

Ask HN: Moving careers within the IT industry? - itsthatcatagain

I&#x27;ve been working as a technical writer for about two years now, and I&#x27;m feeling it&#x27;s time for a change. I&#x27;ve always enjoyed working on the more technical side of the role - that is, writing shell scripts to manage content or collaborating with developers to work out help display bugs related to code, so I&#x27;ve been thinking very strongly about attempting to move into a development role.<p>I spend most of my free time outside of work coding, primarily in C++ and Python. I taught myself C++ back when I was 15, and I&#x27;ve always used it since for personal projects (my Python is more recent, started playing around with it and realized I liked it too), and I&#x27;d say that my C++ is pretty much far beyond &quot;beginner&quot;. The only reason why I didn&#x27;t go for a developer role was because my degree (physics) emphasized mathematical methods and coding was generally treated as a tool, so I felt that a technical writer role may have been better for me but actually working in a software development environment and contrast it with technical writing made me realize that I might enjoy development more.<p>I&#x27;m wondering if my two years in a tech writer role may have pigeonholed me in the eyes of potential interviewers, though. Is this a valid concern, or might it be possible to make the leap from tech writing to software engineering with a bit of work on my understanding of CS?
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hacknat
Nah. Just find some good open source projects on Github to help out with. Post
some projects of your own on there (doesn't matter if its an original idea,
but code that you are proud of). Get into an algorithms book and work your way
through it (should be easy with a Physics degree).

After all of that work, good places will take a chance on you; then show them
they were right to do so.

One piece of advice: Even if you think your C++ and Python are beyond
beginner, I would recommend going through a C++ book
([http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-Edition-Developers-
Library...](http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Plus-Edition-Developers-
Library/dp/0321776402)) and a good Python book, if you haven't already, just
to really refine your style and be aware of how to use the STL properly.
Standards and practices matter a lot when you're a good Software Engineer.

If you do all of that, you'll be better than 70% of the people calling
themselves "Software Engineers".

FYI. I'm a Software Engineer and my degree was in Linguistics and Literature.

