Ask HN: Anyone migrated from one engr field over to software dev?

5 points by rrrrrraul 11 years ago | 7 comments

Anyone here transition from a different engineering background (Chemical, Civil, Mechanical..) to software development ? If so, how long did that transition take you until you were proficient enough to be employable? Were you still working during your 'ramp up' ?

I'm really enthused about becoming an iOS dev and have been self learning all year long - from time to time I wonder if it'll actually happen. I've only had one opportunity to get hired as an iOS dev but the job location ended up in another state rather than the my town (LA) as originally discussed. I've had a recruiter tell me I have a strong engr background but not what their clients are looking for.

Given I have 5 years experience working not as a SW dev, and only a pair of iOS apps, am I too risky too hire?

seren 11 years ago |

I have an electrical engineering/signal processing background and, except for a few internships and the first year of my job, I have really been doing software development all the time. The fields are quite correlated but still I haven't really got a lot of formal training in Compute Science. I got the feeling that due to the nature of Internet, it is much each easier to learn and experiment with software, than say civil engineering. (But maybe because I have not looked close enough)

Software is eating the world anyway. Every field you have cited, and you can add education, healthcare,..., would benefit to have better connected, mobile, tools. I don't know your personal history, but if you want to have an edge you probably need to find an intersection between your own field and sw development. To take an extreme example, if you have been working for 5 years in day care, you are better prepared to create the "Uber for daycare" than a random guy with an idea.

I actually know lots of people who came from different fields and end up in software engineering because of the insatiable need of more sw everywhere. And more often than not, people with passion are better than people formally trained. I remember a guy who had a formal education in biology/horticulture but was writing some program in his spare time when he was a teen, and he was a terrific sw dev.

rrrrrraul 11 years ago | |

if you don't mind me asking, did you start doing SW dev at your employer during that first year when you were still doing EE work? Or did you pick it up on your own outside of your day job ?

seren 11 years ago | | |

I evolved gradually at my first job, so it was probably easier that doing things on my own.

saluki 11 years ago |

Having an engineering degree/experience is a plus . . . as far as iOS experience . . . if you can create your own apps that's a good first step . . . I would keep your day job and try to find some freelance iOS projects you can work on . . . just be cautious by padding your deadlines so you have plenty of time since this will be nights and weekends work . . . have a contract . . . invoice/review incrementally . . . so you know the client's happy along the way . . . my degree is in engineering . . . you learn lots of skills as an engineer than can help you as a developer, project management, etc . . . plus your education is a plus . . . so 5 years wasn't a total waste of time . . . but you'll need to get more projects/exp. under your belt to get hired full time as an iOS dev so get some freelance exp. and keep your day job. Keep up with the latest, trends, tutorials, start writing tutorials/blog posts get involved with meetups in your area. Connect with some other iOS devs and they can help you get the right skills to get hired. Good luck with the transition.

wilsonfiifi 11 years ago |

I graduated with a BEng Civil Engineering but I've always loved to code (started with my TI85 calculator). Even while working as a CE I was automating AutoCAD with Lisp and C# to make my design work faster. But I finally decided to become a full time programmer after 7 years and boy was that a defining moment in my life!

I had the same problem with recruiters, telling me that I couldn't do this because I didn't have that etc... So I decided that if nobody wanted to employ me I would employ myself and start my own consultancy. I haven't looked back since and my only regret is that I didn't make this decision earlier.

Don't let anyone put you in a box. Do what makes you happy and blaze your own trail!

If you feel that you need a CS degree then nothing stops you from doing an online masters in computer science. They're great because they enable you to work while studying.

Good luck

rrrrrraul 11 years ago | |

Inspiring! Glad it worked out for you

falsestprophet 11 years ago |

Many of the H1Bs from India studied a field of engineering.