Ask HN: How many of you are employed, self-taught SWEs?

As someone self taught, let me cut to the chase and say your number one problem is proving yourself in the professional world the first time. My advise assumes you have a different degree and you have some CS skills. Assuming this, you have to knock on ~100+ doors until one opens. I’m not joking about ~100+ doors. You will be ignored, rejected and laughed at - repeatedly. You need to search exclusively in your local market with a local address on your resume. Don’t use the major bot controlled job sites - check prospective employer sites directly. Check for entry level positions - or even internships - that’s your best path. Manual QA tester. Project analyst. End user phone support. Third shift operations. I’m not joking: you have to prove it. Once a door opens, it may not be the title you want, it may not be the technology you want, it may not be the boss you want, it may not be the benefits you want, and it definitely won’t be the pay you want. It may be unpaid. Don’t negotiate. Your one and only criteria should be: will this role allow me to prove myself. Will this opportunity grant access to greater challenges, future roles, broader networks. If so, take it! Then work twice as hard as the next person and prove it!

My advice surely sounds cynical but remember the hiring pipeline is populated 98% by non-technical folks whose assessment of your skills relies exclusively on a degree. That’s the system.

tl;dr if you are self-taught, learning CS is actually the easy part. Getting your foot in the door is the hardest.

I think I was probably inspired because I knew my dad was a programmer. But also we had computers in the house when I was a child and if I remember correctly they seemed like the most interesting toys available.

I was lucky because we had an Ohio Scientific and not long after a Vic-20 and Color Computer 2 and C64 and Texas Instruments and of course various PCs. I don't actually remember the details of when those things arrived very well.

But to me computers were like toys that you could play with infinitely because they could be programmed to do anything. And also they seemed very complex so that meant there was always something interesting to learn about them or explore.

I highly recommend this book for kids "Getting Started With Extended Color Basic" https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Extended-Color-Basic/...

I followed along with books like that which were basically tutorials. And I tweaked the BASIC programs to try to create my own variations.

By doing simple experiments I was able to teach myself the basics of programming (in BASIC) before I was say 9 years old. I remember doing more actual programs when we had a PC. I spent many hours in GW-BASIC and remember creating a simple Space Invaders-like game among other things.

Also around middle school age I was getting into Turbo Pascal and starting to teach myself object-oriented programming. I recommend the book Turbo Pascal Disk Tutor by Werner Fiebel which I had a late edition.

When I was around maybe 8th or 9th grade we had started learning algebra and I also my dad had bought this little second-hand 1960s math/engineering reference handbook. I used the equations in there for rotation to create a very simple system for displaying 3D wireframes using Turbo Pascal. And made it into a really basic type of 3D modeler.

In high school I got a later edition of C++ How to Program by Deitel & Deitel.

Also my mom was really into reading and brought home a ton of science fiction books many of which I read. So I think that science fiction also inspired me a bit.

College was hard for me, aside from the programming classes which were easy, and some basic courses that mainly just tested literacy. And I was not really able to make and keep friends so I ended dropping out. I actually drove across the country and moved to New York where I hoped I would be able to get a job doing trading in C++ or something. I feel like I was close to scoring a job with a few interviews but ran out of money and got into data entry and then legal word processing for a few years. I remember building a workflow/job tracking system for one of the offices I was in using Access and VBA and then failing to sell it to the programming department head who felt everything needed to be coded in C++.

But anyway it was quite difficult for me to get a career in programming. I put a lot of time into things like Rent-A-Coder and eventually got a temp job that was semi-technical but not quite programming. I created a system to help automatically compare multicolumn PDFs which was one of the primary jobs in that department. That helped me land an actual programming contract.

To be honest, I think my lack of a degree or charisma and also a few health problems has all hurt me a bit and I have not really flourished as a computer programmer aside from a few more lucrative contracts.

The last several years I have focused on work that I can do remotely and that isn't always the highest paying thing. I have also been focusing more and more on startups and as much as possible my own startups or side projects.

Right now I work for a tiny startup for little money and live somewhere cheap. It is at least not a very stressful or demanding job and it leaves me some energy and time for side projects. Right now I am focusing on learning about ML/AI/ a little robotics with the dream of someday building a household robot that can do dishes or even cook.

I didn't have access to a computer until I was almost 20. Incredibly fascinated by it, I sucked up all the knowledge I could. I started with general IT which turned into a generic call center help desk job. I did that for a few years while learning to code on my own. Mostly basic web related stuff which I parlayed into helping out part time on a project at the company I worked for at the time. Once I had some real resume experience on my hands I was able to work that into a full time programming job at a very small company on a team of three people doing workflow management software. It was very close to dotcom bubble days and I probably got the job because I was willing to work for cheap compared to other developers at the time. Mostly because it was more than I was making before and I didn't know what I could have been making. Outside of a few unrelated courses I have still have no formal training, certifications, or degrees and am entirely self-taught.

Today, I work as a technology lead in the innovation lab at a large reputable company doing machine learning, deep learning, blockchain/crypto, tech evaluations, investment portfolio bootstrapping. Most of what I work on is turned into a product (new or enhancement) or acquisition for the company. I think there are multitudes more opportunities than were available when I was starting out. My advice is to always keep learning on your own and from others. Don't let yourself get to comfortable and find projects that are challenging and interesting to work on.

I’m a self software developer and have held professional positions in software development, architecture, and management at various small and mid sized startups.

I started by teaching myself how to program Visual Basic when I was 13 years old, which was around 24 years ago. Back then I was on AOL and hackers made “progz” which added functionality on top of the platform. I was curious how they did made them and wanted to make one myself. So my father took me to compusa to talk to someone about programming. I left with a cd to install Visual Basic and a learn vb in 24 hours book. From there I spent a good portion of my childhood learning various languages, platforms, philosophies, and frameworks.

The first money I made was building ASP classic websites for local businesses when I was around 17. In college I started as a CS major but at the time the curriculum hadn’t caught up to the web and I wasn’t interested in what they were teaching. I was always a pretty entrepreneurial, so I transferred to the business program.

I try not to have regrets, but in hindsight I wish I followed through with CS. It took me many years and a large investment of time to build the required fundamentals I think every software engineer should have. Also, all that stuff they were teaching later become interesting to me.

After I graduated I wanted to be a product manager. But no one would hire me and they kept pushing me towards software development. I decided if I was going to write software for a living I had to go work somewhere fun. So my first job was at CollegeHumor as a software engineer. It was the perfect transition from college to the real world. We worked hard and we had a tremendous amount of fun too.

Early in my career I had a chance to go into management and have mostly stayed in management since. I still program (outside the critical path), contribute to architecture, and try to keep my skills up to date and sharp.

I’ve joined various companies early enough where I’ve been the first engineering hire. I’ve had the chance to develop everything from scratch and then build a team to hand it off to. I’ve also joined mid stage startups and helped grow the team and tech.

I love what I do.

My advice...

- Do it because you love it. The best engineers I’ve worked with also happen to be the most passionate. They are curious and never stop learning.

- Learn CS fundamentals and how the things you use work under the hood

- Learn to create value for a business. Unless you are in academia or research you are being paid to create value for the business. I can’t believe how many engineers miss this point. This means that you should forget the pursuit of perfection and learn to balance good enough and technical debt.

- Learn how to speak to software people and business people. You’ll be more valuable if you can translate and be the bridge to both sides.

- Experiment with lots of different languages, philosophies, and paradigms. You’ll find the ones you like and take some lessons away from all of them.

- Dont get caught up chasing the next hot thing (language, framework, database, etc). At the same time don’t become obsolete either.

- Learn SQL. Really learn it. I’m not talking about the little bit to make your ORM work. A database is just another service you interact with. You should know what value it brings and how to interact with it.

- Money is good. Most people in this perfession seem to be doing okay. But don’t do it just for the money.

- If you plan to join a startup learn about Stock options and how they work. It’s amazing how many engineers work at startups and have no idea about their options and how it fits in as part of their comp package.

I taught myself programming when I was 14 on school computers during lunch breaks and after hours. I worked as a cleaner in order to buy my first laptop. By the time I went to university to study software engineering, I already knew how to code. I graduated after 5 years working as a part time software developer on the side. I've been coding for 16 years. I've been learning constantly for the first 14 years. The last 2 have been pretty easy.