Hello everyone, I am a junior student who's in college right now. I am close to finishing my degree in finance right now and I have no time to switch over to a CS major. However, I realized that finance may not be for me. I am thinking about giving programming a second try. I am looking into making at least $50k to $80k as a salary and am willing to put in the hard work. Is there any ways for me to break into this industry and switch from finance?
#How can I switch from finance to CS?
ionic bloom
ionic bloom
Hello everyone, I am a junior student who's in college right now. I am close to ...
i think there's 2 things you can do yeah:
okay
wait actually
do you want to drop out
and switch major
?
well, not really.
so you wanna finish and then switch
or be a self taught?
Yeah. My siblings have graduated college and I don't want to waste time. My parents will want me to get a job fast.
ionic bloom
or be a self taught?
that's tough but I can try
well of course you can but it's not easy
the age doesn't matter
oh okay
ionic bloom
well of course you can but it's not easy
any advice?
ionic bloom
any advice?
you want to do what precisely
web development
or software eng
or ai
games
robotics
there's a lot of stuff you can do
if i was in you i'd go with web dev/ software eng
ionic bloom
if i was in you i'd go with web dev/ software eng
yeah that's what I am thinking about trying
or maybe data science
i'm not good with data science
if you want web dev/software
i can get help with web development
you'd want to start with html and css, learn how the web works and make some websites with layouts
then learn how to make them responsive and pick a css library
then after learning some js, go for react.js how to make web applications aka dynamic websites
start with frontend
sturdy coyote
would recommend picking up a CS minor if it's possible
Would recommend against diving straight into frontend tech
Better off to build up your fundamentals
recommend going through CS61A and 61B from berkeley
and then just mass apply to recruit for NG roles
was in similar boat as you and this is the path I took
ionic bloom
don't they have some prereq?
ionic bloom
would recommend picking up a CS minor if it's possible
there's a data science minor at my school
ionic bloom
Would recommend against diving straight into frontend tech
why?
sturdy coyote
Frontend is easy to pick up but that's all you are going to know. They won't prep you well for interviews, and even during work the fundamentals come into play. If you have good fundamentals you'll be a better programmer.
ionic bloom
Frontend is easy to pick up but that's all you are going to know. They won't pre...
okay I see
ionic bloom
Frontend is easy to pick up but that's all you are going to know. They won't pre...
i agree to be fair, everyone has a different journey tho, i had a lot of connections even before starting so helped a lot
How can I start learning?
how long will it take?
sturdy coyote
CS61A & B
all lectures & their coursework is available
probably took me about 1.5 years to go thru them since I also had my regular classes as well and I went at a pretty slow pace
but if you really put the effort in you could probably finish both in 6 months?
ionic bloom
damn
ionic bloom
CS61A & B
What about app academy open or odin Project? Is there something similar like that for learning data science?
sturdy coyote
not quite sure about the DS track so I can't answer
AA open is aite, odin project is probably better
you could also elect to do a bootcamp after grad
they usually have pretty decent results
as long as you go to a good bootcamp
ionic bloom
you could also elect to do a bootcamp after grad
yes, I wanted to go to a coding bootcamp but I have college student loans around $18k
ionic bloom
how long will it take?
not a good question
cause it depends by you
by how much time you're going to spend, consistency, understanding skills and a loot more
it's kinda a clichéic question at this point
ionic bloom
by how much time you're going to spend, consistency, understanding skills and a ...
yes that's true
empty sand
You can do fintech
Do you like finance? There are a TON of companies you can program alongside do finance stuff
shrewd tinsel
DS (usually) requires a masters, just fyi
ionic bloom
You can do fintech
Yes, I am interested in that
ionic bloom
Do you like finance? There are a TON of companies you can program alongside do f...
yes, I have to learn how to program first
final wyvern
Paging @turbid fulcrum (if I'm remembering correctly about being a finance major)
turbid fulcrum
Ah yeah, I was a finance major and worked at an accounting firm doing SWE for my first year out of college.
Tbh a LOT of smaller finance/accounting firms likely have some processes that can be automated out. We were a small-mid sized regional firm with 250+ employees and the processes they had were still very much in need of some automation.
Look for opportunities where people spend a lot of time in excel doing repetitive things, and try out automating it in VBA or Python (personally, I like python bc of the ability to scale it up with a web application). Python can be a bit harder if IT isn’t pro-process improvement. Can always do proof of concept on a personal computer with mock data and show higher ups to try and win over management to make IT give you better access to python and tools
the python packages I used the most were pandas and openpyxl for excel and data work, and flask for hosting a web app for others to access the script as an internal application
learning how to scale it from just you using it on single excel sheets -> letting people access it company wide is a huge learning experience
HTML/CSS is also very helpful to know for doing that too
https://theodinproject.com taught me most of my frontend knowledge if you are still looking for resources, and tbh is great for full stack too
ionic bloom
https://theodinproject.com taught me most of my frontend knowledge if you are st...
is this enough to get a job?
turbid fulcrum
is this enough to get a job?
yes i know people (myself included) who have successfully used the odin project to get a job