Quick summary: BSc Econ 4.0 CPGA, data analyst/science exp, several years of R, SQL, and SAS programming, late twenties. Passed CFA level I & II exams.<p>Still struggling to make a decision as to whether to go ahead with the second degree CS program at UBC, or self study. Would I ever be taken seriously as a software professional with this background if I self taught with teachyourselfcs & developed a portfolio?<p>Curious to hear from developers with a background in Econ or a social science. Do you wish you had gone back for a second degree in CS? Or did you regret it if you did?<p>Should I try to leverage my data analysis background and rebrand as a data engineer, focusing on learning python & spark etc?<p>Or should I deliberately delve into difficult topics, and program in C or C++ to be taken more seriously?<p>I think I'm going to end up studying this stuff anyways regardless, starting going through SICP and loving it.
TLDR- Yes<p>An Econ background and great grades means a lot. If you can build some skills toward the CS work, you can prove that you'd be great at whatever you want to do.<p>so,
What do you want to do? Bring an analyst angle to a dev team? That seems like an easy win.<p>No one really cares about your degree. Heck, I have a degree in Fine Arts. Start doing what you want to do. If you find you need some coursework, do it. If you find someone who wants you to have a CS degree, have them pay for it.