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Nice post Jotaen but I feel you are heavily downplaying how well a mechanical engineering degree looks when switching. You have math and critical thinking skill

Nice post Jotaen but I feel you are heavily downplaying how well a mechanical engineering degree looks when switching. You have math and critical thinking skills but just needed a little time to get the fundamental computer science concepts down. Also how does the idea of boredom come into play here? Yes self-studying is important but at what point do feel burned out and want to apply it in a real world work station?

ghaff 7y ago
I agree with that as someone with a mechanical engineering degree. I've never been a professional software developer but I've mostly self-taught myself over time and even ran a small software business as a sideline at one point. I've never had a particular desire to go into development full-time. (I was out of working as an engineer by then anyway.) But, had I wanted to, I have very little doubt I could have slid into a dev job fairly easily with my background if I spent some time focusing on the area I wanted to work in.
jotaen 7y ago
Yes, I definitely profit from basic skills that I acquired in studying mechanical engineering, as you mentioned. However, when applying for jobs I didn’t have the impression that my prospective employers valued that too much, at least as far as my CV is concerned. Not sure what you mean by “boredom”? I don’t have a clear “definition of done” or a deadline for my sabbatical, that’s also why I try to diversify the topics I’m looking at rather than going through them one after the other. I’ll definitely need/will start working again in a couple of months, but my hope is that working freelance and continuing self-studying is not mutually exclusive. But I’ll need to see next year how this works out then in practice.
- Aperocky 7y ago
  I'm currently in software but graduated from mechanical as well. I think one of the biggest drawback of the current education system is the assumption that people should have one major and that it would last throughout their career. In reality, most of the skill learned ended up being not used, the proportion of the major is basically the opposite of what the job market actually need. And the constraint of it actually ruined a lot of people and careers. I've been fortunate to be able to choose whatever class I want in college and discover my love for programming - if not for that I might be in a much less productive place today.

ghaff 7y ago

I agree with that as someone with a mechanical engineering degree. I've never been a professional software developer but I've mostly self-taught myself over time and even ran a small software business as a sideline at one point. I've never had a particular desire to go into development full-time. (I was out of working as an engineer by then anyway.) But, had I wanted to, I have very little doubt I could have slid into a dev job fairly easily with my background if I spent some time focusing on the area I wanted to work in.

jotaen 7y ago

Yes, I definitely profit from basic skills that I acquired in studying mechanical engineering, as you mentioned. However, when applying for jobs I didn’t have the impression that my prospective employers valued that too much, at least as far as my CV is concerned. Not sure what you mean by “boredom”? I don’t have a clear “definition of done” or a deadline for my sabbatical, that’s also why I try to diversify the topics I’m looking at rather than going through them one after the other. I’ll definitely need/will start working again in a couple of months, but my hope is that working freelance and continuing self-studying is not mutually exclusive. But I’ll need to see next year how this works out then in practice.

Aperocky 7y ago
I'm currently in software but graduated from mechanical as well. I think one of the biggest drawback of the current education system is the assumption that people should have one major and that it would last throughout their career. In reality, most of the skill learned ended up being not used, the proportion of the major is basically the opposite of what the job market actually need. And the constraint of it actually ruined a lot of people and careers. I've been fortunate to be able to choose whatever class I want in college and discover my love for programming - if not for that I might be in a much less productive place today.