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How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

billmei.net

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Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#21

Post by framebit »

TheGRS wrote: post #12

Great story! It kind of makes me wonder about my own story to be honest, since I also do not have a CS degree yet I've learned to love coding. I am not really sure what my "dream job" would be though. I've thought about it on a few occasions and I always fall short of coming up with something that really "wow's" me enough to start down a new career path. Would be interested if anyone else has that same sort of existe…

Your career does not have to be the great love of your life.

It's okay to have a job that's just a good day job and let your real passion live outside of it: family, hobbies, volunteering, maybe religious practice if you're so inclined. There is so much more to life than just your career.

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#22

Post by fizixer »

steven777400 wrote: post #2

The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…

Automated homework/exam creation and cheat-proof (or cheat-resistant) grading needs to catch up. In my opinion, it is making progress but isn't quite there yet.

Once that is done, it's over!

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#23

Post by neurocroc »

steven777400 wrote: post #2

The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…

I am quite excited about my project that I have been working on. Do you think presenting all the knowledge of the world in this visual way (https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge-map) can be of benefit?

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#24

Post by throwaway2048 »

jotux wrote: post #17
steven777400 wrote: post #2

The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…

The actual education part of a university is really a small part of what students leave with. What you're really getting is a network of professors (with ties to employers) and other students that become your friends. Once everyone leaves the university you now have a large network of people that can vouch for your technical knowledge and personality. What you don't get with an online education is the proximity to ot…

you also dont get a peice of paper at the end that employers give a shit about.

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#25

Post by jhmj98foeiedkj »

komali2 wrote: post #6

Damn, that guy busted his butt. I got a creative writing degree from a decent but relatively unheard of Texas state school, spent a month studying Javascript, got into a bootcamp, worked for the bootcamp as TA for 3 months, then got a ~120k/yr job in the bay area within a month of leaving the bootcamp. I had 3 projects on my resume and absolutely nothing technical to show for the time period prior to the bootcamp, ot…

"spent a month studying Javascript" + 3 months seems surprisingly short; a very large return on investment.

I'm CS undergrad(almost half-way), but by job requirements none of my skills are even close to being employable. I guess I should start Js

If you don't mind sharing, What topics/frameworks did you learn in that time and if not the same, what frameworks/skillets are mostly used day-to-day?

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#26

Post by hbcondo714 »

> I also signed up for Hired which ended up having the best response rate—their platform is where I eventually found my current job.

Would the author of the article mind sharing their Hired.com preferences? I've been trying Hired.com for 5 months and still receive the same response:

"You have great experience! Unfortunately, at this time we don’t have enough opportunities that match your role and location preferences. We’ve added your name to our waitlist and will be in touch as soon as we’re confident that we can provide you with quality opportunities!"

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#27

Post by popdoit »

komali2 wrote: post #6

Damn, that guy busted his butt. I got a creative writing degree from a decent but relatively unheard of Texas state school, spent a month studying Javascript, got into a bootcamp, worked for the bootcamp as TA for 3 months, then got a ~120k/yr job in the bay area within a month of leaving the bootcamp. I had 3 projects on my resume and absolutely nothing technical to show for the time period prior to the bootcamp, ot…

May I politely say "fuck you" for getting a 120k job after completing a bootcamp. Starting salary of 120k/yr for someone with a 3-month vocational program and an unrelated undergrad degree? That is literally insane.

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#28

Post by kcorbitt »

Very inspirational, but I'd be interested in knowing what exactly the author was optimizing for in his job search, and how he decided that FutureAdvisor "best aligned with [his] personal values." In the current hiring climate it's not exactly hard to find a software development job in the Bay Area if you show a bit of talent, so I'm assuming with the number of contacts he made he wasn't just looking for the first company that would take him on.

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#29

Post by FLUX-YOU »

steven777400 wrote: post #2

The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…

>Combined with a couple of education futurists predicting the imminent demise of in-person college (to be replaced by canned lectures from the best speakers and an army of automated or mechanical-turk graders), I decided to be first out rather than forced out and quit.

How do you get students in fields without easy lab set ups to get lab experience?

CompSci/Software? We can build entire networks with a single script that were managed by dozens of people 10-20 years ago. We have millions of programs and scripts available to us freely through public code hosting providers.

Structure Engineering and Architecture could conceivably simulate a lot of things.

Chemistry? Doing this at home without people qualified for safety is a recipe for disaster. Same for microbiology, medicine, nursing, and psychiatry. Also for many trade skills. You can study a lot, but the practical, hands-on knowledge is essential because it is muscle memory or social practice too.

Colleges could become hubs of hands-on and bespoke learning and trip-taking lectures while the classroom material and tests are sourced elsewhere. I would be completely fine with that evolution because you are right -- there's certain reasons I go into work, but it's not because I can only do my work at my workplace.

Re: How I got my dream job in the tech industry without a CS degree

#30

Post by sdflkd »

jotux wrote: post #17
steven777400 wrote: post #2

The author's comment on access to a mediocre/unknown university instructor for a high fee vs free access to a very good set of lectures (Khan) is one of the doubts that led me to quit my job as a college instructor. I had kind of the existential "what are we doing here?" question -- why are students coming here and paying us money when better instruction is available for free online? Combined with a couple of educati…

The actual education part of a university is really a small part of what students leave with. What you're really getting is a network of professors (with ties to employers) and other students that become your friends. Once everyone leaves the university you now have a large network of people that can vouch for your technical knowledge and personality. What you don't get with an online education is the proximity to ot…

Getting employment opportunities through professors (outside of research) doesn't really apply where I am from.
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