From Literature to Coding: How I Broke into the Software Industry

I wrote this article! One interesting angle we explored in the interview (but which didn’t make the final edit) was Kevin’s thoughts on academia and the time he spent there:

Do you feel any regret from switching from academia to tech?

I certainly spent many years of my life studying things that only a handful of people care about. I think there's an answer to that question where, "Oh, of course, if I'm thinking about this 10 years ago, in terms of where would I want to be, financially, today, then no, I'm not going to do that." But do I regret those years I spent training for that? No, I don't.

I still love literature, I still love to read. I feel like, "Okay, I have this knowledge and appreciation of literature, and now I have this other technical job that I'm still able to learn really interesting things, and make a decent salary, and have this enriched, enlightened soul." I wouldn't necessarily advise people away from studying humanities. I would try to advise them to pick up another skill, just in case. Learn coding, or learn something, and just make sure you know what you're getting into. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have listened to anyone who said that when I was getting into it. So you have to consider it, yourself.