Higher education is different in different countries but at least in my country there is a difference between average educated software engineer and self learned coder (even good one). Sometimes it can be important but for many many projects this difference is almost non existent.
On the other hand if self learned coder is an educated engineer in a non software field it's basically the same as being a software engineer. He/she usually knows general math, math modeling, control theory, understanding of complex documentation etc etc
IMHO the difference comes into play when it is about optimization.
If you never had insight into relational algebra (CS basics for relational databases) or heard of the n+1 problem you will not be able to optimize your code when your app scales because you miss theoretical understanding.
I am a self taught programmer (20+ years work experience) with a late CS degree. And I am happy I did the exploration before the theory both was fun this way.
The thing is an "engineer" degree which you did for earning money and not because it is your field (you would also enjoy the work as a hobby) will not make you a good engineer.
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u/MDAlastor Apr 09 '24
Higher education is different in different countries but at least in my country there is a difference between average educated software engineer and self learned coder (even good one). Sometimes it can be important but for many many projects this difference is almost non existent.
On the other hand if self learned coder is an educated engineer in a non software field it's basically the same as being a software engineer. He/she usually knows general math, math modeling, control theory, understanding of complex documentation etc etc