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How I successfully became a software engineer in 3 months

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

#71

Post by mytailorisrich »

huimang wrote: post #42
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 the term [junior/senior] software engineer doesn't mean anything. If you have a laptop, congrats you're now a software engineer.

If you have a laptop you have the tool you need to write software. But that does not mean that you have the skills and expertise to practise engineering applied to building software products within strict constraints.

Similarly, woodworking tools do not make one a carpenter.

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

#72

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

taurath wrote: post #63
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.

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 ju…

I am one of those people - no CS degree, self-taught and ground my way up to FAANG. Never once did I think I could "tackle any problem I could put my mind to" until around the 10 year mark.

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

#73

Post by goodpoint »

EddySchauHai wrote: post #31
goodpoint wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because something is legal it does not mean it's reasonable.

Just because something isn’t reasonable doesn’t mean it isn’t correct. If someone is hired as a software engineer and they refer to themselves as a software engineer, that’s their prerogative. Do I think it’s reasonable the term is used for people without professional experience or formal education? Not really. But that’s how it is and we shouldn’t put someone down (as OP seems to have done) because of it.

> If someone is hired as a software engineer and they refer to themselves as a software engineer, that’s their prerogative.

No.

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

#74

Post by mrtranscendence »

ichbinlegion wrote: post #51
johnthewise wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of web dev work around and you don't need 10+ years of experience to do it.

Do you understand that is just intern-level work?

TIL that there are only interns and people with 10+ years of experience.

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

#75

Post by ichbinlegion »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #74
ichbinlegion wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you understand that is just intern-level work?

TIL that there are only interns and people with 10+ years of experience.

TIL I can become a surgeon with a 3 months bootcamp

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

#76

Post by fimdomeio »

"Successfully becoming a software engineer in 3 months" is a sign that one is not yet aware of all the things he doesn't know.

If, as it looks like, he's writing this two years after that experience and still does not feel a little bit of that imposters syndrome, than I would argue that he's doing something wrong. I would say part of being a software engineer is being aware that your code could always be better and that are always some areas of knowledge that deserved more research, a context that makes the word success somewhat meaningless.

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

#77

Post by mrtranscendence »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #66
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?

I suppose the counterargument would go something like: four-year degrees are full of cruft that has no impact on your ability to do software development work. That's undoubtedly the case to some extent; my extra year of French and my philosophy electives don't help me very much day-to-day. I bet you could condense a program down to something like 2-3 years, though I can't imagine how much someone has learnt in only 3 months.

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

#78

Post by ichbinlegion »

taurath wrote: post #68
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.

Maybe we're just unlucky with recruiting.

In my team there are people with 2 or 3 years of experience who need 5x to 10x the time it take a senior developer to do.

As I said, maybe we're just unlucky. Or maybe the whole IT sector is used to low-quality, low-efficiency jobs. Who knows.

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

#79

Post by sanitycheck »

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.

I have a similar background, and my initial path into this job in the late 90s was definitely "become a developer in 6 months" using only books on HTML and Perl (and a pirate copy of Photoshop), so I can easily believe with instruction one can become a developer in 3.

There's a lot I couldn't do, of course, and there will be a lot that bootcamp devs can't do. But it's a start, a foot in the door. And it's also a kick up the ass for anyone who doesn't have the discipline to just sit at home studying for months.

I suspect both you and I made useful contributions before we hit the 10 year mark, if your young devs are just doing menial work either they're just not very good or they aren't being given anything solid to work on.

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

#80

Post by mrtranscendence »

goodpoint wrote: post #73
EddySchauHai wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because something isn’t reasonable doesn’t mean it isn’t correct. If someone is hired as a software engineer and they refer to themselves as a software engineer, that’s their prerogative. Do I think it’s reasonable the term is used for people without professional experience or formal education? Not really. But that’s how it is and we shouldn’t put someone down (as OP seems to have done) because of it.

> If someone is hired as a software engineer and they refer to themselves as a software engineer, that’s their prerogative. No.

Language evolves. Shaking your fist at the term "software engineer" isn't going to roll back those changes. If my title is software engineer (it isn't, it's ML engineer), and that's what recruiters looking at my resume will expect for the kinds of jobs I'm qualified for, then by golly I'm going to call myself an engineer.
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