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Comment by chrisgoman | Hacker News Reader

Develop any software for your domain (lab technician or microbiology) that solves a simple problem you see or encounter daily. Identify a problem in your current day job that can be solved with software like recording data in the lab, tracking supplies, etc. (nothing too complex) and come up with a solution (website to check-in/check-out, mobile app (?), etc.) and learn how to build it. It will not be perfect but you will have done something. Having domain experience will GREATLY make it easier to transition -- learning a new field and software at the same time is going to be rough.

https://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/51-mechanics-of-building-...

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Couldn’t agree more, and this isn’t exclusive to any of the other advice given here.

The son of a friend graduated from a CS degree last year and still doesn’t have a job. I told him if he wants to be a software developer, then he should just develop software, and showed him some scripts and games i’d written in Pythonista on my phone. Nobody has to give you permission. High quality dev frameworks can be got for free. You can run web apps on a free tier on Google or AWS web hosting. Developing mobile apps is easy these days and dev accounts with Google or Apple are very affordable. Get a GitHub account for your projects and build up some rep on Stack Overflow. You don’t even need to do anything super fancy or commercial, just interesting or fun or novel and demonstrate an understanding of a range of technologies. Put links to all of these on your resume.

Set yourself objectives. 4 months to get a web app running on Google App Engine (you can get a tutorial app working in an afternoon!). A month to figure out Github and upload it, and do this for future projects. 2 months to port it to AWS. 4 months to get an app into the Play Store, or App Store. All this can be done in spare time, half the time following tutorials and the rest on whatever your apps do.

Couldn't agree more. I made the switch about a year ago at age 31. Previously, I was a manufacturing process engineer. I created some tools for me and my team, and my current employer hired me specifically because I "created real apps".

Companies want employees who are self-starting autodidacts.

Hi! I am trying to transition my career from the lab - I have about 10 years of experience in a gene sequencing company and currently considering software. I'd like to learn more about what you did and see if I can replicate your success, would you mind answering some questions?

Sure. What would you like to ask?

I have close to 10 questions and it might be difficult to answer if I post here. My email is workinprogressblogs@gmail if you don't mind I can send them to you directly.

This is a great advice. I'm a software engineer working as a freelance but now trying to create saas products and even if i have very good technical knowledge, my problem is i don't know any other businees domain so i don't know exactly what to develop. Starting from your domain of knowledge and trying to create a webapp (i suggest you that first and mobile later) to solve a real problem will give you direction, problems to solve and looking a solution for by learning and motivation during your career transition and, last but not least, maybe a product you can sell your own or evolve during time.

I'll give the OP an idea for a project, based on a problem I have in the lab: Pulling Pipette tips.

Any mol-bio lab has seen one of these guys around: https://www.sutter.com/MICROPIPETTE/p-97.html

Anyone that has had to pull tips knows how much it sucks. It takes dozens of glasses to finally get all the parameters working well, and that takes an hour minimum. After all that, you then get to start the experiments. And then a storm comes through and messes with the pressure and humidity and all the parameters are wrong again.

So, if the OP could program a calculator-thingy that takes in current conditions, some parameters specific to your lab and your puller, what you want the resistance and tip angle to be, and then spits out a set of numbers to program the puller, that would be SO USEFUL! I'm not saying that I want the exact numbers, but I'd like a pretty good range of them.

I’ve heard good things about https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

^ to add to this, when you eventually start looking for jobs, try to find a job in a domain you understand.

I transitioned careers to programming when I was 28, and my first 2 jobs were in finance. I dgaf about finance and didn't understand it at all. Made it far, far more difficult for me than it otherwise would have been.

This is the right answer. There are any number of people freshly learned programming but those with a decade (I guess) of experience in some domain , that's way more rare. And then it's just basic supply and demand :)

I completely agree with this advice! Find a task that you repeat all the time and automate it. A pretty good place to start is just python, git, and bash. When I start a new job it's actually what I do to get my bearings. I keep a written journal of tasks, I make a notes README, and document repetition. I make bash scripts for shortcuts and to prove things, then I start working them into fabric[0] a (python lib) script. I keep all of this in a private git repository.

My older brother taught himself to program at 36. He was a 3D artist before, he had four kids and a wife and a full time job. He spent evenings and weekends building things for his wife's interest in photography and started blogging about his experience learning. He now runs a very successful company and completely changed his life inside of 3 years. He's not the best programmer, but he focused on the work and the assets that he had that were different from people who might be the "best" programmers, that edge is a huge asset.

I've been programming since I was 12 so it's hard for me to fully relate to starting new. Now at 35, I think the thing that people thinking programming is hard later comes from thinking of it like learning to paint or something. One unique aspect about programming is that it's a force multiplier. Once you grasp something, you don't need to reproduce it, you have it and you use it to prop up the next thing.

I'm biased towards python, but experience tells me it's one of the best starter languages because of it's flexibility. Whatever you're working on will always need a web portal, Django[1] is amazing. You can get started quick and python will allow you to do whatever crazy thing you dream up as well.

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I've done a reasonable amount of programming mentoring and four things I've found about having limited time to immerse are:

1) Do things you think are fun! It doesn't matter if it's "relevant" to your track, learning to make it play is vital.

2) Give yourself easy wins early and often. If you find yourself stressing about not getting something, put it down and find a way to get something out quick. Once you have a win, take that new confidence back to your rudiments.

3) Never underestimate documenting your process and sharing it. Blog, draw your problems on paper and in a graphics tool, and keep a physical journal.

4) Try to wrap your head around that the feeling you have now about not knowing IS the state of being a programmer. As you get down the road you will be moving into the exact same state with a new "bigger" things. Something that does change is being able to tab into the sense of discovery and wonder easily. Enjoy it!

I believe in you! You got this!

[0] https://www.fabfile.org/ [1] https://www.djangoproject.com/

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