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From Literature to Coding: How I Broke into the Software Industry

1 pointsby ammonover 5 years ago

1 comment

hidden_arachnidover 5 years ago
I wrote this article! One interesting angle we explored in the interview (but which didn’t make the final edit) was Kevin’s thoughts on academia and the time he spent there:<p><i>Do you feel any regret from switching from academia to tech?</i><p>I certainly spent many years of my life studying things that only a handful of people care about. I think there&#x27;s an answer to that question where, &quot;Oh, of course, if I&#x27;m thinking about this 10 years ago, in terms of where would I want to be, financially, today, then no, I&#x27;m not going to do that.&quot; But do I regret those years I spent training for that? No, I don&#x27;t.<p>I still love literature, I still love to read. I feel like, &quot;Okay, I have this knowledge and appreciation of literature, and now I have this other technical job that I&#x27;m still able to learn really interesting things, and make a decent salary, and have this enriched, enlightened soul.&quot; I wouldn&#x27;t necessarily advise people away from studying humanities. I would try to advise them to pick up another skill, just in case. Learn coding, or learn something, and just make sure you know what you&#x27;re getting into. But I&#x27;m pretty sure I wouldn&#x27;t have listened to anyone who said that when I was getting into it. So you have to consider it, yourself.