
Ask HN: Bio degree going into programming, advice? - yoamro
I&#x27;ll try to keep it short and sweet. I was a bio major in undergrad and just finished a masters in Medical Physiology. I&#x27;ve always been interested in programming and I&#x27;ve decided to go in that path in the hopes of working for a company. I&#x27;ve been learning at a rapid rate and and am mostly interested working in iOS development in the biomedical field. Assuming I build a strong portfolio, will I be able to get the positions I want without a formal CS degree? I also would love any steps&#x2F;resources you suggest would help me in this journey!
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tetonraven
Yes! I never got a CS degree (or any degree, actually) and I've been
professional programmer for more than 20 years. I've also been in the position
of interviewing/hiring developers and never paid any attention to degrees. I
think it's more about what you can do (or have done) and the way you approach
development; a curiosity for continuous learning and improvement is way better
than a degree. That said, I'm not too current on getting into the field but
there is a lot of demand right now and if you can use personal learning (or a
bootcamp sort of thing) plus demonstrated work to get your foot in the door,
you're on your way. Good luck!

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Nelkins
My major was in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and I've been working as a
programmer in NYC since I graduated (May 2013). I took a few programming
courses in college but don't have a formal academic CS credential.

My experience has been that once you get your foot in the door, your degree
doesn't matter. I got my first job on Craigslist. It was a shitty work
environment and paid 45k (which in NYC ain't much), but I needed experience
(and proof of income to move out of my mother's one bedroom, ha). Fast forward
to today, I've just received an offer from a fast growing startup for 120k.
Compared to what the best folks in NYC are making it's not that high, but not
bad considering where I started.

My advice is that while things will be a bit harder in the beginning, staying
hungry and ambitious and doing your best to constantly learn will have you
quickly outpacing those who don't have the same level of drive. My policy at
the jobs I've held has been to volunteer for every single task that I can. I
don't even think about it anymore; if there is something that needs doing late
at night or on a weekend, I just say yes. I probably don't need to do this as
much anymore, but I think it helped me seem more useful when I started,
especially since in the beginning there were pretty big gaps in my CS
knowledge. Between that and reading Hacker News obsessively I've become the
go-to guy for many projects (seriously, I attribute a significant amount of my
career success to reading about new technologies on HN).

Also, for what it's worth, I don't have any kind of public portfolio and I've
never had anyone ask for one. I'm sure it couldn't hurt though.

Good luck!

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aburan28
If you live on the West Coast having domain knowledge from biological
sciences/genetics background is advantageous. Not so advantageous on the East
Coast/Washington DC area from personal experience

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humbleMouse
Apply to big healthcare companies. They will highly value your domain
knowledge and you could probably get a dev job just having your degree.

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tetonraven
Oh. And definitely bringing that domain knowledge (medical) is an advantage to
getting into your first programming gig.

