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One of the most fulfilling roles a software engineer can have is to work in orthogonal industries where software engineer role doesn't exist. It can backfire, b

One of the most fulfilling roles a software engineer can have is to work in orthogonal industries where software engineer role doesn't exist. It can backfire, but if it works - you'll make massive impact, get treated like a genius, make a bunch of friends, be the go-to toolmaker, you can form a team by showing the value of automating things, generally teach and mentor others about software, it is just so fulfilling. It can backfire in the following way: Management sees software as a thing that just appears out of thin air, drive you to ground and trivialize effort it takes to build something, unreasonable requirements - "Can't you just use computer vision AI thing to _____?". The best way to do this is to join a 25-50 people company. Not any bigger.

theonething 5y ago
This sounds great. I'm assuming you have first hand experience with this scenario. Would love to hear more details such as type of industry, how to find, etc. Do you happen to have a blog or something with these details?
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Yes, my entire first half of the career was in such an orthogonal industry. I learned how to write software out of necessity and now that I am working in a software engineering team, I kind of miss my old days. There were no endless jira tickets, no code reviews, just pure solving problems and fixing things. You can try to write letters to companies in agriculture, food production, manufacturing, chemical plants, beverage (wine, beer, etc.), textiles, construction, lumber, etc. Pay won't be good but if you have what it takes, can definitely become a favorite person of the whole company and depending on leadership skills, you can rise up quickly and start taking on bigger responsibilities. An example would be finding manufacturing defects in production lines - stick a bunch of cheap industrial cameras, use OpenCV to build an app that can detect them, use polarizing filters to remove plastic wrap glare, automate barcode scanners with ultrasonic switches, collect important manufacturing data such as units/hour, build a statistical process control system, build GUIs for operators, etc. In your letter explain what sorts of things you can do for them.

theonething 5y ago

This sounds great. I'm assuming you have first hand experience with this scenario. Would love to hear more details such as type of industry, how to find, etc. Do you happen to have a blog or something with these details?

systemvoltage 5y ago
Yes, my entire first half of the career was in such an orthogonal industry. I learned how to write software out of necessity and now that I am working in a software engineering team, I kind of miss my old days. There were no endless jira tickets, no code reviews, just pure solving problems and fixing things. You can try to write letters to companies in agriculture, food production, manufacturing, chemical plants, beverage (wine, beer, etc.), textiles, construction, lumber, etc. Pay won't be good but if you have what it takes, can definitely become a favorite person of the whole company and depending on leadership skills, you can rise up quickly and start taking on bigger responsibilities. An example would be finding manufacturing defects in production lines - stick a bunch of cheap industrial cameras, use OpenCV to build an app that can detect them, use polarizing filters to remove plastic wrap glare, automate barcode scanners with ultrasonic switches, collect important manufacturing data such as units/hour, build a statistical process control system, build GUIs for operators, etc. In your letter explain what sorts of things you can do for them.