How I Became a Sr Software Engineer Without a CS Degree
- December 29, 2023
- Posted by: MainInstructor
- Category: Go Python React Software Engineering
Video Title: How I Became a Sr Software Engineer Without a CS Degree
Have you ever wondered how you can become a software engineer without a CS degree? Do you ever feel frustrated about being passionate about coding but held back by your non-traditional background? In this video, I will share my personal journey from obtaining an Aerospace degree to reaching
A senior software engineering position, along with the valuable insights I gained throughout the process.By the end of this video, you’ll discover how I overcame obstacles, defied expectations, and ultimately succeeded in becoming a senior software engineer, all without a CS degree. Let’s get right into it. My degree is in Aerospace Engineering.
Although it may sound unrelated at first, I chose to major in aerospace engineering with the goal of working with autonomous systems in the future, such as autonomous cars, drones, and robots. These specific applications require a significant amount of coding. While studying aerospace engineering, I gained knowledge in areas like fluid mechanics, rocket
Propulsion, and orbital mechanics. Additionally, I had the opportunity to learn and apply algorithms to systems, which is a key aspect of being a software engineer. I already had some coding experience from high school, and during my freshman year at MIT, I interned as a software engineering intern at Northrop Grumman, a large aerospace
Corporation. So, even though I didn’t have a computer science degree, I had relevant experience in the field. Between graduating from MIT and now, I have held prominent roles at two separate startups. Although coding was involved in both positions, my daily work did not always revolve around coding like it does today.
At Deuce Drone, I served as one of the lead engineers, focusing on the system level to ensure all components fit together seamlessly. I was involved in various aspects of the system, from sourcing power supplies and servos to understanding the flight controller and coding the backend for route planning.
This hands-on experience allowed me to gain valuable insights into each component. At ChipBrain, a conversational AI startup, I initially joined as a part-time intern to assist in preparing their demo for investor pitches. As I gained more experience and earned the trust of the founders, I transitioned into a full-time Product Lead role.
In this position, I played a key role in shaping the product’s appearance, functionality, and features for users. Throughout this journey, I directly contributed to the backend Python code, gained experience with distributed cloud system infrastructure, implemented state-of-the-art language models, and gained a comprehensive understanding of the day-to-day responsibilities of a software engineer.
I also worked on various side projects during this time. I have always had an interest in building new things, and with my newfound experience in cloud systems, I wanted to apply my knowledge to implement some of the ideas I had.
At the beginning of last year, I became particularly interested in the stock market. I found the different factors that influence supply and demand fascinating, especially when observed in real-time. Through Tradingview, I gained access to accurate indicators. Then by using web hook triggers from Tradingview, and AWS servers, I developed an auto-trading
Bot for both Webull and TD Ameritrade. While I did not have the capacity to maintain and improve the code, the working system is still in place today. Another project involved implementing ChatGPT into an email translator. As part of a YouTube challenge, I also took on the task of working with front-end code
For the first time and created a React app prototype. If you are interested, you can watch the video on my channel. This project required setting up a simple app interface to send and receive information from the OpenAI API in order to perform the desired tasks.
In this case, I created an email translator that transformed strongly worded responses into more professional ones while still conveying the intended emotion. Although neither of these side projects resulted in any monetary gain, they provided valuable experiences that I can discuss in job interviews.
These projects demonstrate my passion for coding and allow me to provide specific commentary on system-related decisions. I believe these projects helped validate my abilities as a software engineer without a degree. When I left both startups, I was unsure about what I wanted to do next.
While I had always been passionate about coding, I also had an interest in shaping the overall system. Initially, I explored various roles such as technical product manager, project manager, software engineer, and solutions or sales engineer. I wanted to have conversations with people in different fields to help me narrow down
My focus and find something I truly enjoyed. However, I couldn’t completely move away from coding because I still had a lot to learn about building cloud systems at scale. You may wonder why I didn’t mention Aerospace Engineer as one of the roles I was considering.
At that time, I hadn’t applied for positions at NASA, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, or Lockheed Martin. While I still admire and appreciate Aerospace Engineers, I was too intrigued by the speed of iteration in the software industry to go back. Additionally, the higher salaries and more flexible remote working opportunities in the
Tech field made me believe that I could make a faster impact at a software company. As this was my first time applying for a software engineering role, I didn’t have much knowledge about the process. I admit that I went into my initial interviews without any preparation.
However, I learned from each interview and gained valuable experience. I had multiple recruiters trying to find the right fit for me, and I made it far into the interview process with several companies. However, I ultimately received more rejections than I ever had before.
During the behavioral portions of interviews, many companies asked about my future aspirations. I was honest and expressed my hope to one day lead my own company. Surprisingly, this led some companies to question whether I would feel fulfilled in their specific
Role, and I had recruiters relay to me that reason as to why they moved on from me. Some companies rejected me because of my location being far from their headquarters. Another company initially thought I was the right candidate but later decided they didn’t need the position at all.
Some companies and interviewers also saw my Aerospace Engineering degree as a negative. Despite holding prominent titles at small startups in the past, it was challenging to prove my coding and problem-solving abilities within the limited time frame of 30 minutes
To an hour, especially since I had graduated without an actual CS degree just two years ago. In a two month span, I must’ve interviewed at over 10 companies. At some point, I felt like I just wanted a yes just to get a yes, and was honestly settling
On roles that I knew weren’t my ideal fit. I was generally getting down on myself until I saw one of my ex MIT classmates post about Posh on her LinkedIn. She had recently joined, and there were open positions. The initial role that I had applied for was actually for a senior software engineering
Position on the Client Solutions team. Although I really resonated with the role and felt comfortable with the roles and responsibilities of the job description, there was a problem. The job description required 5-8 years of experience.
Since the role had exactly what I was looking for at the time, and as I saw the company had a lot of ex-MIT people, I decided to apply anyways. At this point, I wanted this position badly. After all the no’s and applications and interviews, I finally found a role that blended my itch
For communicating with leadership and users, with my desire to continue to develop as a software engineer. So I pulled out every strategy I had in my toolkit to land the job. I took the initiative to check the public roles of people at the company and decided
To reach out to their head of people. I noticed that he also graduated from MIT with a non-CS degree, specifically in mechanical engineering. This was a nice connection because Aerospace and Mechanical engineering are closely related fields. Before reaching out via LinkedIn, I ensured that my LinkedIn profile was up-to-date with
Relevant experiences and skills. I also made sure to write a unique About section. I took the opportunity to write an open cover letter about my experiences, what I believe I can bring to a team, and my aspirations. Since I was targeting Posh, I tailored my story to pique their interest.
Reaching out with a cold LinkedIn message was successful. The Head of People checked my LinkedIn page, became interested, and responded to me. We connected over our shared love for pickup basketball and realized that we may have crossed paths unknowingly during my time at MIT.
Because we hit it off, he assured me that my application would be considered and that I would have a conversation with the team’s manager. Looking back, now that I have a closer relationship with him, I discovered that he actually showed my LinkedIn About section to a coworker, praising it.
This likely played a role in why I was given a chance and received a response in the first place. You never know what will catch someone’s attention when they look you up. I also hit it off with the team manager and ended up having a series of 3 interviews in
The next couple of days. By the following Monday, I was officially hired. However, due to my short, unofficial experiences at small startups, they didn’t feel comfortable offering me the senior-level position described in the job description. Nevertheless, they still wanted me and saw the potential for me to become a senior engineer.
As a result, they closed the open position and brought me in as a standard engineer level 2. Despite this adjustment, I felt comfortable signing the offer because the head of people, who I initially reached out to, assured me that employee compensation and titles were frequently adjusted, at least every 6 months.
Knowing that the next evaluation period was only 4 months away, I took a leap of faith in myself, confident that I would be able to prove my worth quickly. My first day officially started on August 31, 2022.
For me, the decision was based almost solely off of the people that I talked to throughout the onboarding process. Everyone seemed genuine and kind and passionate about what they do. Also, the comfort to already express details about how compensation and titles are viewed at the company was a green flag for me.
I knew that I could code anywhere and provide value, but such a positive environment is hard to come by. I felt like I would feel happy putting in work everyday for these people because I will actually be seen, noticed, and appreciated, which are honestly invaluable from a workplace.
These intangibles shown through at many points over the last year. I made conscious efforts to stand out as an engineer on the team, showing everyone what I was capable of not only as a coder, but also a creative problem solver.
By August of this year, I was named a senior software engineer 11 months into this role. In those first 11 months, I also received two five-figure raises and a stock bonus. If you want to know a more detailed story as to how I got promoted and how much my raises
Were, I laid out my whole progression in the video here. If you want to follow along to see where my journey goes from here, I post daily on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube shorts, along with 2 videos per week on this channel, so make sure to check out all the socials in the description.
As always, thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.
Video Keywords: Software Engineering
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Hello KJ. A glad to see you back posting regularly on youtube. I enjoyed your content while you were still in college and am happy to see you doing well in health and careerwise. Am on the same path since I did my undergraduate and first masters in aerospace engineering and am doing a masters in cs while working in defense and would like to one day switch careers into creating software products. Glad to see you back posting regularly bro.
Can I know which consultancy helped you to get into mit???
My biggest dream is to get into mit. Can you make special video on which consultancy is the best .
Hey you ever apply for spacex cuz you as major in aerospace or you ever meet elon musk?can you interview with elon musk with some good science and engineering questions?Cuz you as tech guy ask some interesting questions to him,i think its also interesting to interview elon.If yes try to ask some great questions for humanity and what he think about their life now and when he was as a teenager and more thank u
💙💙💙
hi KJHardrict, appreciated your knowledge and expertise ❤
While I was watching your video, I felt like I'm living in Stone Age. I feel like I'm caged. I want to improve myself. Now, I only know how to write simple algorithms. I want to learn everything and find out what I'm capable of. You seem like an interesting, intelligent person. I want to be like you one day.
Great video for step-ups KJ❤