Over on Ben Ramsey's weblog today, there's a new posting that I know personally several people have wondered in the past (especially friends back in school) - Does a PHP programmer need a CS degree?

I'm proud of my degree. It makes me happy that I have one and that I can consider myself somewhat more worthful to people in the business world because I have it. But I'm a programmer, and my degree, well, let's just say that it has something to do with a language and that's where the similarities stop.

During the dot com boom, degrees didn't matter at all. If you could program, you were hired. If you had experience, even better, but, now, it seems that a degree is becoming more important to weed out potential candidates for a position. After all, programmers - especially Web programmers - are a dime a dozen.

This posting brings up some very good points, as well as making a case for "the other side" - contractors willing to work for less (read "outsourcing"), and slowing replacing more and more of the workforce.