I’m a Principal Engineer in my early 40s. My “credentials” consist entirely of a high school diploma from a rural school.
I tinkered with programming as far back as 1994 or so (I was 10 years old at the time), on a 486 dx/2. I installed Mandrake Linux (Now Mandriva? if it’s still around), had to write my own connection scripts for my 56k modem, and I was off to the races in C. I played with VB5 quite a bit in high school.
I had a full scholarship to a state university in 2002, but lost it due to undiagnosed ADHD and depression. In 2012 I enrolled in WGU because I needed a degree to climb at my corporate job… but less than a year later I realized that corporate wasn’t really for me, and decided to pursue startups instead. That was a good decision.
My advice: do whatever it takes to get in the door at the type of company where you want to work. That’s the hard part. Once there, you do the best job you can and constantly look for ways to put your skills to use. This is the boring part - it’ll probably take a couple of years, but in my experience you can slowly mold any position into one that’s either “programming” or “programming-adjacent”. Once you do that, it’s a short leap to get the actual title.
One potential option would be to get an online CS degree from somewhere like WGU. An official stamp of "I know my shit" that would get you past most HR filters with a minimal money and time commitment
I’m a Principal Engineer in my early 40s. My “credentials” consist entirely of a high school diploma from a rural school.
I tinkered with programming as far back as 1994 or so (I was 10 years old at the time), on a 486 dx/2. I installed Mandrake Linux (Now Mandriva? if it’s still around), had to write my own connection scripts for my 56k modem, and I was off to the races in C. I played with VB5 quite a bit in high school.
I had a full scholarship to a state university in 2002, but lost it due to undiagnosed ADHD and depression. In 2012 I enrolled in WGU because I needed a degree to climb at my corporate job… but less than a year later I realized that corporate wasn’t really for me, and decided to pursue startups instead. That was a good decision.
My advice: do whatever it takes to get in the door at the type of company where you want to work. That’s the hard part. Once there, you do the best job you can and constantly look for ways to put your skills to use. This is the boring part - it’ll probably take a couple of years, but in my experience you can slowly mold any position into one that’s either “programming” or “programming-adjacent”. Once you do that, it’s a short leap to get the actual title.
FWIW, I summarized your skills and forwarded this post to a couple of recruiters I have good relationships with, including one at my own employer.
Based on your experience, you seem like you'd be a great "non-traditional" lead. Here's hoping!
One potential option would be to get an online CS degree from somewhere like WGU. An official stamp of "I know my shit" that would get you past most HR filters with a minimal money and time commitment
Might learn a thing or two, also
> Android phone with a cracked screen
I also taught myself to code; first on a C64, then A500, PC, Mac.
Then I studied robotics at university, which forced me to dig into several subjects I most likely would never have touched by free choice.
That foundation took me this far, we'll see what I'm doing once whatever this is has passed.
I'm not even sure I even want to work with software anymore.
No one gives a shit these days, which means experience is worthless and the chances of doing good few and far between.
"What I Really Want to Say" is well written, and my heart goes out to this person.
It is quite difficult to be on both sides of the situation.