That's close to what I did. Major in software engineering, equivalent of a second major in English (back then, the university I attended didn't have the concept of "minors" for engineering students, or recognize double majors). That led to a fellowship offer for my MFA. After three years of intensive writing, I went into software development.

Given the cost of higher ed these days, I would imagine that path is not nearly as feasible now as it was in the late 80s/early 90s. (Definitely not at that university, which just discontinued its MFA program in writing.)

I did this. It's a fun niche to exist in! For folks like me who want to enjoy tinkering but also love writing, I think it's an underappreciated space. So many engineers lean as far as possible into the deeply technical bits that focusing on the "soft" bits like writing and communication is a nice way to stand out.

I did a Poli-Sci degree with a minor in IT. Work in IT full-time now, but worked in a few different (wildly different, in some cases) fields before then.

Worked out alright, definitely see the differences when working on the architect / manager / principle engineer -- the highly technical types only see tech.

You've never seen such beautiful word choice and phrasing in a git commit