Is open university worth it?

I’m considering doing open university but I’m not sure.. help?

Back story:
I just finished college and did 4 alevels; maths, further maths, physics and CompSci. I wanted to go to uni when i started college but during yr12 I realised that it ain’t for me ( for a multiple of reasons which I cba explaining) anyway I still don’t want to go “uni” however I just heard of open university and I’m considering it and doing something to do with compsci at open uni. I want to go into software development/ full stack development or something to do with data and hopefully would like to work in FANG or similar companies.

So is open uni worth it? Or is there a better way to one day be able to work in those companies? And is a degree even useful anymore (I’ve talked to a lot of people and hiring managers who say these days degrees get highly overlooked and not paid attention to that much) if I have a lot of full stack projects to show and experience?

Any info is appreciated?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I mean statistically you're probably not going to work at FAANG regardless of what route you go, so I wouldn't focus on that overly much. Focus on pursuing a career in the area of the computing sector that interests you. Whether or not you eventually end up at one of those companies or not, you can at least know you have had a rewarding career of interest to you.

Equally if your only interest in that area is because you want to work at FAANG and make oodles of money and work out of a playpen on a bouncy ball, then you probably aren't actually interested in that career at all in the first place and should do a bit of soul searching anyway.

Anyway if you aren't keen on uni in general I would suggest not focusing on that - look for apprenticeship options instead. You can eventually earn a degree through an apprenticeship anyway in the computing sector, and then you aren't spending as much time on the academic things that are evidently of less interest to you.