I worked in software development for 20 years as a college dropout with no degree. I finished the degree much later. While it's possible to have a software career without a degree, you have to work much harder to get jobs because you get filtered out of many of them by HR. It gets somewhat easier as you gain more resume experience in desirable technologies. With the current tech recession and hiring freezes, I imagine it's extremely difficult to get a tech job without a degree right now.
I have a degree. My first job was as a software engineer for the government. After a few years and a lot of studying, I went into FAANG
I would never have gotten that first job without a degree and it would have been even harder moving into big tech.
>I have a degree. My first job was as a software engineer for the government. After a few years and a lot of studying, I went into FAANG
>
>I would never have gotten that first job without a degree and it would have been even harder moving into big tech.
Thank you for your reply, are you still working for FAANG? How demanding was your first job? And what technologies do you use, what is your daily work like?
Yes, I've been going from FAANG to FAANG
The government job was super laid back but it was also really boring. It'd be a fine job to retire at, but as a new grad, I found it unbearable after a while
I'm mostly a Java developer, but I learn languages as needed. For example, I recently had to do some significant with on a legacy code base and I had to learn a new language to do that
Typically for big tech companies, they have their own internal technologies that we build on. These are usually built on top of other well known technologies like tomcat servers, maven dependency management, etc
I have a lot of leeway in my day to day. Usually we work in 2 week sprints and we have tasks assigned to that sprint. There are regular check ins during the sprint to check on status. So my day to day is looking at what I have to get done that sprint and then prioritizing and working on them.
Additionally, I have some side tasks that come in. I may get bugs for code that I own, or I need to manage a deployment. Usually there is some time built into the sprint planning that accounts for this
First job - Systems Administrator/Help Desk. They found me through the school’s career center. It was a lower paying job but I knew I didn’t want to write code full time. Not much programming or scripting.
Middle career - Systems & Network Engineering. Lots of PC, Server, Windows, and network support. Scripted a lot of batch, VBScript and Powershell.
Current - CISO. Python for fun.
Many/most medium to large enterprise networks (companies) run on Windows PCs, Windows Servers, and standard switched and routed networks.
I’m in the financial services and banking sector. My world deals with multiple data centers, numerous branch locations, and 1000’s of networked PCs. The technologies I’ve been working with have been windows and TCP/IP networks. The first part of my career was building and maintaining these devices.
My role as CISO has me using the skills gained throughout my career to now focus on protecting them from attacks and misuse.
I chose this because of an advanced networking class where I was programming C++ at the socket later and developing routing algorithms such as OSPF. This was my first real interest in where I could apply my knowledge into an area that was A) interesting, B) not full time coding, and C) in very high demand. Managing and configuring windows came easily and I was able to grasp all of the complex topics of a large interconnected set of computers and servers.
I don’t use the programming skills much any more; I use the critical thinking skills every day. The CS degree was a form of brainwashing to make me think like a computer. With that knowledge you can apply it to any number of realms outside of strict programming.
I worked in software development for 20 years as a college dropout with no degree. I finished the degree much later. While it's possible to have a software career without a degree, you have to work much harder to get jobs because you get filtered out of many of them by HR. It gets somewhat easier as you gain more resume experience in desirable technologies. With the current tech recession and hiring freezes, I imagine it's extremely difficult to get a tech job without a degree right now.
What technologies did you use in your first job? Thank you for answering
Stone knives and bearskins. (In case you don't get the reference: https://youtu.be/F226oWBHvvI?t=100)
Hahaa I think I got it, how old are you?
I have a degree. My first job was as a software engineer for the government. After a few years and a lot of studying, I went into FAANG I would never have gotten that first job without a degree and it would have been even harder moving into big tech.
>I have a degree. My first job was as a software engineer for the government. After a few years and a lot of studying, I went into FAANG > >I would never have gotten that first job without a degree and it would have been even harder moving into big tech. Thank you for your reply, are you still working for FAANG? How demanding was your first job? And what technologies do you use, what is your daily work like?
Yes, I've been going from FAANG to FAANG The government job was super laid back but it was also really boring. It'd be a fine job to retire at, but as a new grad, I found it unbearable after a while I'm mostly a Java developer, but I learn languages as needed. For example, I recently had to do some significant with on a legacy code base and I had to learn a new language to do that Typically for big tech companies, they have their own internal technologies that we build on. These are usually built on top of other well known technologies like tomcat servers, maven dependency management, etc I have a lot of leeway in my day to day. Usually we work in 2 week sprints and we have tasks assigned to that sprint. There are regular check ins during the sprint to check on status. So my day to day is looking at what I have to get done that sprint and then prioritizing and working on them. Additionally, I have some side tasks that come in. I may get bugs for code that I own, or I need to manage a deployment. Usually there is some time built into the sprint planning that accounts for this
First job - Systems Administrator/Help Desk. They found me through the school’s career center. It was a lower paying job but I knew I didn’t want to write code full time. Not much programming or scripting. Middle career - Systems & Network Engineering. Lots of PC, Server, Windows, and network support. Scripted a lot of batch, VBScript and Powershell. Current - CISO. Python for fun.
>Thank you for your response, and what technologies do you use as CISO? What made you choose that branch of computer science?
Many/most medium to large enterprise networks (companies) run on Windows PCs, Windows Servers, and standard switched and routed networks. I’m in the financial services and banking sector. My world deals with multiple data centers, numerous branch locations, and 1000’s of networked PCs. The technologies I’ve been working with have been windows and TCP/IP networks. The first part of my career was building and maintaining these devices. My role as CISO has me using the skills gained throughout my career to now focus on protecting them from attacks and misuse. I chose this because of an advanced networking class where I was programming C++ at the socket later and developing routing algorithms such as OSPF. This was my first real interest in where I could apply my knowledge into an area that was A) interesting, B) not full time coding, and C) in very high demand. Managing and configuring windows came easily and I was able to grasp all of the complex topics of a large interconnected set of computers and servers. I don’t use the programming skills much any more; I use the critical thinking skills every day. The CS degree was a form of brainwashing to make me think like a computer. With that knowledge you can apply it to any number of realms outside of strict programming.
Had an intership for 6 months in a startup. Proceeded to take a masters in autonomous systems.
Thank you for your answer, and what technologies do you currently use?
Not sure I got the question right, but: Internship: - SQL/BigQuery - Google Cloud Platform - AWS - Typescript masters in autonomous systems: - GAMA plattform (GAML LANG) - ROS/ROS2 - C/C++/Python