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Can an Arts Student Become a Software Engineer_
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Feb 6, 2024
"Can an Arts Student Become a Software Engineer?" is a compelling video that explores the possibility of individuals with backgrounds in the arts transitioning into the field of software engineering. The video likely delves into the skills and qualities that arts students can bring to the tech industry, such as creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. It may showcase success stories of individuals who have made successful transitions from the arts to software engineering, highlighting the diverse pathways available for career development. The video likely encourages viewers to recognize the value of interdisciplinary skills and to embrace opportunities for learning and growth, regardless of their academic background. Overall, it aims to inspire and empower arts students who are interested in pursuing a career in technology by showcasing the potential for success in the field.
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Can an art student become a software engineer
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I personally became a software engineer with a liberal arts degree in history
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So yes, it can be done, but it was not very easy
0:10
In this video, I'll share why I chose to go the self-taught route instead of going back and getting a second degree
0:16
Then I'll talk about the challenges that I faced, the mistakes that I made
0:20
and then I'll give some more tips on how to succeed if you go down the same path
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So the first thing you might be wondering is if you already have an arts degree
0:30
is worth it to go back and get a second degree. Now, this really kind of depends
0:35
In my particular situation, I had a wife and I already had kids
0:40
and so I had mouths to feed. I had already got my degree. I had been paying off my student loans
0:47
and I was needing to provide for my family. And so to me, I looked at going back and getting a degree
0:54
but just the schedules of the program and the extra cost and everything
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I just didn't feel that that was going to be the best decision for me to make and for my family
1:04
because I still had to balance the work-life relationship. And so I opted to go down the self-taught route
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Now, if you already have a degree and you don't have to worry about a family
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don't have those other commitments and you have the financial means to do it
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then it could be worth it, but you just are going to really have to weigh the opportunity
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to cost at that point because that four years that you will be working on that degree is four years
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that you could be getting experience and actually being paid for getting experience and building up
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your raises and your salary. So it may or may not be worth it to go back and get a degree
1:44
So when I decided to go down the self-taught route, I could have tried doing a boot camp route
1:50
but they weren't as popular as they are now and there weren't as many of them, or at least I just
1:55
wasn't aware of them. He went down the route of buying a lot of books. I paid for some
2:00
tutorials and some online courses and I just spent a lot of time working through things and trying
2:05
to build applications and websites and really trying to like apply what I was learning
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I ended up spending two to three hours a day in the evenings working on just learning things
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It was really hard balancing my work and my learning and also meeting the needs of my family
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emotionally during that time. Eventually, I, I found ways to make contributions to my current employer that aligned with my goals to become a software engineer and found ways to build tools and websites to help the company
2:36
And so I kind of was able to carve out my own niche where I could then continue to further develop my skills But eventually I got my first full enterprise level position And that one was really challenging for me because not having
2:49
a computer science degree and not having experience and a lot of the tooling, I had to get up to
2:55
speed with a whole new framework. I had been learning Angular and working with Angular and I applied
3:01
for an Angular position and ended up being put on a project that used a framework called Sintja that
3:06
I had never even heard about. So I had to learn a new framework. I had to learn how things work in
3:13
enterprise environment, a lot of the tooling and the deployment process and like all the systems
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and everything. And frankly, I felt imposter syndrome. It was really difficult. I was like
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oh my gosh, I am such a fraud. How can I even be here and they're paying me to do all this? And for like
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the first month, I felt so overwhelmed. I felt tempted to just be like, you know what? Maybe I should
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asked for my old job back and everything. I am not sure if I can do this. I sucked it up and I actually
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spent a couple hours a night learning and reading up on Sension and trying to like learn all
3:47
these tools that were being used in everything so that I could start contributing as quickly as
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possible so that I could start feeling good about myself. So I felt like because of that, I was pretty
3:55
quickly able to get to where I was making some good contributions to an application. And this was a
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very large application. So there was a lot to learn and a lot of stuff going on. And
4:06
And so I feel like each time I change job, I do feel imposter syndrome
4:11
And I do feel like I'm trying to measure myself up to other people because where I don't have a computer science degree, if I'm interviewing the people who do have a computer science degree, as best I try, I still kind of feel that judgment or comparison towards them of wondering like how they're going to perceive me where I don't have a degree
4:28
But as time has gone on and I have gotten more and more secure in myself and in my capabilities and knowing that I have confidence
4:36
that what I don't know I can figure out. And I also have confidence that I can do a good job and I can
4:41
contribute, you know, even if I don't have a computer science degree. But each time I switch jobs
4:47
there's still that short period of time where I do have some imposter syndrome. I think that's
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normal for a lot of people. Something that I have noticed is that interviews are going to be hard
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When I've been in interviews where we're interviewing people who have a computer science degree
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I kind of feel like even for me, who doesn't have a computer science degree, I can look at that person and
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be like, okay, they have this baseline level of understanding from the curriculum that they have
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taken that I can expect from them and I don't have to worry about. And so we can focus on interviewing
5:16
and looking into other areas But when it someone who doesn have a computer science degree there a lot more unknowns And so you feel like you have to spend more time really evaluating and digging into what they know and trying to probe how much experience they actually have
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And I have also experienced that on the receiving end where I've been the person
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of applying for the job and being interviewed and feeling like the interviewer has had to go on a
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deep dive to try and figure out how much I know. So it is a fact that if you decide to go down this route and you don't get a computer
5:47
science degree, that the interview process is probably going to be harder for you in a lot of
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situations. And it makes sense why. And as a follow up to the imposter syndrome I felt and that
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comparison, one of the things that it has done to me is I feel like I am having to prove myself
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compared to others that I have to work, you know, really hard or extra hard to really prove
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myself. And especially, you know, for the first couple jobs, the side effect of that was because
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I took that pressure that I was putting on myself and I applied it to trying to
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learn and grow and develop skills, I feel like a benefit was that that actually helped me
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in accelerating my growth. Rather than kind of like just, whoa, is me or pity me because I
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you know, don't have a degree or just beating myself up and getting down. I chose to view it as an
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obstacle to try to conquer and use that as motivation to really learn the newer technologies
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and try to prove that I could do it. And I definitely think that that has had a positive impact on my
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career. Another downside is that you are going to get snubbed. Not everyone is going to like you and some
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people are going to look down on you. I'd say a lot of people are just really chill in this industry and
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cool about it and it's not that big a deal. But there are some people who are going to be CS degree
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snobs. I had one manager who flat out told me that he has two buckets of people. He has those who
7:05
have the computer science degrees and physics degrees and math degrees. And then everybody else is
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over in this other worthless bucket. And he only hires them, including
7:14
me because there aren't enough of these other like select individuals to hire and so he has to settle
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Now that wasn't very polite of him and fortunately I didn't have to work closely with him because
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he's more of just like a hiring manager and not an actual like project manager that you're working
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with on a day to day basis. I only had to talk to him a couple times after that. But there are going to
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be people like that. It's going to happen. There's going to be jobs that you just aren't going to get
7:37
There's going to be interviews where they focus heavy on the computer science stuff that you may
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bomb. Don't be yourself up because there's other. companies out there who are going to probably be a better fit for you. And you may not want to
7:48
be working at those places that are super focused on computer science degrees because you might
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just kind of feel even more out of place. Whereas if you're working at some place that's more
7:57
open to people with different backgrounds, then you might actually be a lot happier. I also think
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when I was getting started there were a couple of mistakes that I made And one of those was trying to learn everything by reading like entire books and stuff because I just feel like that that teaches you about
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so many things that you aren't going to use that it's really kind of like a waste of time in a lot of
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ways because you won't have good retention. And it's better to focus on more practical things
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And the other thing that I really regret is that I didn't apply sooner. Because of that
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imposter syndrome, I had a lot of fears about, you know, making the step into a bigger
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enterprise company and it's just really kind of like a kick in the pants. And in fact
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fortunately for me, the job that I did take, it was a recruiter had reached out to me and basically
8:42
asked if I wanted to interview for this position. And that was kind of like the kick in the
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pants. But I was pretty terrified to make that first leap. I really should have jumped on that
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earlier. And now for some tips, if you're going to be going down the self-taught route, especially
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if you're coming from like a liberal arts degree, then I really recommend that you consider going
9:00
down the front end route. That's the path that I took. And the reason for that is pretty simple
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In the front end world, there's a lot more people who have not gotten a computer science degree
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And so it seems like, you know, companies are a little bit more open to that. But also, and more
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importantly, I think that there's something to be said for something that is visual, that you
9:20
could build a portfolio, you could build applications and example applications that really showcase
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your ability to build a tool, but also have good aesthetics. And to show
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more than tell, whereas if you're, you know, have your API that you've built and stuff
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you're going to be doing a lot more telling and stuff. And there's just something visual that
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I think is easier to sell to hiring managers and to HR to get your foot in the door the first time
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And then you can, even if you want to go do some of this other stuff, you can, you know
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just work front end for a year or two and get that initial experience and then start learning
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some of those other skills and you can transition over. I think it's a really good route
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Plus, there's a lot of high demand for front end engineers right now, which, always helps as compared to some of the other areas, there might be more competition and until
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you actually have experience. And then also remember that when you first start out, you aren't
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going to be worth much as a software engineer. So the pay isn't necessarily going to be super
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great. It can be good, but realize that each year you get, especially during the first five years
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each year of experience you get, your value goes up tremendously and goes up quickly. You just want to
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get your foot in the door because you can worry about growing your income pretty quickly after
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you already have your foot in the door and have actually started getting some experience
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So you now know what it's like to be a software engineer with a liberal arts degree
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Watch this video up here to find out if it's worth it to get a computer science degree when you
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want to become a programmer. And also leave a link of the description below. I'll see you in the next one
10:50
Leitz
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#Computer Education
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#Programming