Ask HN: Mechanical engineer that wants to work in the programming field

Which country are you from? If not from Canada or Australia, then unless you get into school in the US and get your OPT, or unless you join a U.S. based company that you can internally transfer, your chances are slim. You need to get work authorization which is very hard and most U.S. employers won't hire someone outside of the US except in the above situations.

I am a mechanical engineer as well that turned to programming. I only had Matlab and Fortran experience of all things out of school. I would be very honest with yourself whether living in the US on the West Coast is your dream or being a programmer is your dream. These are two separate things and are not necessarily related. Assuming that you want to go into programming, then figure out what type of work you want to do. But if you are flexible and not in the goal is more to live in the US then I would suggest going the web development route. I learned pretty much entirely on nights and weekends doing small contract work what we call moonlighting. Then after several years of that I decided to go out on my own. I had never worked officially as a developer but was able to get my first full-time contract job without showing a resume at all. (It was from a reference.) The thing that I love about the web development space especially is that no one cares what your degree as they only care about your experience and knowledge. If you can build a simple web app that does something and it can be simple and put it out there on a real site then you will have no problem getting a job.

All of this is assuming that you legally can get a job the US.

I'm a mechanical engineer by training (B.S. and M.S.) but most of my day to day work is software development, testing, analysis, etc in the aviation industry. I haven't done anything "mechanical" for money since graduating.

Unless you want to do web development, you shouldn't try to sell yourself as "just a programmer." If a company is only looking for someone with programming skills they will probably favor someone with a CS degree.

Instead, leverage your background. There are lots of companies in the US (West Coast included) that do embedded software, robotics, and other types of software development where the software doesn't run on x86. Often it needs to run in real time and be qualified for safety. The methodical persistence and attention to detail that companies associate with a PhD is an asset for these types of positions. Your Matlab & Python experience will show that you can do both quick prototyping and heavy analysis, while your C++ experience and interest in Cuda, etc will show that you care about performant software and don't mind thinking about the actual hardware your code runs on.

If you have any knowledge of sensors, statistics, or signal processing, you'll probably be an instant hire for this type of company. Companies of this type (which aren't "software companies" by the usual definition, but which have software as a major competitive advantage/requirement) have trouble finding people with the right background. Traditional engineers who can't program don't fill the role, and neither do most CS grads who don't have the engineering knowledge to work with the hardware.

>And if you're thinking of the East Coast at all, please reach out.

I have an MSc in Robotics and even though I would like to work for iRobot and other Robotics startups in the US, there is a very slim chance because the visa restrictions make shopping for a job debilitating.

I have a mechanical engineering degree(BS) with a minor in computer science.

It is 100% do-able for you to switch in. My college used to say "mechanical engineering is the liberal arts of engineering". You will be able to handle it. I personally did 2.5 years as a professional mechanical engineer right after college, then switched over to software and have been doing that ever since.

Some possible pathways - look for a job that is at the intersection of mechanical engineering & computer science. There are companies that write simulation programs, it's harder to find people that understand the engineering math than it is to find people that can write code. They are usually in the oil / defense industries. They pay very well.

You are also a prime candidate for a bootcamp type program. I don't normally recommend them, but you are one of the few people that it actually makes sense for. You need to just work with some people that know software engineering well and you will grow quickly. At the end of that, they will help place you in a job and then you can spend the next 18-24 months learning it all on the job.

My personal pathway was a bit different. I grew up hacking, and chose to do mechanical engineering because I felt I wouldn't learn enough new stuff in a CS program. When I wanted to get back into software I worked on a sideproject for about 6 months, and used that as an example of my skills when I interviewing. However, I did 3 years of internships in software so I knew what I needed to do.