Would you hire a developer who is very good…I mean very good but he/she is not a graduate or one who is a graduate but not as good as the other.
If the graduate can get the job done, then I would go with the graduate. Singularity of mind is a powerful thing.
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@henryC let me make it clearer. An outstanding developer who is not a graduate or a half-baked developer who is a graduate.
I’m assuming OP’s “not a graduate” doesn’t imply still in school but someone who never went or has dropped out at some point. Either way, I’ll go with the good developer.
Speaking of people who are still in school, I’ve had the opportunity of working with a number of devs in that category over the years and the experience has been mostly stellar. @FatherMerry, @kehers, @namzo and @leslie are good examples that readily come to mind.
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A developer who gets the job done, without giving it a second thought.
I think that’s more of correlation than causation.
For every of the fine folks you mentioned, there are loads of others who are frustratingly inept.
I was responding to @henryC’s “singularity of mind” reason, which undermines the potential of good developers that are still in school.
The inept ones aren’t covered under OP’s question.
I did get that. The reply is meant as an extension of yours to his post.
“Singularity of mind” isn’t vested on people on convocation day.
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Well you already have your answer sitting right before you.
To make it clear… Someone who dropped out at some point…
I think it’s usually better to go with the good developer without a degree, especially if it’s specifically for a dev only role.
OP specify the kind of job because you can’t employ a NERD to work in a marketing company. Lets take GOKO cleanser for example
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Lol… Specifically for a dev only job at a startup…
I’ll definitely go for the guy who is tested and trusted. I got dudes who dropped out but are superlative developers.
From my experience, the gap between an average developer and an excellent developer is like the distance between the monkey and the moon (pardon my Bleach reference). They don’t even compare. The closest the monkey can get to the moon is to fiddle with its reflection in the water. I’m talking about a 10X gap in productivity.
That said, @henryC is correct. Singularity of mind is key. There’s nothing more frustrating than working with a talented developer or designer whose attention is split 10 ways. But again as someone said, singularity of mind is not vested on convocation day.
I’ll go with the dropout if he can commit to the cause. I’ll also pay him handsomely too so that money is not his problem.
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@philiprohv we are all on the same page.
Go with talent always. I once worked on a multi million dollar project written by a 17 year old kid with a high school degree. The person who hired both of us had a Harvard degree. That kid later went on to get a uni degree but truth is he did not need it.
Please come and angel invest in my life.
I can already see you standing in front of Dagote with such request @xolubi. 
In your life? Not your business? - SMH
To answer the OP’s Q!
I know of many high school graduates who entered the working world with no intention of earning a four-year college degree.
The lack of a college degree doesn’t mean a rewarding career isn’t possible. In fact, as the job market slowly improves, opportunities for high school graduates are increasing steadily. For example, the information technology field is offering many tech-savvy high school grads a very promising future. Web developers are in high demand, for example, and job seekers are gravitating to the field each year even without a specialized degree
In fact, web developer tops my list of the best careers that don’t require a four-year degree.
Of course, landing a great IT job without a college degree takes perseverance.
The thing I look for in a developer is a longtime love of coding—people who taught themselves to code in high school and still can’t get enough of it. The eager but not innately passionate coders being churned out of 12- and 19-week boot camps in NIIT tend not to be the best: There are too many people simply looking for a career transition, and not enough who love coding for its own sake.
The thing I don’t look for in a developer is a degree in computer science. University computer science departments are in miserable shape: 10 years behind in a field that changes every 10 minutes. Computer science departments prepare their students for academic or research careers and spurn jobs that actually pay money. They teach students how to design an operating system, but not how to work with a real, live development team.
There isn’t a single course in iPhone or Android development in the computer science departments of University of Port Harcourt where I managed to graduate.
IMO it’s absurd for us to insist on higher-education for everything—where a high-school diploma for a teacher or a reporter was once adequate. BTW why is it now a neccesity to go on to get specialized degree in professional endeavors?
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First of all, lets define a graduate. Anybody who went to university and spent four years scoring more As than Bs is a graduate.
This implies he/she must have graduated with a 2-1 GPA above 4.3
Because if you spent 4-5 yrs in college and you don’t get a first class, then you should not be too far off.
But when a kid ends up with GPA especially below 4.0 regardless of the excuse, he/she would have been better off dropping out.
So if I have a proper graduate GPA 4.82, who is interested in coding and is just starting out, I will choose that over any super quality “NIGERIAN” developer because the graduate has a history of excellence and personal capacity in a regulated environment. That is what that dropout will never be able to exhibit except he has singularly initiated/engineered/closed out a project which can be equated to 10yrs of engineering studies in a university of which his performance on that project must amount to a weighted 4.91.