I've been working in tech / IT for over 10 years now. After graduating with a CS degree I found myself questioning whether or not I wanted a job coding. Instead of applying for those types of jobs, I looked for software / application support roles. That could mean you work for a software company providing (customer facing) support to the products they sell or working within the IT Dept of a company supporting a number of users applications (I've done both). I did this for about 4-5 years and gained plenty experience with various technologies. The nature of the jobs will have you talking to people that have various roles in a company, which may give you insight on different jobs / industries outside of tech. During one of my application support jobs I was able to transition into a developer position since the work called for me writing some code anyways. It was interesting to me so I figured why not give it a shot. If you heart is not quite settled on being a software engineer, look into application support. You will learn plenty, still have a good challenge without coding, and might just find yourself coding here and there anyways as part of the job. Hope this helps.
Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
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Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#12Some of the best Product Managers I’ve worked with people with Engineering or Comp Sci degrees who had been mediocre devs for one reason or another. That said, is there any type of programming are you good at? What actual work have you done? Have you shipped an iPhone app or launched a basic website? Were your comp sci courses brutally hard and you spent hours working at them and barely eked out a degree? I’m asking…
How does one train to be a Product Manager?
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#13I may be able to help you connect with others who may be hiring without silly code puzzles. If you are intersted, shoot me an email at my username at gmail. No bs or strings attached.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#14I agree with the other posts here. Just because you can't solve leet code problems does not mean you can't still be an awesome programmer.
But you asked for other jobs. If you have a CS degree at some point you studied systems. I suggest looking for a DevOps/SRE position. These are always in high demand. Your coding skills will come in handy.
I hope you don't give up on a dream, but there are other options. I wish you the best of luck.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#15I'd guess that implementing Fizz Buzz or describing a basic database schema is enough to get hired to 50% of programming jobs. That includes quite a few senior positions. Not exaggerating, Fizz Buzz or a similarly trivial problem is the only tech screen more often than you'd expect. Not only that, but the algorithm challenges are less common now. It's been a long time since I interviewed with a company that didn't give you a "take-home" problem. Personally, I disagree with this practice as it selects for people with extra free time, but there's no reason for you to be experiencing PTSD (is the P "Pre"?) about this. There's no shame in talking to a counselor, might help you sort out why you're really so worried.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#16Are you a good writer?
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#17There are plenty of opportunities outside of coding. Consider technical sales, consulting, software support, technical writing, UX/design, project management, just to name a few. A CS degree is now a foundational degree that can serve as the starting point for many career paths. Don't stress.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#18At work you will normally have an internet connection, so what are effectively useless "elite code" algorithm puzzles are A) easily looked up, and B) not most of what the work is. Those are not realistic problems, business have better things to do than waste time on those sort of things. Here is a realistic problem that might be encountered at work: "We need output X under these circumstances, but instead got output…
That is true, but in order to get the jobs you described that pay reasonably well you still need to solve algorithmic problems on Leetcode or CTCI. And sometimes knowing different data structures and algorithms do come in handy, so some problems on Leetcode can be considered realistic.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#19If you have passable people skills and enjoy a bit of travel, you may consider sales engineering.
You basically handle all of the technical things that are over the heads of the normal sales team, both pre and post sales. This will often look like integration type work -- trying to figure out how to make your companies product work in the prospect/customer's environment.
Re: Ask HN: Got a CS degree, but I’m unable to be programmer. What can I do?
#20Some of the best Product Managers I’ve worked with people with Engineering or Comp Sci degrees who had been mediocre devs for one reason or another. That said, is there any type of programming are you good at? What actual work have you done? Have you shipped an iPhone app or launched a basic website? Were your comp sci courses brutally hard and you spent hours working at them and barely eked out a degree? I’m asking…
How does one train to be a Product Manager?
PMP cert seems to be a defacto certificate I see thrown around in the field. (besides all the scrum stuff)