Sure if you compare the extreme end of one bell curve with the middle of another then, hey look the p95 people in one outperform the p50 of the other! But if you compare the median developer in each then what? My experience is that if you’re > 40yrs old it’s irrelevant as the industry was immature but younger than that and the median degreed engineer I’d expect to come out significantly on top.
You also have the problem of survivorship bias - you’re looking only at the non-degreed engineers who survived in the job and not all of those who dropped out. When hiring the question is whether the non-degreed pool of applicants can on average be expected to match the performance of the degreed applicants?
Anecdotally < 40y/o great engineers I’ve encountered without degrees almost always have a degree in *something* or they spent their youth tinkering with personal computers - historically an even more inaccessible privilege than a college degree. They are p95 folks.
I certainly don’t think degrees have to be required but at the same time I don’t want to wade through rivers of unqualified candidates searching for that p95 individual. Bootcamps are kinda the exception here but that’s another topic.
You also have the problem of survivorship bias - you’re looking only at the non-degreed engineers who survived in the job and not all of those who dropped out. When hiring the question is whether the non-degreed pool of applicants can on average be expected to match the performance of the degreed applicants?
Anecdotally < 40y/o great engineers I’ve encountered without degrees almost always have a degree in *something* or they spent their youth tinkering with personal computers - historically an even more inaccessible privilege than a college degree. They are p95 folks.
I certainly don’t think degrees have to be required but at the same time I don’t want to wade through rivers of unqualified candidates searching for that p95 individual. Bootcamps are kinda the exception here but that’s another topic.