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+1 to this. I got bored with IT/software, went back to school, got an aerospace engineering degree, had a very satisfying 4+ years in it, then a software job ca
by Scramblejams 9y ago
+1 to this. I got bored with IT/software, went back to school, got an aerospace engineering degree, had a very satisfying 4+ years in it, then a software job came my way that was too good to turn down. Quite a commitment of time and money but for me it was all very much worth it.
- molsongolden 9y agoDid you work part-time while going back?
- Scramblejams 9y agoYes, I did, which helped with expenses. Funny thing is that once I got into the industry, I was the only engineer in my office who was an experienced programmer, so I ended up writing a decent amount of code for the job. It was a very satisfying way to rigorously learn methods of structural analysis, so I didn't feel like I was back to square one. And in the interviews for my subsequent jump back to the software business, when I got some questions about whether I felt rusty (they assumed I hadn't been writing software during school and aerospace), I could truthfully say that I'd programmed frequently enough that I wasn't out of practice. This brings up a larger point I should have called out earlier: An experienced dev in a non-software field has a superpower. I'm no genius but because of my background, I was able to write software that made our engineering team more competitive, and I was able to negotiate good raises as a result. Everybody won.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]