5 ms·

If you haven't programmed, and don't have a strong math/logic background, beware. This is a bit too much like deciding you're going to be a concert pianist at 3

If you haven't programmed, and don't have a strong math/logic background, beware. This is a bit too much like deciding you're going to be a concert pianist at 34. I've only known one person to try a similar career move, and she crashed and burned. General IQ isn't quite what's needed.

nellypat 7y ago
Agreed. Software Engineering is not the answer to all the career questions in the world. I understand that OP has interest in the field, but it pays to be a bit cautious.
tptacek 7y ago
Software engineers would dearly love this to be true, but I see very little evidence that it is. I've worked with late-career switchers and I've worked with 16-year-old interns and all points in between and have seen no correlation between age-at-first-contact with this field and aptitude. We are not concert pianists. Incidentally, concert pianists are probably also not concert pianists, in the setting you want this comparison to apply. Yes, if you want to play with a major orchestra or win a classical grammy, you probably need to have been playing since you were 4 years old. But virtually no-one in our field operates at that level (despite a large cohort of developers who think they do); we are, almost all of us, constrained more by our environments than our potential. If the market for concert pianists was isomorphic for that of software engineering, a late-career switch to concert pianisting would also be reasonable to contemplate.
- kasey_junk 7y ago
  > software engineers would dearly love this to be true No we really wouldn’t. What I’d dearly love to be true is lots & lots of people to be given the opportunity to try the basics of writing software & the more complex stuff to be taught more plainly. Even at the outer edges of the industry complexity spectrum we gatekeep way too much.

5 ms·

If you haven't programmed, and don't have a strong math/logic background, beware. This is a bit too much like deciding you're going to be a concert pianist at 3

by Nomentatus 7y ago

nellypat 7y ago
Agreed. Software Engineering is not the answer to all the career questions in the world. I understand that OP has interest in the field, but it pays to be a bit cautious.
tptacek 7y ago
Software engineers would dearly love this to be true, but I see very little evidence that it is. I've worked with late-career switchers and I've worked with 16-year-old interns and all points in between and have seen no correlation between age-at-first-contact with this field and aptitude. We are not concert pianists. Incidentally, concert pianists are probably also not concert pianists, in the setting you want this comparison to apply. Yes, if you want to play with a major orchestra or win a classical grammy, you probably need to have been playing since you were 4 years old. But virtually no-one in our field operates at that level (despite a large cohort of developers who think they do); we are, almost all of us, constrained more by our environments than our potential. If the market for concert pianists was isomorphic for that of software engineering, a late-career switch to concert pianisting would also be reasonable to contemplate.
- kasey_junk 7y ago
  > software engineers would dearly love this to be true No we really wouldn’t. What I’d dearly love to be true is lots & lots of people to be given the opportunity to try the basics of writing software & the more complex stuff to be taught more plainly. Even at the outer edges of the industry complexity spectrum we gatekeep way too much.