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I never graduated with a CS degree, have never done leetcode exercises, yet I found a career in tech. I’m not trying to be toxic as you say, in fact we probably

I never graduated with a CS degree, have never done leetcode exercises, yet I found a career in tech. I’m not trying to be toxic as you say, in fact we probably agree about elitism in the community more than you think. What worked for me was taking on an internship way back when as a web developer, which I turned into a part time and then full time job, which ended up getting my foot in many doors, and I credit it to bootstrapping my career in tech. The landscape is different now though, this was just before coding boot camps were a thing. Most people here will probably disagree with internships on principle, but I think they’re saying that from a position of entitlement given that they already made it. Your outlook sounds bleak, and you said you gave up already, but if/when you decide to pick it up again, you need to focus on getting in with actual people as well as just having raw technical concepts under your belt. Maybe. It’s all a crapshoot too, so don’t weigh any one bit of advice too heavily.

anakaine 6y ago
I'm inclined to agree with your sentiment here. My degrees are in earth sciences and engineering. What I do day to day is apply the principles of these things, are they are relevant to my field, to the role that I'm in at a technical level. In fact, many of my peers and colleagues are in a similar situation. Some of the top software in the couple of industries I either am / have been across is not written purely by those with CS degrees and are full of raw talent. 50-80% of the workforce are those that have other skills first, and can also do a good job with code - and the CS guys make it elegant and work. A geologist / environmental engineer / geotechnical engineer / fire scientist / ecologist will guide and help write PoC, others make sure the PoC fits, and the CS guys make sure it performs. Not everything is a Silicon Valley darling that fits the echo chamber template we constantly see on HN (This is an incubator / startup funds news feed after all!!). To OP: You got in to this for a reason, and are likely good at it. If you need perspective, now might be a good time to check out what other options you have, gain some perspective, spot some holes in whatever fields those options might exist, then start filling those holes in with your coding ability. Now you're working for you (at least partially), might be able to turn that into income (if it's novel enough), and still get to indulge your passion of writing code.

anakaine 6y ago

I'm inclined to agree with your sentiment here. My degrees are in earth sciences and engineering. What I do day to day is apply the principles of these things, are they are relevant to my field, to the role that I'm in at a technical level. In fact, many of my peers and colleagues are in a similar situation. Some of the top software in the couple of industries I either am / have been across is not written purely by those with CS degrees and are full of raw talent. 50-80% of the workforce are those that have other skills first, and can also do a good job with code - and the CS guys make it elegant and work. A geologist / environmental engineer / geotechnical engineer / fire scientist / ecologist will guide and help write PoC, others make sure the PoC fits, and the CS guys make sure it performs. Not everything is a Silicon Valley darling that fits the echo chamber template we constantly see on HN (This is an incubator / startup funds news feed after all!!). To OP: You got in to this for a reason, and are likely good at it. If you need perspective, now might be a good time to check out what other options you have, gain some perspective, spot some holes in whatever fields those options might exist, then start filling those holes in with your coding ability. Now you're working for you (at least partially), might be able to turn that into income (if it's novel enough), and still get to indulge your passion of writing code.