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How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

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Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#41

Post by jonmb »

My fiancee and I are both studying computer science at a large university. She's graduating in late 2014, I'll be in early 2015.

In terms of employment as a developer, sometimes I wonder if we would have been better off attending one of these San Fran developer schools. I wonder though how much of the fundamentals do they learn? Do they ever hear the words "Big-Oh"? Do they know what a binary tree is?

And then I wonder -- does it matter? They're getting $90k offers. Perhaps these things don't matter as much, at least for web development.

So I suppose this is one of the benefits of a traditional path: you're well prepared for many types of development, not just web. The web is pretty cool though. :)

--

Question: if one wanted to teach themselves at home, is there an online curriculum that covers the same topics as these schools do?

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#42

Post by joshanthony »

There's a lot of comments here that are like "you can't be an Engineer, I spent years getting there. It's not that simple. Grumble grumble grumble... etc..."

We should be welcoming him into our field! But instead we're too focused on the terminology he used.

I think it's fantastic that the author is now in software and programming. Software development is one of the most affordable ways to change the world. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection :D

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#44

Post by csomar »

noir_lord wrote: post #21
jonny_eh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying? We should stop training and hiring new programmers?

I think in his condescending way he is implying that 5 months is just enough time to teach someone enough programming to be dangerous. The hard part is I think he might have a point, there is a lot more to been a professional software engineer than I think can reasonably be taught in 5 months (even if you spend that 5 months learning 20 hours a day 7 days a week). Of course this is all entirely my own opinion, I've s…

Let's see

- Two programming languages: JavaScript and a Server Side languages (rails) in 5 months is not impossible.

- HTML/CSS/JS: A couple weeks.

- Databases: A couple days.

- Linux: Learn the commands on the go on these 5 months.

- Git: A night for the basic add/commit/push/pull. Maybe a couple more nights for branching.

- Unit Testing: A couple days at most.

To use an analogy (I deal with lots of business people, analogies help) You could teach someone to lay bricks to a good standard in 5 months, You could not teach them to be a safe civil engineer.

Not really. The average student takes 36 months. A more enthusiastic and invested one can perform better than the average in 5-6 months (in my opinion). Don't forget that the guy has industry experience even if it's not related to the field in question.

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#45

Post by md2be »

joshanthony wrote: post #42

There's a lot of comments here that are like "you can't be an Engineer, I spent years getting there. It's not that simple. Grumble grumble grumble... etc..." We should be welcoming him into our field! But instead we're too focused on the terminology he used. I think it's fantastic that the author is now in software and programming. Software development is one of the most affordable ways to change the world. All you n…

The he is a she

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#46

Post by benched »

AshFurrow wrote: post #5

Here in Canada, you need to write an exam in order to legally call yourself an "engineer" – it's a protected term.

Every damn time with this stupid observation. It's like an unconquerable memetic disease. The term 'Software Engineer' is a single term with its own commonly understood meaning. Commonly understood, except when someone wants to wax pedantic about that other specialized meaning of the word engineer. It is not meant to be part of a series like 'E.E', 'Mech.E.', 'Civ.E.', 'Software Eng.' It is not a case of people trying to specify which subtype of engineer that they are. It's a single term that just happens to be made of two words, and means the same thing as 'Software Developer' (regardless of individuals occasionally trying to post-rationalize it by giving it 'more rigorously architectural' connotations). You might as well argue that 'application windows' aren't windows, because you can't see through them, and they didn't evolve from the other kind of window. Engineering is a fine metaphor for much of what we do with code, data structures, data flows, transformations, and so on. Please, stop the madness.

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#47

Post by kyro »

jonmb wrote: post #41

My fiancee and I are both studying computer science at a large university. She's graduating in late 2014, I'll be in early 2015. In terms of employment as a developer, sometimes I wonder if we would have been better off attending one of these San Fran developer schools. I wonder though how much of the fundamentals do they learn? Do they ever hear the words "Big-Oh"? Do they know what a binary tree is? And then I wond…

There is no shortage of online classes for teaching how to code, from Udacity to Coursera to Codecademy to OCW, but what these lack, which I believe to be the most important part of learning effectively, is interaction with teachers, mentors, and other classmates. At times I'm surprised no one seems to be attacking that part of online education.

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#49

Post by nicolethenerd »

jonmb wrote: post #41

My fiancee and I are both studying computer science at a large university. She's graduating in late 2014, I'll be in early 2015. In terms of employment as a developer, sometimes I wonder if we would have been better off attending one of these San Fran developer schools. I wonder though how much of the fundamentals do they learn? Do they ever hear the words "Big-Oh"? Do they know what a binary tree is? And then I wond…

It's not a full online curriculum, but the pre-work for the Flatiron school (http://prework.flatironschool.com/) is a pretty solid introduction to the basics.

Re: How I left a 4 year career in finance and became a software engineer in 5 months

#50

Post by md2be »

kyro wrote: post #15

Damn good job. Genuinely happy for you, I think more so because I can relate so closely. I've made the very tough decision to not pursue a residency after medical school and to finally commit to jumping into the startup world. It's both really frightening and exciting to go in a completely different direction after dedicating 4 years of my life to rigorous education. I graduate in May, so I've been trying to absorb a…

My cofounder's residency is making it impossible for her to continue with our healthcare startup. Write me.
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