First job as a Software Engineer, without a degree...
Tags: discuss, career
Published: 2019-07-27 22:42:08

---
title: First job as a Software Engineer, without a degree...
published: true
tags: discuss,career
---

Hi! As it says on my profile, my name is Julian, 19 and currently working as a Software Engineer at We Provide.

**"Software Engineer", "Full-Stack", "Web", "Computer Scientist?!"**
"Software Engineer", honestly, it's only a term I use because I don't think "Web Developer" or "Full-Stack Software Engineer" (or any combination of those) suffice.

*^ I changed my mind, "Full Stack Engineer" sounds more right for what I do the most, web development, and maybe it even sounds prettier too!* :speak_no_evil:

I like to tinker with a lot of stuff. I like to learn about algorithms and data structures, that doesn't make me a "Computer Scientist" or anything... I like working on monitoring stuff like Grafana with Prometheus, Logstash for centralized logging, that doesn't make me some kind of DevOps Engineer.

*ppssstt, if you know a better job description, tell me!*

**Where I work :eyes:**
Since I started working at [We Provide](https://www.weprovide.com), which as of this month is over a year ago, I've learned a lot. Definitely not only in a technical aspect, also socially and communicatively (is that a word).

**uhm, where is your degree?!** :roll_eyes:
In my head, writing this feels a bit, egotistical? I mean, the way I imagine you reading this is *"wow, look at him, thinking that he is the only one who took this path and got somewhere!"*. Immediately after, another thought came lurking around, what if I'm writing this to get to know myself a bit better and actually think about what happened the past two years?

*I guess this is it, the blog post that's gonna make me ball up in a corner and cry* :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

**Somewhere end 2016** :fireworks:
I started my education in *"Applicatie Ontwikkeling Niv. 4 (MBO)"*, which translates to Software Engineering. *"Niv. 4 (MBO)"* has a better explanation [on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Netherlands#MBO) than I could possibly give you!

Throughout the time I spent at school, I didn't feel like I was really learning anything particularly new. I mostly did the work and helped other students. Though, I'm not saying it wasn't valuable to be there.

I actually felt like I belonged, with people who shared the same interests as I. I can't say how much that helped me, coming from high school, not knowing what I was gonna do in a year, two years, three, and so forth.

**I guess, from mid 2017 till end 2017?** :fire::poop:
An internship... I had to go look for somewhere to do my internship... An internship on its own, love it, learn something in the real world instead of *"Let's build a TODO list in C#!"*. What wasn't lovely about it was the fact that I was, and still am, not good in new environments (especially socially), and with new people who I'd have to be with for 8 hours a day. Scary!

So... I found somewhere to do my internship, obviously had some nerves the night before, and was actually really nervous and anxious throughout that first day. *"Just have to get used to it"*, I thought, nothing weird, everyone gets nervous on their first day, whether it's a little bit or like me.

After a couple of days of thoroughly sweating (it also weren't the coldest days of the year), shivering and throwing up every morning, I decided that it wasn't for me. Because of the situation I was in I started thinking, why? Do I need to do this? Yes, if I want my college degree! 

Long story short, I sat down with my mentor and HR at the internship, and talked about what was going on. We also talked about where I saw myself in ... years, or any other reasonable time frame. After I told what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, HR said something that I don't exactly remember but basically translates to:

*I have ..., so I can't do ... anymore, sometimes you have to accept where you are.*

We talked for a bit after that, came to the conclusion that the internship wasn't for me, and left. I talked with a couple people at my school who wanted to help me, but it eventually came down to the fact that I didn't see myself going through an internship where I'd shiver all day long, only for a piece of paper 4 years later.

**Somewhere mid 2018, I decided to apply for a job!** :page_facing_up:
 I finally got of my lazy ass, opened up Google (without getting of my ass, obviously...) and looked for *"developer job"*. That was my first attempt, and I failed miserably! I quickly narrowed that down to *"web developer"* and found a couple.

What I ended up doing was getting into an (unknowingly) long-term relationship with a recruiter. I took one job interview using this strategy and I thought, nah... I really have to find something myself, I know what I want and I know it when I see it, not by getting a call about some potential employer who needs someone with "my skill set".

I still get calls *"how is it going at your job, looking for something?!"* :cry:

![](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/glhp0o0jz6ittsesfzmr.png)

**Job interview at We Provide** :smile:
I eventually found We Provide, a web agency that was looking for a Back-end PHP developer, and didn't have a job description that looked like *"HTML, PHP, CSS, MySQL, .NET, MongoDB, Redis, Docker, AWS, Micro-Services"* (and all the other terms you could put in there). It just looked like a fun and interesting place to work at, somewhere where I could keep learning and work on myself.

I applied, soon enough got a response, and scheduled a job interview. What I remember most is the fact they thought that I had a degree, because I put "Applicatie Ontwikkeling Niv. 4 (MBO)" on my job application. I forgot that they probably wouldn't look at the years and see "2016-2017" and think "Did he finish that?".

But the thing is, I don't remember that specifically because of it. I remember it because when we talked about it, it wasn't like *"it goes downhill from here, he has no degree, sorry, there is the door!"*, they were, intrigued? I can't come up with a better word for it.

**Where I am now... :heart:**
Right now, I don't think *"ugh, weekend is over, another day at school/work!"*, I'm happy. I have a lot of fun with the people I work with and most importantly, I learn a lot.

I want to clarify, I don't think that everyone should think "I don't need a degree!", if you can get one, do it. It depends on the situation. 

What I want to end with is, when someone doesn't have a degree, don't assume they didn't want it. Don't assume they are lazy or not motivated. I think that when you do something that you like, do it in your spare time and learn because of the fun of it, you can do so much.

I thank you, @yamadashy for [this emoji cheatsheet :see_no_evil:](https://dev.to/yamadashy/emoji-cheatsheet-of-githubslackdiscordqiita-4d2f)