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

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

#51

Post by schwartzworld »

- I hated doing unskilled work so I taught myself to front end web development.

- it's fine. The realities of the job can often be boring, but it's not taxing. I work at a big startup and it's not the way I would run things but what do I know?

- You have to realize what you're up against. Junior dev can mean "knows the language really well but has never worked on a professional team" but it can also mean "doesn't know shit, just out of bootcamp". You have to prove you aren't the latter, but you also have to apply somewhere where they care. I bolstered my resume by speaking at JS events and doing side projects.

- I waited tables for 10 years and then spent 6 more as a massage therapist.

- keep your head up. this is a cushy gig, pays well and isn't really all that difficult. it's worth the effort.

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

#52

Post by pksebben »

wincy wrote: post #22

I have a GED and went to community college for like, 6 years and didn’t get my associates because the final “class” was sitting around the computer lab unpaid. Instead transferred to university and dropped out. Just absolutely hated it. Got married, my daughter was born and suddenly became SUBSTANTIALLY more motivated to “man up and make money”. I lost 75 pounds and suddenly I could think well enough to be a software…

Man, I have a lot of parallels to this. Been on a scrip for that stuff for as long as I can remember, and I had a similar experience at school. Hearing your story really gives me hope for myself; so, thanks!

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work are you doing now? Any tips for your past self?

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

#53

Post by pksebben »

schwartzworld wrote: post #51

- I hated doing unskilled work so I taught myself to front end web development. - it's fine. The realities of the job can often be boring, but it's not taxing. I work at a big startup and it's not the way I would run things but what do I know? - You have to realize what you're up against. Junior dev can mean "knows the language really well but has never worked on a professional team" but it can also mean "doesn't kno…

I spent my decade bartending. Have the same motivations as yourself (fie on that completely flat wage growth in the service industry)

You're not the first person I've heard recommending talks and events. Just another reason to be frustrated with this pandemic.

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

#54

Post by pksebben »

Kaze404 wrote: post #5

Completely self taught here. I went to university for a couple years but dropped out. It doesn't work well with my way of learning. Been working professionally for 4 years. > Why did you get into the field? What did you focus on at first? I always liked computers and building things. It felt like a natural progression of my favorite hobbies, so one day I looked up how to write a Discord bot and the rest is history. I…

That advice about family resonates really hard. Thanks for sharing.

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

#55

Post by pksebben »

otras wrote: post #50

- Why did you get into the field? What did you focus on at first? Although I really enjoy it now, I originally got into software work for the job. After graduating with a degree in physics and French and having a tough time finding a satisfying job, I gave software a shot after seeing some friends and family enjoying the field. I started with JavaScript and frontend engineering, as it seemed to have the lowest barrie…

I have CS50 bookmarked! I'll have to dust it off. Thanks!

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

#56

Post by frompdx »

- Why did you get into the field? What did you focus on at first?

No real focus first. I majored in history. I worked for a while doing a lot of number crunching with excel and thought maybe a lot of what I was doing could be automated. That's how I got interested in programming.

- What are you doing at your job? Is it everything you dreamed of and more?

Currently DevOps. I enjoy it because I have a lot of autonomy and am able to work with tech I am interested in like Kubernetes. I have worked at a few companies and I think your enjoyment is very dependent on the company culture and team culture.

- How did you break that first-job barrier?

I made a lateral move the company I was already working for. I was spending a lot of my free time learning and working on small projects. I started talking with some people on the engineering team during company social events and when they were hiring one of them said I should apply.

- What were you doing before this?

Technical account manager doing client implementations. Desperately wanted to do something that didn't involve talking to be people on the phone all day.

- Any tips for the rest of us?

My experience is an anecdote, but I think that making a lateral move by getting as close as you can to the technical work at your current job is a good strategy. I had to be very persistent and there were a lot of times I was brushed off by managers and executives. Making friends with the people on the engineering team was the most important thing I did. They were happy to include me and were great mentors.

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

#58

Post by pksebben »

cwdegidio wrote: post #19

I had dabbled in programming my whole life, starting with C64 BASIC. In high school learned some C and C++, but once the internet became more accessible moved onto web based languages. After graduating high school, mostly due to having no guidance what so ever, I never put together in my head that I could pursue programming as a legitimate career, walking around with a 16 inch green mohawk pretty much guaranteed that…

HUA. I feel you on that imposter syndrome. Thanks for your response - I bet that punk band was a barrel of fun.

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

#59

Post by wincy »

pksebben wrote: post #52
wincy wrote: post #22

I have a GED and went to community college for like, 6 years and didn’t get my associates because the final “class” was sitting around the computer lab unpaid. Instead transferred to university and dropped out. Just absolutely hated it. Got married, my daughter was born and suddenly became SUBSTANTIALLY more motivated to “man up and make money”. I lost 75 pounds and suddenly I could think well enough to be a software…

Man, I have a lot of parallels to this. Been on a scrip for that stuff for as long as I can remember, and I had a similar experience at school. Hearing your story really gives me hope for myself; so, thanks! If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work are you doing now? Any tips for your past self?

I work as a software engineer mostly backend/middle tier APIs and stuff for a Fortune 500 company now.

I’d remind myself that things like alcohol that act strongly on dopamine can cause SERIOUS problems with adderall, like not feeling any happiness for a week and fun things like that. Adderall is a serious tool to be taken seriously. I joke that Adderall is like a chainsaw. If you’re using it at 3am, there’s a problem. I’d also tell myself that the Adderall isn’t what made me lose weight, and wasn’t the main thrust of me being able to learn. Losing 75 pounds and moving from obese to a healthy weight HUGELY boosted my brain power and concentration power. I was also constantly reacting to food. Had to sort that out.

Adderall let me sort of ignore it for a long time but the underlying condition just got worse. Was put on Nexium for horrible GERD at night at 34, was trembling and all sorts of scary side effects. A ketogenic diet with moderate exercise of walking once or twice a day makes a huge difference. Also magnesium is a like a miracle for my anxiety.

I’d tell me from before I was even in tech at all to just stop wasting my time failing at school and just get a tech job. Although I don’t know if I could have done it without my wife, honestly. I was really good at lying to myself and she put a stop to that shit, excuse my language. I should have tried.

I’d also maybe be less arrogant after getting a good job. I lost a lot of friends who were in a similar slacker boat as me a few years ago. It’s like they stopped wanting to hang out once I became successful which was very isolating.

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

#60

Post by was_boring »

I’ll throw my hat in the ring...

I’m 100% self taught, and have a humanities degree. I’ve worked in global 500 companies, as well as YC startups. I consider my greatest strength to be the ability to teach myself, and that has led to front end, backend, ML, etc. work.

I have never worked at FAANG but with most of them going remote, I’ll probably take my chances next year (a kid on the way so staying with current employer to ensure family leave). To be honest, I’m also scared of the rejection.

I view the learning process as multiple steps. The first is to learn the technology to become useful, while doing that it’s really important to learn the social context of it and how to talk to others in an informed way. I can’t stress that enough.

If you are looking to break into industry I suggest doing a few side projects to demonstrate knowledge, and aim for a company who will give you a chance. For me, this was consultancy.

It requires study off the job, but I love it and would be doing it anyways.

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