be expected to demonstrate your ability with the language syntax and features.

In programming interviews, it is quite common to be asked to write small complete programs, or functions, i.e. "Write a program that prints the first N prime numbers", "write a function that reverses each word in a string". If you cannot accomplish tasks like this in your language of choice, or struggle with remembering syntax, then you will be at a disadvantage. Not that an inability to do this will be an automatic barrier, as long as you can demonstrate an ability to think logically and solve problems.

These questions often lead on to discussions about efficiency, and choice of data structures or algorithms. Computer Science courses spend a lot of time covering these concepts. As an example, imagine trying to sort a shuffled deck of cards, one approach is to look through the pack for the smallest element, place it at the front, and then look through the rest of the pack for the second smallest element, repeating until sorted, this is a simple algorithm, but not a particularly efficient one. You may be asked about more efficient approaches to solving this problem. The problem of sorting data is a very deep and very complex topic, and the choice of an appropiate algorithm for your particular problem is very important.

Choice of data-structures is another important aspect of programming, and can be the difference between solving a problem efficiently or not at all. It would certainly help to at least be familiar with some of the more fundamental concepts, like linked lists, trees, etc. I can highly recommend Sedgewick's Algorithms textbook as a guide to this, it is the accompaniment to the course I listed above https://www.coursera.org/course/algs4partI.

All of the above topics can be discussed rather abstractly, however in every case running a computer program involves moving patterns of bits around in memory and on the CPU, and performing operations on them. Having at least a basic knowledge of how the computer physically works can be very important in understanding why certain programs behave the way they do.


I think to sum up all my advice in a few words, it would be that to overcome a lack of any formal qualifications you will need to demonstrate an interest in the field, and the ability and willingness to learn. The more you can do this, either via programming you have done for work or pleasure, or books you have read and online courses you have taken, the better.