Tech Jobs Without a Degree Reddit: What People Who Did It Say
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Tech jobs without a degree Reddit threads have a strange split in them. On one side are people who've spent decades in tech with no diploma, some of them now hiring. On the other are newcomers who say that door closed a few years ago.
Both sides are telling the truth about their own experience. What's useful is the advice they share.
A lot of people asking this question also want the job to be remote, so I wrote up the remote jobs Reddit recommends for career changers separately. This page is about the degree.
What Reddit says about tech jobs without a degree
Reddit's answer is yes, people get tech jobs without a degree, but the first job is harder than it was five or ten years ago. The advice that repeats is to prove the work with real projects, aim at smaller companies first, and get a year or two of experience on your résumé.
In a r/it thread asking if anybody gets tech jobs without a degree, the top reply came from someone who hires:
"I hire people without degrees. Some of my best folks have no formal education."
They added that they don't have a degree either, after 30 years in tech, and that "getting that first job is going to be tough." Further down, other commenters describe going from retail tech support into corporate IT, or from a part-time help desk internship to sysadmin in three years.
And then the counterpoint, from the same thread: one person said it used to be easy, but now there aren't enough roles, and "getting remote straight up very unlikely."
"Degree required" is often a preference
A r/careerquestions thread from a 20-year-old who taught themselves data analytics got one of the most practical replies I've read on this. The commenter said "bachelor's degree required" is "often more of a screening preference than an absolute requirement." The hard part is getting a person to look at your application at all.
Their fix was signals that lower the employer's risk: original projects, real freelance or volunteer work, certifications that match the role, and referrals. And this line:
"A few polished projects with clean code, documentation, deployment, and a clear explanation of what problems they solve are worth far more than 20 tutorial clones."
The same thread had a short reply that stung: "Hard WITH a degree." It's not wrong. The market is tight for everybody, and you're competing with people who have the paper.
Build one real thing, then aim small
In a r/csMajors thread on landing a tech job without a degree, a commenter who'd worked with plenty of self-taught developers told the poster their approach was backwards. Don't learn a language and then wonder what to build. Pick a specific problem, build the thing that solves it, and learn what you need along the way. For finding work, they said "smaller companies and startups are your best bet."
Somebody replied that the market had shifted since then and that employers now want direct experience in their exact stack. That's the honest tension in every one of these threads.
Pick a role where your work is easy to show
My bet is on a different kind of role. A lot of those threads are about software engineering and IT help desk, which are crowded and lean hard on degrees and certs. There are tech roles that make companies money where the portfolio does more of the talking.
A web content manager runs a company's site, and an email marketing specialist builds the campaigns and automated flows that bring in sales. AI automation work fits too. In each of these you can show a hiring manager the actual result instead of a transcript.
That's what CodingPhase is built for, and it's where I'd send you first. Our career paths take beginners from zero to a portfolio, one guided step at a time, and they're free to start. Good first picks: the Web Content Manager path, the Email Marketing Specialist path, or the AI Automations path.
Diamond membership lists at $60 a month or $365 a year, with at least 30% off at all times, so it's about $42 a month or about $255 a year. That gets you 90+ courses, portfolio templates for every path, a résumé builder built to pass ATS screening, the members' job board, an 80,000+ member community, and two live weekly calls: Accountability on Wednesdays at 7 PM ET and Money Talk on Sundays at 8 PM ET. Our students land roles that pay $75k+, individual results vary.
FAQ
Can you really get a tech job without a degree? Yes. Reddit threads are full of people who did, including hiring managers. Most say the first job is the hard one, and projects plus a year or two of experience carry you after that.
What tech jobs don't require a degree? Roles judged on visible work: web content management, email marketing, AI automation, IT support and web development. Listings may still say "degree required," but commenters say it's often a preference.
Is it harder to get hired without a degree now? Most commenters say yes, compared with five or ten years ago. A focused portfolio and targeting smaller companies are the most common fixes they suggest.
You don't need permission from a university to change your life. You need a skill you can prove, and some people in your corner while you build it. That's what we're here for, and I'd love to see you on a Wednesday call.
