How I Became A Software Engineer Without A CS Degree: It’s Not as Difficult as You Think!
Today, the demand for software engineers is skyrocketing. Jobs for software engineers are growing at twice the national average, and the average salary for a software engineer is $102,000 per year.
This article will give you a step-by-step guide to becoming a software engineer without a CS degree. It will show you how to teach yourself how to code from scratch and land your first job as a developer or programmer.
It’s not as difficult as you think!
Why this Article is Important to You?
You might have faced one of the following situations in life-
- Amey, I was guided by my brother/aunt/uncle/neighbors to take CIVIL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL engineering at the time of my admissions saying these branches WON’T DIE as they are CORE branches, so I took it and now there are no jobs for these engineers in today’s market and even if there are, they are really low income around 10–12K rupees per month, and I see my batchmates who took the CSE/IT branch are now earning well.
- Amey, I took Electronics and Telecommunication branch, and now I have a complex that am I going stand well among the other IT CSE guys in the Tech world or not?
- Amey, I am unemployed now, and I tried applying for masters as there are no jobs but I don’t have really interest in doing so, what should I do?
All of the above questions and similar questions to it have only single answer.
YES, everyone can have IT job even if you’re NOT from Computer Science Background!
First of all, Calm down, don’t worry, everything’s going to fall in right place for you, you just need to stick to the schedule and take an effort for 5–7 months, and you will land your dream job soon!
The times have changed, the CORE BRANCHES, your uncles and neighbors told you which won’t die, have died already back then, and this is TECH ERA, an ERA of computers, apps, and mobile phones. The World is revolving around TECH and hence there are more jobs in IT these days.
What this Article has to Offer?
- How and from Where to start my Journey into Tech?
- What is the learning path?
- What do I choose — Backend, Testing, Frontend, or Trending Technologies like Machine Learning cloud, AWS, GCP, Blockchain, Data Science, Data Analytics, etc?
- Where to seek help?
How do I Start my Journey into Tech?
Well, don’t run behind results, get your BASICS ready! The foundations are really important for you to succeed in this field. Choose your Programming language — really important step — My suggestion would be to go with either Java or Python, don’t go with C/C++, in my 3 years of professional experience, I have seen very few companies using their language, also Java and Python are used all over the world for various applications.
Now that you have chosen your programming language, start learning, computer science fundamental subjects.
List of Fundamental Computer Science Subjects:
- Data Structures and Algorithms
- Programming Languages
- Computer Architecture
- Operating Systems
- Database Management
- Computer Networks
- Mathematics
- Object-Oriented Programming
- Git and GitHub
Resources and Useful Links:
- Java DSA Boot-Camp by Kunal Kushwaha — YouTube Video Playlist Link — Completely FREE
- Introductions to Data Structures and Algorithms by Code with Harry — YouTube Video Playlist Link — Completely FREE
- Data Structures for beginners by Mosh — YouTube Video Playlist Link — Completely FREE
- Udemy Introduction to DSA — Link — Paid Course
- Java DSA Boot-Camp by Kunal Kushwaha — YouTube Video Playlist Link — Completely FREE
- Java For Beginners by Code with Harry — YouTube Video Playlist Link — Completely FREE
- All of the Computer Science Subjects — by Gate Smashers — Completely FREE
- Python Playlist — Best Channel I have encountered so far — Corey Schafer — Completely FREE
- Single Best Resource for Git — by Kunal Kushwaha-Playlist Link
- Linux Command Line — Video Link
- How to become a Software Developer — Video Link
Practice your Coding Skills on Following Platforms:
Beginner Friendly Projects:
- Beginner Java Projects
- Beginner Python Projects
- GitHub Amey: It has loginProjectJava which you can clone on your system and get started. Refer to readme file to understand the problem statement and overall flow of the project. Start your own Project from there.
WHAT ARE THE SKILLS I NEED TO HAVE?
General Skills:
- Programming Language — Any one OOP language — Python, Java etc
- Data Structures and Algorithms
- Cloud Technologies — AWS, GCP, Azure
- Git Github
- Linux Command Line
- Data Bases — MySQL, MongoDB
Application Specific Skills:
- Data Science Track: Python, Excel, DataBases, Terraform, Numpy, Scipy, Python Notebooks, Machine Learning concepts. (Will be covered in detail in the coming blog)
- Software Developer Track: Java, DataBases, Cassandra, AWS/GCP, Spark etc.
- DevOps: AWS/GCP/Azure, Jenkins, YAML, Shell Scripts, Git, Terraform, Python
- Web Developer: HTML, CSS, JS, Angular, Node.
That’s it!! You’re now as good as CS grad student!
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