
Ask HN: What is the quickest path to a new career in tech? -  balls187
Asking for a friend who is interested in getting into tech, but doesn&#x27;t have the time for a 4-year engineering degree (she does have a PhD in Poli-Sci).<p>In 2016 how does a person switch careers to a career in tech? 
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brendanb
I have a Ph.D. In English and got involved in a startup while doing a postdoc. 
Initial gig was just copywriting but as the only non engineer, my role quickly
grew into product mgmt, business strategy, marketing, partnerships etc.  Small
teams benefit a lot from someone with her broad range of skills and
experience.  Tell her to find a product she loves and try to join the team
that's building it in whatever role possible. 

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hitsurume
Gotto be more specific here.  There are many different roles in tech, from
engineering to product management to sales etc.  What does she want to do?  What
CAN she do? ( I have no idea what a PHD in poli-sci will help in tech
businesses)

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balls187
The broadness is purposeful, specifically she is interested in what is the
shortest path.  She is interested in Computer Security, but I suspect there are
shorter paths to landing a tech job. 

Given my experience as a developer, getting a job as a developer is not the
quickest path (experience and/or success are required to overcome a lack of a
4-year CS degree). 

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joshvm
I think there needs to be some narrowing down at least though, does she want
to be a generic software developer?  A web developer?  An App developer?  A UI
designer?  Does she want to leverage her degree? 

The question as it stands is like asking "What's the shortest path to being a
scientist?". 

Certainly the quickest way is to actually do something, build a website or an
app, learn Python and solve some problems.  Pick a small personal problem and
tackle it. 

There are some software dev companies that will hire without any coding
experience because they would rather teach you themselves.  I'm not sure how I
feel about that, but maybe it's for some people. 

Would she consider a programming boot camp?  Those are often targeted at
getting new developers jobs post-completion. 

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kwc98
I see plenty of jobs in QA, a lot of those remote as well.  This is good for
someone that is organized, thoughtful and sometimes ideally not a programmer. 
Writing test cases, automation, documentation of bugs, etc.  This would be a
pretty quick way I believe, not to minimize the role of a good QA person in
anyway. 

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mswen
If she happened to take a quantitative methods focus for her PhD in Poli-Sci
she could possibly head for the data science segment.  Even better if she
already knows R.

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cdnsteve
You don't need a degree, most programmers are self taught. 

Take a basic idea and figure out how to go make it.  Hands on experience and
YouTube or Google is all you need. 

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jlees
As she's a she, check out Hackbright Academy.  Disclaimer: I used to teach
there. 

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a3n
Have a portfolio.