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How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

blog.edmondhui.com

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Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#61

Post by Server6 »

DogLover_ wrote: post #20

Must admit I find it discouraging that I spend years in university years ago when people now just finish some self-learned material in a matter of a few months. It is only getting simpler every year. I don't see the future being bright for this discipline if the sentiment is that that is all it takes.

This guy has a degree and worked in commercial real-estate. He's intelligent and capable of working in tech. Bootcamps are retraining programs, not degree programs. They're not going to turn dummies into software engineers.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#62

Post by HidyBush »

IshKebab wrote: post #59
HidyBush wrote: post #27

"How I successfully became a civil engineer in 3 months" Brrrrr. Why the hell this is allowed when talking about software is beyond me.

Because you can't really teach yourself civil engineering. A degree is more or less mandatory so all civil engineers have at least 3 years of learning behind them. There's no qualification required to become a "software engineer", so you can absolutely become one (maybe not a very good one) in 3 months.

I disagree. There are things that should be required for a software engineer to know. Queueing theory comes to mind

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#63

Post by taurath »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #21
OrangeMonkey wrote: post #2

I truly love success stories like this. We can make fun of bootcamps, but the people going into them are by-and-large trying to make themselves better than they are. Its the human condition and should be our goal.

You cannot claim this with any certainty. I would counter-claim that many who go into developing are in it for the gold-rush mentality (I can get paid $$$) which ultimately lowers the quality of software. I'm not doubting there are those who go into it with good intentions but it's not something that is cut out for anyone and those who get into it because it's a bright, shiny object are doing themselves a disservice.

Most developers I know who are self taught have been passionate about building things for a long time and have been experimenting on their own time for a long time before they got their first SE role. Even with the potential financial rewards, the amount of learning one must do on one’s own time is too large for someone to just walk up to it. I find that there’s a lot of people with CS degrees like this though who just wanted that degree to make more money, and then find they really dislike the roles.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#64

Post by cr3ative »

HidyBush wrote: post #62
IshKebab wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can't really teach yourself civil engineering. A degree is more or less mandatory so all civil engineers have at least 3 years of learning behind them. There's no qualification required to become a "software engineer", so you can absolutely become one (maybe not a very good one) in 3 months.

I disagree. There are things that should be required for a software engineer to know. Queueing theory comes to mind

I'd wager any problem involving queuing theory could be googled/researched in under a day. Hard to call it a requirement when you can just.. look it up when you need it.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#65

Post by dqpb »

HidyBush wrote: post #27

"How I successfully became a civil engineer in 3 months" Brrrrr. Why the hell this is allowed when talking about software is beyond me.

What percentage of seasoned software engineers do any kind of formal model checking?

Edit: lol, love the downvotes. The fact is, 10 years of Agile TDD OOP cargo cult only makes you a marginally better Engineer than a bootcamper.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#66

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #14

> In 3 short months, we learned everything necessary to become software engineers. I felt like I could achieve anything I put my mind to. Am I the only one who cringed at this? Dunning-Kruger would like a word. I've been developing for near a decade and am just realizing what it means to become a software engineer; and it's a whole lot more than just hands on keyboards.

The problem I see, especially for someone who is entering the field of software development, is the lack of critical thinking.

If you think that you've learned everything needed to become a software engineer in three months, wouldn't it cause you to wonder why four-year programs exist? Has this ever occurred to OP?

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#67

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

OrangeMonkey wrote: post #55
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot claim this with any certainty. I would counter-claim that many who go into developing are in it for the gold-rush mentality (I can get paid $$$) which ultimately lowers the quality of software. I'm not doubting there are those who go into it with good intentions but it's not something that is cut out for anyone and those who get into it because it's a bright, shiny object are doing themselves a disservice.

I respectfully disagree. I could disparage the reasons someone gets into programming (though, I think, money is a fine one), but if they then take positive actions to train, grow, learn then that is a net positive. Look, we all know people who complain but never fix things. I have family members who I dearly care about, but they would rather whine about X/Y than take a step to fix it (or fix themselves). Someone taki…

You're misrepresenting my sentiment. I support people trying, but it's annoying it see people portray themselves with what is obviously false confidence after going through a bootcamp, of which is talked to death on HN. That's great this person is trying to better themselves but they are at the very beginning of the long process of becoming an actual, productive software developer.

I guess what really eats at me is the trivialization of software development and the hubris that a 3-month bootcamp can bring you to a place to "tackle anything you put your mind to" when that is the farthest from the truth.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#68

Post by taurath »

ichbinlegion wrote: post #29

I don't have formal CS education, but I've been working as a developer for 25 years. In the firm I've been in that last 15 years, only developers with 10+ years of experience actually make a difference. Others are either still learning, or just doing menial work. It makes me a bit sad this trend of "become a developer in 3 months". It's just a dream.

Respectfully it’s not, and I’ve never heard of needing devs with 10 years of experience to do non-menial work.

Within my first year without a formal education I was shipping major features out to customers. Yes most of that year was big squashing, perf optimization and helping others with features. 10 years later, I am still learning - I hope that part never stops.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#69

Post by dqpb »

DogLover_ wrote: post #20

Must admit I find it discouraging that I spend years in university years ago when people now just finish some self-learned material in a matter of a few months. It is only getting simpler every year. I don't see the future being bright for this discipline if the sentiment is that that is all it takes.

Most programming these days is just a very shitty version of configuration management.

Re: How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

#70

Post by jrochkind1 »

otras wrote: post #22

The most important part is missing from the article: how they found and got accepted for the first job. The hardest part of switching isn’t attending the bootcamp, it’s finding a company that is willing to take a chance on your lack of experience and future growth potential. Doubly so for switching into the industry during Q3 of 2020 and fully remote. Did they get extremely lucky? Did they go to school with the hirin…

Yep, went to the article curious about that, went back and read it twice to make sure I wasn't missing it, and came here to say this!

They don't say if they actually have found a job yet, which makes a pretty big difference to how we understand "how I successfully became a software engineer"! If they have, I'm curious if the boot camp played a role in placing them and what that was like if so, otherwise how difficult it was to find a job, and either way if the working conditions and salary were what they had hoped for or expected, etc.

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