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Awesome!! Any other tips you have for someone going through that career change as well? I have a Mathematics BA, and worked as an actuary. I've self taught myse

Awesome!! Any other tips you have for someone going through that career change as well? I have a Mathematics BA, and worked as an actuary. I've self taught myself varying degrees of SQL, Python, JavaScript, and C, but I've found it difficult not to feel like an imposter without formal qualifications, even though I know I'm a capable learner and love solving challenging problems.

geoka9 5y ago
Software dev is a trade, not a science. With a math degree and stats work experience, I'd say you're better qualified as far as credentials than most of us professional devs.
kevinventullo 5y ago
I came from math as well! For what it’s worth, I’ve found that even the brightest computer scientists and software engineers have a solemn respect for mathematics. Don’t worry about formal qualifications. This is an industry where the largest and most successful companies were started by college dropouts. It’s still very young and things are changing faster than academia can keep up. A willingness to learn and relearn is critical. My prep for big tech interviews basically boiled down to those algorithms classes, doing ~150 leetcode problems, slapping together a small junky android app, and perusing undergrad CS material on Wikipedia. To be honest, the first two are probably enough to get your foot in the door at the biggest companies.
aidenn0 5y ago
Discrete math is to Computer Science as Calculus is to Physics. If you still remember any discrete math from your Math BA, you should have zero issue consuming any undergraduate textbook on theoretical CS.
bakuninsbart 5y ago
There are various approaches to becoming a good Software developer, and to be honest I think math fundamentals are as important as algorithmic foundations, which you can probably also pick up quite well with your background. The one major difference (it is a tendency, not absolute) between software devs who came from CS and those that changed careers into it is a deep passion for computers and how they work. Look at HN, there's a lot of talk about Lisp, Assembly, C etc. although few people actually need it for their jobs. Dealing with these things usually comes from a place of passion more than a place of necessity, and they do make you a better dev, too. A book I can warmly recommend if you want to see how deep your own interests go is "Principles of Programming languages" by MacLennan. He takes a historical approach, explaining the design principles of programming languages by looking at historically game-changing programming languages that few people still use today. The exercises get progressively more complex, and the last exercise is to design and implement your own programming language, a task I haven't yet done myself.

geoka9 5y ago

Software dev is a trade, not a science. With a math degree and stats work experience, I'd say you're better qualified as far as credentials than most of us professional devs.

kevinventullo 5y ago

I came from math as well! For what it’s worth, I’ve found that even the brightest computer scientists and software engineers have a solemn respect for mathematics. Don’t worry about formal qualifications. This is an industry where the largest and most successful companies were started by college dropouts. It’s still very young and things are changing faster than academia can keep up. A willingness to learn and relearn is critical. My prep for big tech interviews basically boiled down to those algorithms classes, doing ~150 leetcode problems, slapping together a small junky android app, and perusing undergrad CS material on Wikipedia. To be honest, the first two are probably enough to get your foot in the door at the biggest companies.

aidenn0 5y ago

Discrete math is to Computer Science as Calculus is to Physics. If you still remember any discrete math from your Math BA, you should have zero issue consuming any undergraduate textbook on theoretical CS.

bakuninsbart 5y ago

There are various approaches to becoming a good Software developer, and to be honest I think math fundamentals are as important as algorithmic foundations, which you can probably also pick up quite well with your background. The one major difference (it is a tendency, not absolute) between software devs who came from CS and those that changed careers into it is a deep passion for computers and how they work. Look at HN, there's a lot of talk about Lisp, Assembly, C etc. although few people actually need it for their jobs. Dealing with these things usually comes from a place of passion more than a place of necessity, and they do make you a better dev, too. A book I can warmly recommend if you want to see how deep your own interests go is "Principles of Programming languages" by MacLennan. He takes a historical approach, explaining the design principles of programming languages by looking at historically game-changing programming languages that few people still use today. The exercises get progressively more complex, and the last exercise is to design and implement your own programming language, a task I haven't yet done myself.