Was My Computer Science Degree Worth It? My Honest Journey as a Backend Engineer

When I was in college working toward my Computer Science degree, I had a job as a QA engineer. Most of my time went into writing long, manual test documents. One day, my team leader asked me to write a script to test something outside our system.

I didn’t know Python. We never touched it in my degree. But I opened Google, pieced things together from forums, and somehow got it working. My team leader reviewed the code and told me I should move into writing server handlers instead of test docs. That was my first big breakthrough — and it had nothing to do with what I learned in class.

The truth is, even getting to that degree was brutal. I failed two schools before finally finding the third where I graduated. My parents compared me constantly to my eldest brother, who had a dean’s distinction from Tel Aviv University — a place I poured years of effort and money into trying to get accepted, only to fall short because my high school grades and psychometric score weren’t enough.

And here’s the part that stings the most: nobody has ever asked me to show proof of my degree. Nobody cared about my grades. All that pain, pressure, and money has been reduced to a single line in a PDF CV.

That’s why I don’t think the question in 2025 is “Should you get a Computer Science degree?” The real question is: do you understand the trade-offs you’re signing up for?

Chasing the Degree

“Look, your brother got the Dean's distinction” was a sentence that haunted me every time my studies came up at home. I was 21, freshly out of the army, and my parents wanted me to pick one of the “big three”: Medicine, Law, or Finance. None of them fit. My escape hatch was Computer Science.

It made sense: I loved video games, so why not learn how to build them? My parents were satisfied, and I was naïve about how hard it would actually be.

• I didn’t have the grades for Tel Aviv University.
• I bombed the psychometrics test (twice).
• I tried transferring from the Open University. Failed that, too.
• I finally got into Tel Aviv College “on trial” — only to be kicked out by the end of year one for failing a single class.

I’ll never forget that phone call from the secretary. After I hung up, I cried. Then I stared at myself in the mirror for thirty minutes, berating myself for being a failure, picturing a “horrifying” outcome of finishing a degree at 30.

Turns out… that wasn’t horrifying at all.

In 2014, I started fresh at a different college. This time, I made it to the finish line and graduated in 2018.

Life as an Official CS Student

With the constant fear of expulsion gone, I finally got my footing. I balanced school, a full-time QA job, and even a writing workshop at night.

But it wasn’t glamorous.

• Some classes I barely passed after nights of group cramming.
• I missed time with old friends but forged new ones.
• I skipped raises and promotions at work, but moved closer to roles that actually fit my skills.
• I racked up debt paying tuition, but discovered resources I never would have found otherwise.

Still, the biggest frustration? The lack of real coding.

90% of the degree was theoretical. Tons of algorithms and proofs. But instead of building apps or services, we built disconnected scripts. Instead of a backend server, we wrote a function that simulated one piece of it. It didn’t prepare me for the industry at all.

Breaking Into the Industry

Israel is called the “Startup Nation” for a reason — there’s always another small company with dusty furniture trying to make it big.

I got my first job in January 2015, still a student, as a QA tester. It was fun. Until it wasn’t. By December 2016, the company ran out of money and closed down. Lesson one: no job is secure.

The next gig taught me lesson two: people don’t quit jobs, they quit managers. I lasted nine months before resigning. The boss was impossible, the environment toxic. My resignation meeting went like this:

Me: “I wanted to let you know I got an opportunity I can’t pass up, so I’ll resign in 30 days.”
Boss: “Okay. I have nothing further to add.”
Me: “…Okay, thank you.”

Yup. Everybody’s replaceable.

Thankfully, my networking paid off and I landed my next role quickly. That’s when I started actually writing code.

Already Writing Code Before Graduation

By the time I officially earned my degree in 2018, I was already building Python server handlers. I wasn’t great, but I was improving fast.

The steepest part of the learning curve had nothing to do with my degree:

• Python being interpreted, not compiled.
• OOP being possible, but not Python’s main design.
• Async programming — which took me months to really wrap my head around.

I googled. I asked dumb questions. I struggled. And I got better. That’s how I truly became a backend engineer.

So… Was It Worth It?

Here’s my honest take in 2025: it depends on your goals.

If you can:

• Learn concepts like Big-O complexity on your own
• Understand system design (how would you scale Twitter?)
• Apply data structures in real projects

…then no, you don’t need a CS degree. The internet is full of resources, and many employers just want to see what you can build.

But the trade-offs of a CS degree are real:

• You pay tens of thousands in tuition.
• You sacrifice years of social life and financial growth.
• You learn lots of theory you may never use.

The upside? A degree buys you structure, credibility (at least on paper), and access to resources or networks you might not get otherwise.

My Answer

For me, the degree was both a waste and a stepping stone.

Nobody has ever cared about my grades. Nobody has asked to see my diploma. My real career started when I learned Python on the job, not when I finished algorithms class.

But… without that degree, I might not have broken into the industry as quickly. It gave me a foothold. It gave my parents peace of mind. And it gave me the chance to fail a lot before I succeeded.

So was it worth it? Yes, but not for the reasons I thought.

If you’re deciding today, know this: you can succeed without it, but you’ll have to prove yourself through projects, consistency, and relentless learning. And if you do get the degree, remember that the paper isn’t what matters — it’s what you build with the time you have.

What do you think? Is a Computer Science degree worth it in 2025? Let me know in the comments below!