5 ms·
My path, with an allegedly irrelevant degree (History and Philosophy of Science) was 1) tinker with computers as a kid 2) go to university and study something
by pacaro 10y ago
My path, with an allegedly irrelevant degree (History and Philosophy of Science) was
1) tinker with computers as a kid
2) go to university and study something I wanted to learn about, randomly learning C in passing (from a friend and a stolen copy of turbo c) because I was interested
3) get a job at a small local ISV, qualified by having a degree in anything and knowing how to write simple code
4) spend 4 years as an apprentice (informally) taking every opportunity to learn
5) get a job at a startup
6) join Microsoft through acquisition
7) ...
Up until step 6, my resume probably didn't look that interesting, but once you have one of the household name software companies on your resume the rest becomes irrelevant
- acchow 10y agoMy early steps were pretty similar as well, tho I kind of "hacked" my way into the industry by getting an internship 1) Tinker with computers as a kid 2) Go to University to study something I wanted to learn (Biochemistry) - took CS101 to learn some programming 3) Go to grad school for something else unrelated (economics) 4) Work in something unrelated 5) Learn programming in spare time. 6) Quit job. Learn programming hardcore. Enroll in CS classes at a University to become eligible for internships. 7) Land an internship at Google. After that, it was smooth sailing.
- ryandrake 10y agoJust curious, how close are you and pacaro to 40? Congratulations on your success but you guys might find the smooth sailing become much less smooth the older you get.
- pacaro 10y agoI'm in my mid 40s, currently a Principal Engineer at Amazon. My experience is probably not typical for all sorts of reasons
- ryandrake 10y agoFair--everyone's situation is different and I was making a generalization. Congrats on your early good luck and sustained success!
- acchow 10y agoI was in my mid 20's when I quit my job to learn programming. Do you mean if I tried to enter the industry in my 40's it would have been much harder? Or now that I'm in the industry, the smooth sailing will eventually get rougher as I approach my 40s? If the latter, I don't really believe it...
- ryandrake 10y agoYea, I meant the latter. Software is the ultimate "early plateau" career.
- acchow 10y agoIsn't it standard to just go to Google when you're older and cruise it out there? Also, I think plateauing is fine.... Why do I need to move upwards when they're paying me plenty already?
- lazyasciiart 10y ago"Standard"? What percentage of the industry do you think will ever work for Google?
- aquabib 10y agoAbout 0.1%