Ask HN: How many of you are working in tech without a STEM degree?

No stem degree here, got into programming after graduating with a bachelor in the humanities. Software development turned my life around. Grew a liking for it started speeding through my C language textbook I borrowed from the library

An introductory lesson in BASIC programming on the Apple II sparked the flame when I was eight or nine, and I was enthusiastically self-taught from then on. After I got online in the early '90s, and developed a reputation for helpfulness in certain programming forums, people started offering me contract work - either not knowing or not caring that I was just a teenager. Anybody capable of operating a compiler could get paid to do it back then!

Three semesters into college, not yet having taken any CS classes, this little consulting business had grown so much that I was turning away more work than I had time to accept. Why should I bother finishing a degree, I had to ask, when I already have a career throwing itself at me?

It's worked out fine; I've been writing code for a living ever since. I've worked for a few of the bigcos, but I prefer smaller companies. Some applications work, from time to time, but mostly dev tools, or system software. I like compilers; currently working on a tensor compiler for an ML system.

My dad was a computer programmer, so we were doing basic on apple2 from a young age. I did actually do one year of a cs degree but dropped out to focus on juggling. Yes.

Later on I got back into programming because of electronic juggling equipment. The pro stuff is so expensive despite being just LEDs with batteries and microcontrollers! So anyway I went down the path of learning embedded, making my own equipment including hardware.

It turns out that compared to low level c++, programming for web isn't that different. In some ways it's easier. That's good because during COVID I had to take a break from live entertainment, and managed to make a living doing data science type web stuff (working for my sister, who finished her degree and had a research grant).

Right now I'm back on the embedded scene but combining with web to make IoT juggling equipment (in partnership with a hardware company because I suck at hardware). Product coming soon!

I have a CIS degree, which is from the business school, not engineering.

I work, or have worked, with people who have no degrees and went right into the workforce, have their experience through the military, or have completely unrelated degrees, like geology.

I often feel like I’m in the minority as someone with a degree. Though I think that may have shifted somewhat, but no one ever talks about it. College and degrees almost never come up. Of the people currently on my team, I only know the background of a couple, who I’ve worked with for almost 20 years. The others, I have no clue.

Where are you based? In my 32-year career, it has only ever come up twice, and the second time surprised everyone involved; I wonder what accounts for the difference.