My sister just quit her job as a civil engineer and wants to become software developer to wfh. Her ultimate goal is to learn Python. I'm worried there will not be enough junior jobs for her. Should she stop?
I'm not too familiar with the job market (talking to a tech recruiter would help you learn more) but I'd guess that Junior positions would be really really competitive right now. Aside though: software developers forever learn. If her goal is to learn Python and she thinks she's done after that, she's probably going to have a bad time.
CivEng seems like a rewarding career
Personally I don’t think so. I wish I would have went medicine. More stable. Less booms and busts.
It seems like her ultimate goal is to WFH, and software engineering is just what she thinks will allow her to get to that goal. With that attitude I would highly suggest her to not become SWE. She will be a mediocre SWE at best because she doesn’t have passion for software and with the need for remote her career will be stunted. I suggest she stick to civil engineering and be good at it.
So… Git gud?
I dont agree with this. While interest in the field is important, bulk of the time students pick major of CS these days is primarily because of the perks it gets like working from home (anywhere/anytime), very high TC with time, stay in your pj’s instead of suffering in traffic to drive to work as in civil/ mech. Because of the same reason colleges in india are shutting down core engineering disciplines like civil, mechanical. The right way of saying it is move of a field for the sake of benefits but aim high and work hard to become good at it.. passion and all is Bull shit these days
Feel like there’s a lot of gatekeeping in these replies… you don’t have to be a super passionate programmer or a mastermind to get a good job in software engineering. Honestly we don’t know your sister so it is difficult to say if she will do well, but developing is a career like any other and you can do it for the money / WFH and be totally happy with that. (I did.) She will have to learn other languages and other concepts but the beauty of programming is once you learn the basics in one language it gets a lot easier to learn others. A lot of what makes someone a great engineer isn’t whether you know X or Y technical information, it’s poking at project design and being resourceful and taking responsibility and learning from your mistakes. It’s not uncommon for kids from top schools with perfect GPAs to come into internships at FAANG companies and fall completely on their face because they don’t know when and how to ask questions. (I’m not saying that understanding technical concepts isn’t important for software engineering, just that it is only one piece of the pie.) It is also not uncommon for women to find out a bit later than men that they enjoy programming. A lot of boys are introduced to it earlier in life, whereas girls may not have exposure until they’re forced to take a class for some prerequisite in college. (This was me.) I don’t know what your sisters interest level in CS is, but just because it came later in life doesn’t mean she’s not serious. Ultimately, you are her brother and even if shes doing this at the wrong time for the wrong reasons you can’t “stop” her. You can only advise her. People don’t listen to advice when they feel lectured at or talked down to. If she is making a mistake or not thinking things through, your best avenue to help her see different is to start by empathizing and understanding what she really wants (maybe WFH is a must have for her) and help her figure out the best way to get there. Showing her “she’s not good enough” replies off of blind will at best make her annoyed with you or at worst scare off a perfectly fine potential developer from the field.
Appreciate this measured reply! What wise!
Most people who can complete an engineering degree are smart enough to code (in the particular kind of smart required for coding). Software development is also generally in greater demand and higher paying than engineering. It's a bad market for people who are accustomed to making more money than what the market will currently bear, but that doesn't make it a bad career choice, and theres still likely significantly more demand/pay than civil eng. She can start out in lower-paying startups and/or on open-source projects. The challenge will be how long it takes to get far enough along in her learning to land a decent job. If she only has, say, 6 months of savings and a high cost of living, then it's going to be tough to learn and land a decent paying job in that time. If she's got a year or more and can afford to take a less-than-optimal starting salary, and is highly motivated and focused, then she's probably fine.
If she took months to learn git, then she ain't got the chops (even by the manic 2021 standards). Hate to bring the bad news.
Interesting.... The git part was silently removed after I wrote this...
Everything is hard at first. And then it’s not