TL;DR - New Developer looking for the best online Associate's degree in Computer Science for the sake of getting better at Development, and having something nice on paper
I am currently an AS400/COBOL dev that was originally trained in an 11 month web-development boot camp. During that span, I taught myself enough COBOL to get a position near my hometown. I started my "coding journey" in August 2020 shortly after high school, and have been in my current (and first) position since September 2021.
While lots of progress has been made through books, YT tutorials, some projects on my own time, and the occasional project at my work, I want to know what my best resources would be if I wanted to dedicate myself to a 2 year college degree, and if those gains would be any stronger than what I'm doing now. I'm also in such a niche space in a rural state that I don't know how much of a requirement this would be in a remote space.
Any information on my situation or good resources is appreciated.
My generic thoughts without really knowing your situation: I think an associates degree for the purpose of programming job qualifications is nearly worthless. There are some corporate jobs that require bachelors degrees- I think largely as an HR requirement.
I think generally you would be better off with either A) getting a new job that is better aligned with what you are looking for, or B) going for a bachelors and using your networking and resources from the university to get a different job.
Again all of this is incredibly generic, and your specific circumstances will certainly change the picture.