Lessons from those who have been there, and dared to do that

I spoke to Aneace today because I wanted to know how I should succeed in a field in which I have little experience in (the particular subject in question is how to become a good software developer even though I don’t have a BSCS)

My main takeaway was: Your journey is personal and highly dependent on what is suitable for your personality and temperament. Just because you don’t have the relevant formal education or degree, it does not mean that you are necessarily disadvantaged or behind – Everything is moving so fast today, and what is important is for you to be able to learn and adapt to things quickly, be highly flexible and versatile and be able to assimilate a whole set of complicated things.

In addition, i posed the same question to Jonathan Wise after reading his extremely inspiring article and here was his reply.

As for how to get over the first hurdle of convincing your future boss that you can do the job without the relevant degree, I’m reminded of an anecdote which Christine Comaford Lynch, a very inspiring VC in Silicon Valley, shared during a talk, to illustrate her point on “Getting your foot in the door”. She wanted to get a software engineering job in Microsoft, but was not able to because she did not have a college degree. Hence she chose to become a contract tester instead.