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This is fantastic. I switched careers a couple year ago (used to be a CPA) and am now a very happy software engineer at a tech company. These sorts of resources

by carc 11y ago

This is fantastic. I switched careers a couple year ago (used to be a CPA) and am now a very happy software engineer at a tech company. These sorts of resources are great. I want to iterate, though, for people without CS degrees that doing something like this will NOT make it easier for you to get a software engineer position in and of itself. The skills you learn from things like this will though - so use this to be able to learn what you need to know to build cool side proects. In my experience, companies will usually ignore your lack of CS degree if you have projects that demonstrate your knowledge. I personally have many projects using some high level languages doing things like web apps or visualizations, and I'm also working on an emulator just to teach myself more about computer architecture. It helps that even though my job has me working very far from the hardware, I still find all this stuff fascinating.

fapjacks 11y ago
Well, without a piece of paper from some third party certifying they think you know CS, and then also without having stuff on Github, you're basically just asking anyone to take you at your word that you're a programmer. I interview regularly for fun and I do not have a degree, only projects on Github, and I have never once been asked about a CS education or background. In fact, I just went to an interview where they didn't even ask for my resume, just a link to my Github. This is really the meat of it: Being able to prove that you are a programmer is even more valuable than have a piece of paper from some third party certifying that they think you are a programmer. And this is really the weakness of a degree: Those universities cannot prove that you are a programmer. They can only certify that they made "teaching" of some of the knowledge base available to the person. This is less useful than a Github full of source code and a regular commit history, though less useless than a resume full of personal claims. In my social circles, I'm the guy everybody knows as the lifelong programmer. So there are late-bloomers that come to me asking for advice. I tell them to just start slapping shitty code into a Github account, and frankly it's the best thing they could do for themselves if they really want a job writing software.

by carc 11y ago

fapjacks 11y ago

Well, without a piece of paper from some third party certifying they think you know CS, and then also without having stuff on Github, you're basically just asking anyone to take you at your word that you're a programmer. I interview regularly for fun and I do not have a degree, only projects on Github, and I have never once been asked about a CS education or background. In fact, I just went to an interview where they didn't even ask for my resume, just a link to my Github. This is really the meat of it: Being able to prove that you are a programmer is even more valuable than have a piece of paper from some third party certifying that they think you are a programmer. And this is really the weakness of a degree: Those universities cannot prove that you are a programmer. They can only certify that they made "teaching" of some of the knowledge base available to the person. This is less useful than a Github full of source code and a regular commit history, though less useless than a resume full of personal claims. In my social circles, I'm the guy everybody knows as the lifelong programmer. So there are late-bloomers that come to me asking for advice. I tell them to just start slapping shitty code into a Github account, and frankly it's the best thing they could do for themselves if they really want a job writing software.