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The problem is "STEM" is a very vague category and has huge numbers of people in it with skills that are no more transferable to programming than an artist or h

The problem is "STEM" is a very vague category and has huge numbers of people in it with skills that are no more transferable to programming than an artist or historian would have. For instance a lot of STEM is biology, medicine, etc. Such people generally want to work on something at least vaguely people related, or at least in team-based academic settings. Working with logical machines all day, mostly on your own, is not their idea of a good time and their preferred working environment is worth a large salary drop to them. Likewise classical/civil engineering doesn't teach any programming skills, normally. The places where you do get crossover tends to be maths and physics, i.e. fields where you're frequently manipulating abstract symbols, where you're often needing to write simple programs to do your main job and so learn on the side, and which involves long stretches of concentrated, isolated thought. But not many people are studying maths and physics, and there's been a lot of bleed for a long time there. It isn't going to result in any major shifts.

smnrchrds 7y ago
My experience has been different. Do you remember this highly upvoted comment on Ask HN: CS, still a good career in 3-5 years?: > CS isn't a career. CS is part of all careers... [0] It is true. It is also not novel. Students of different fields have been learning software on the side during their studies, some as a backup plan, some in order to make themselves more hireable in their primary field. Employers have started requesting some software development knowledge from new hires. Graduate school of any STEM topic usually includes a non-significant amount of programming. I am a mechanical engineer, working in a very mechanical field, yet my colleagues and I spend a fair bit of time crafting and improving programs of various lengths and difficulties to help us do our mechanical calculations. Some people go to STEM because they love their particular field of study; many do because they are pragmatic and STEM is a pragmatic field. They will have no qualms switching from civil engineering to tech if it means they will get paid 3 times as much. Many have, many more certainly will. Out of my graduating class, from those whom I have kept touch with, the number of people working in tech is just slightly lower than the number of people working as mechanical engineers. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815428

smnrchrds 7y ago

My experience has been different. Do you remember this highly upvoted comment on Ask HN: CS, still a good career in 3-5 years?: > CS isn't a career. CS is part of all careers... [0] It is true. It is also not novel. Students of different fields have been learning software on the side during their studies, some as a backup plan, some in order to make themselves more hireable in their primary field. Employers have started requesting some software development knowledge from new hires. Graduate school of any STEM topic usually includes a non-significant amount of programming. I am a mechanical engineer, working in a very mechanical field, yet my colleagues and I spend a fair bit of time crafting and improving programs of various lengths and difficulties to help us do our mechanical calculations. Some people go to STEM because they love their particular field of study; many do because they are pragmatic and STEM is a pragmatic field. They will have no qualms switching from civil engineering to tech if it means they will get paid 3 times as much. Many have, many more certainly will. Out of my graduating class, from those whom I have kept touch with, the number of people working in tech is just slightly lower than the number of people working as mechanical engineers. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815428