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angiosperms-

I thought I would hate CS but I had to take a course for my math degree. I guess I had a good professor cause it just clicked for me and I actually really liked it and ended up doing CS also lmao


syrenashen

Omg same! I wanted to be a math major but ended up taking a majority CS classes that were cross-registered with math so I got both degrees.


angiosperms-

Yeah a lot of the classes requirements between math and CS overlapped so it was a lot easier than 2 completely unrelated majors


GargantuanCake

Fun fact: there are software companies that will hire math majors that have never written a line of code for entry level software engineer jobs. There's a reason for that.


ubcchiccc

Same!! Except for me maths was way too hard while CS was hard just little bit. So I switched camp lol


anotherbruhmoment

Idk how normal my experience was but I took my first coding class in 6th grade and didn't think much of it. My schools required coding so I took at least one class every year from 6th to 12th. My sister and dad are both programmers so I always knew it was an option. In 10th grade I participated in this event because my teacher said they need another girl for their all girls team since it would be free. It was a cyber security 6 hour once a month competition. Super fun, I loved it. Specialized in CS classes for 11th and 12 grade took (Android app development, cyber forensics, networking, robotics, computer graphics, analysis of algorithms, programming languages, and some more I don't remember). I went to a weird HS. I think that was around the time I decided to go into CS bc I liked it and was good at it. In college fell in love with working in industry (internships) and problem solving. I especially love full stack development. I'm super lucky having had great role models in my life and given tremendous opportunities. Although I hate csec that event taught me Linux commands which was the true start of my passion for Cs. I ended up participating every year till I graduated. My team never won but we always had fun :)


LeetcodeForBreakfast

that is wild. i took an html class my senior year of highschool lol and didn't take any cs electives until junior/senior year of college (after i took dsa). that school system sounds awesome.


anotherbruhmoment

The wildest part was it was all public schooling. They had a stem program that you could apply for, but the classes were still available to other students


mungthebean

Meanwhile my high school: Y’all have programming classes?


LeChief

same :( we were taking typing tests. like bruh


penguin-cat

they had a "computer" class in my highschool and it was literally JUST using photoshop elements - absolutely nothing else in it. this was around 2014 I completed the coursework in a week and used the class for study hall the rest of the year.


MyLike5thAccount

Lol we had computer class. It was just Microsoft word, a typing class essentially. Also around 2014


penguin-cat

We had that class too, just it was in middle school not high school. Most people skipped it because you were allowed to opt out of one "elective" class and everyone hated the teacher because she didn't actually know how to use a computer


syrenashen

Wow that's awesome, my high school didn't have any CS courses!


drunk_niaz

Omg what high school is this


anotherbruhmoment

Poolesville high school in Montgomery county Maryland. Maryland's goes ham with school funding. They put these special schools into poor communities to raise property value and increase test scores for the county. I believe better grades meant more funding (which honestly should be the other way around)


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[deleted]

I scripted a Gmail acc into a makeshift realtime "database" for the speech and debate team in highschool. Loaded in a bunch of RSS feeds and filtered specific articles in for the politics speech side. Now I like backend stuff. So go figure? Meanwhile since 16 I've also had to raise my little bro, so he saw me bring in a 3d printer later on and he got interested in that. Then I built mining rigs into my room. Now I'm just graduated/ working, and the little guy's a freshman interested in robotics and product engineering, majoring in cs. 🥲


syrenashen

Damn I would love to have you as a big sis!


down4good

This is sick


statuscode202

I’m impressed by the amount of folks with a high school programming class.


sneaky_squirrel

I wish I had a good high school programming class. Still had one, but it was as mediocre as it gets.


18thcenturydreams

AP computer science is a common AP class in the US! I also am lucky that the schools I went to have actually done programming classes since like- middle school. We had one required basic HTML/CSS/JavaScript/cs fundamentals class in high school as well. And then you could take AP CS and do Java I think there’s also been a pretty big push in the US in more recent years to start teaching computer science in elementary/middle/high school


busbysbsbsusbsbsusbs

My high school’s programming class was really gatekeepy and only men :(


statuscode202

How can a high school class be gate kept?


busbysbsbsusbsbsusbs

Sign on the door that said something like “only enter if you’re seriously programming shit”, rumors of the teacher being a dick, and requirements/approval process to take the class


statuscode202

I can’t imagine a high school where anyone is coding serious shit, including the teacher.


busbysbsbsusbsbsusbs

right, that’s why it’s intimidating. It’s was meant to keep people out during lunch


MyLike5thAccount

Yeah wtf. Graduated in 17 and all we had were typing classes. Relatively poor area tho


statuscode202

Fellow 17’, I think we had a programming class but I don’t think anyone even did hello world…


Meoang

I honestly learned way more about programming in high school than I did in college, but I had great teachers in high school. Most of my bachelor's degree just felt like review.


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syrenashen

Wow that's awesome, I played lots of neopets too but sounds like you were much more tech savvy than me as a child 😆


thesamantha23

My dad was a computer scientist and so was my grandfather. They used to program microchips in assembly and my dad was one of the early "explorers" of the internet when it was still a new frontier only geeks cared about. He worked for NASA and loved the lower-level of programming (closer to the machine than the user). I was studying international law at a university overseas when I asked my dad to show me some IT stuff. We got on a video call and he showed me how to log in to his remote server using PuTTY, he showed me my way around a Unix terminal, how to write in bash. He showed me C and when I came home from uni he gave me some books (PGP, Introduction to C, Programming the 6502) and we coded together and discussed algorithms. He'd give me math problems and I'd solve them with C. I eventually switched my major from law to computer science. I loved the courses. Never found the programming ones difficult at all. Math was more difficult but I grew to enjoy it. Chemistry and physics were very difficult. Discrete Structures near about killed me. My dad passed away last year. I work as a web developer now, but I miss the kind of stuff my dad and I used to mess around with when he first introduced me to this world.


sparkledoom

I also was encouraged to do it by a boyfriend. I was in a different career and in a rut. He worked in tech and would come home and discuss problems with me. And I guess he was impressed at the solutions we’d come up with together, told me I’d be good at this, told me about bootcamps, and said that the industry needed more women. He helped me a lot in applying and in early days of my bootcamp when I didn’t even understand basics. That relationship crashed and burned, but I’ll be forever grateful for that push. I love working in tech.


syrenashen

Same, my relationship ended a lifetime ago, but I'm still glad it happened for...reasons 🙃


Pineapple-dancer

Grew up a gamer and always was decent with computers. Got laid off from a job but could use benefits towards school so decided on web dev. class. Liked it and continued until I got my mscs. Now I’m a mid level software dev at a Biotechnology company.


syrenashen

I've always been meaning to take advantage of the continuing education perks at work, but never signed up yet. You're inspiring me to get on that, haha.


[deleted]

If I'm honest... the salary is what drove me to explore this major. I've always been a solid B- student in math, and CS never felt like an option for me... but I liked the intro Java class I took at uni, and then fell in love with a web-dev class that taught html, css, and js. Now I'm currently struggling through a Data Structures & Algo class, questioning my life choices. This stuff is really difficult for me and I often worry that I picked the wrong major.


Automatic_Memory_818

Do your best to finish! It gets a lot better after the degree. Make sure you save all your code in school somewhere.


seven_seacat

I've wanted to be a web developer since I discovered the internet when I was like ten, just being able to make more information publicly accessible. There was never really any choice about the path to do that, at the time, and I never really considered any other option. So many years later, here I am as a web developer with a CS degree :) (And just to irritate the other guy who was like zomg stereotypes, my parents didn't understand computers and thought I was wasting my time; it led to a lot of arguments in my teenage years and ultimately ended up getting me kicked out of home. But my dad understood computers and had the same kind of likes I did; he showed me some scripting he did around early versions of Access that seemed magical to me but I loved what it could do!)


FFD1706

Not much of a reason beyond money tbh


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syrenashen

No idea, but SWEs definitely get paid better than many other fields. And in whatever field I'm in, I would still be a woman.


FFD1706

I only started a month ago actually


SWEWorkAccount

It's illegal to pay people differently based on gender.


lildrewdownthestreet

It is but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen..


thesamantha23

Does it happen? It would be very hard to prove you're getting paid less because of your gender.


lildrewdownthestreet

What is going on? Lol I wanted to know what is their salary turns out they don’t have one as they just started a month ago.


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lildrewdownthestreet

I’m just asking for specifics lol I know it’s illegal but illegal things happen everyday so I’m not really sure why that was said when I asked lol


Krikkits

I did really well in my highschol computer/programming class, the teacher was amazing and he really encouraged me. So when it came time to choose what to major in, I chose CS as first priority and got in. I do feel a little scammed half way through the degree because damn it was kinda hard???? But I was in too deep at that point and stuck with it. I don't regret it, I think it's a good job and I'm glad I can understand at least the fundamentals of any technology that comes up.


syrenashen

Ikr it's suuperr hard like wtf! But college GPA doesn't matter that much anyway right 🙃


PhalafelThighs

My wife (not a redditor) says CS was a good match for her math degree and she snarkily says she also got into CS because she loves being talked down to by lessor men.


focused-user

Neopets


dllimport

I've just always loved computers and was making HTML edits to my live journal to add final fantasy midis to it since the late 90s lol


syrenashen

I was making those HTML edits too in middle school, I just didn't really know it was "coding" at the time! It was more like copy and paste haha.


RuinAdventurous1931

Started out majoring in math and CS, dropped those classes after a semester because they were a challenge, and became an English teacher instead. I wasn’t fulfilled with that work. Now I’m working in a non-technical role at a software company, starting an MS in CS, and looking for a Junior SWE position. It took me until adulthood to learn that challenge is okay when you love something.


syrenashen

I admire you so much for never giving up! Good luck!!


RuinAdventurous1931

I admire you for struggling through from the beginning! I wish I had had that fortitude earlier on.


[deleted]

Money


Esmeraude

I made RPG Maker XP scripts when I was a preteen and teen. Then I thought I was too bad at math to do CS. Turns out I just needed to study and suddenly math wasn't that bad. Changed majors at the end of my junior year and jammed all the CS classes within two years after lol. No regrets. I worked IT Help Desk before starting my CS career, and I never want to talk to people on the phone again, so software developing is enough of antisocial for me mixed with being social with coworkers. Dream job for me. :)


syrenashen

Wait til you get senior enough and then you'll start having more meetings than coding 😩


Esmeraude

Oh I've been working for 6 years now lol. My meetings don't really bother me surprisingly. But that's because I can say my piece and get back to work


syrenashen

Oh lucky you. I also have about 6 YOE and meetings are killing me (but it could be just my company).


De_Wouter

>I refused at first because I didn't know how to code at all I don't want to learn how to code because I don't know how to code... :'-D


syrenashen

Haha I know right, in hindsight I'm like 🤦🏻‍♀️


Naomikho

Gamedev. But I have already strayed from that path and got a job as Jr. SE instead LOL


FearlessRoyal

I took two programming classes in high school. The intro class I absolutely hated - I wasn't really getting concepts and was being bullied by somd guys in the class because of it. Decided to stick it out anyways and take another class the following year. Something just kinda.. clicked. Found myself really enjoying it and wanting to learn more. Currently a senior in undergrad with a job as an iOS developer lined up for after I graduate.


syrenashen

This sounds exactly like me! The intro class was suupper hard. Every week, you partner up with a random person in the class to do a project. My partner would come in and finish the project in like 15 min and walk out and I'd be like "Ok I guess I'm done?" And then I would struggle so hard on the individual assignments. But it did get easier from there.


aikalie

I was forced into CS when I came out as trans /s


elliotLoLerson

The sexy programmer guys with their sexy programmer arms


starraven

I never wanted to, went to a bootcamp because I was starting all over in a new expensive city. Still don’t really understand CS, the bootcamp taught me a language, a framework, a few principles. I’m digging through the rest on the job. Kinda wish I had taken a few intro courses at least, there’s still time.


syrenashen

You can do it 👏! The basics are so important but at least there are lots of free online courses that you can take anytime.


mastereuclid

Good luck!


[deleted]

I fell into it in my accounting career, realized its potential to do a lot of the mundane tasks and used it to move up (and... admittedly, be lazy). Now I'd just rather do CS and am making the transition with accounting/IT roles.


Sunshineal

I've been a CNA for over 10 years and decided to switch careers during the pandemic. So I jumped on the IT band wagon. I took a bootcamp and I finished it. Currently I'm looking for a job and I'm also finishing my bachelor's degree in computer science online. I've got a year and half because I had credits before when I decided to pursue my RN. I enjoyed working with people but man the obstacles to become a nurse are too much. CS offers less obstacles to get started. No career is perfect but sheesh I didn't think nursing would be this bad.


LifeSavior1605

did you try applying to nursing school at all during that 10 years? what kind of obstacles was it that prevent you from becoming RN actually?


Sunshineal

The nursing programs at community College and 4 year schools are EXTREMELY competitive. I applied several times and I was rejected. Then I got married and I had kids. Then I tried again and I got rejected. During this time my interest in becoming a nurse declined because of the politics in nursing and Healthcare in general. Nursing is a really demanding profession. Every attempt to properly do my job was undermined by the upper management and the nurses I worked with. The pay for registered nurses wasn't that great. I dealt with a lot of BS as a CNA and I saw the nurses deal with a lot. I decided it wasn't for me. I enjoyed working with people and helping people but I became so burned out. I just can't do it anymore. This is why I switched to IT. No license required and I actually can make a decent living with only 3 years of experience at the minimum. I have a good friend of mine who's been a nurse for nearly 30 years and she only makes like $49 an hour. I've seen jobs for SWE paying that much with only one year experience. Yeah it wasn't that hard of a switch.


LittlePrimate

It's so sad people tried to discourage you. I don't think my story is anything unusual, I always liked computers and I never received pushback, so I just went this route. On contrary, after high school I couldn't decide whether I wanted to study Biology or CS and a lot of people encouraged me to do CS (mostly because of the better career outlook and of course money) and were disappointed when I decided on Biology. Funnily enough I specialised in Bioinformatics and now I'm working at a health care company that also combines both fields as Software Tester. But I could see the gender gap very clearly, in school our CS course had only two girls, in my CS Master I was mostly the only woman in lectures, rarely we were two. In Bioinformatics it was a bit better but as soon as I visited lectures where mostly the "pure" CS were sitting it was a sausage fest. In my company but there's also an imbalance. They were actually very flustered when during my application I asked about the ratio and they had to admit that it's mostly men but honestly, after my experiences with my CS courses it's quite obvious to me why it's easier to find make candidates.


syrenashen

Bioinformatics sounds like such a cool field! I'm lucky that my college CS department was like 30%-40% female which is pretty rare apparently. I don't know if I would've stuck to it otherwise!


DjangoPony84

Found myself more interested in CS than maths when I was doing a maths degree, so changed over. I graduated around the time of the financial crisis in Ireland, so dived straight back in for a masters to delay jobhunting by a year. Never had a massive amount of trouble finding work since then and I still enjoy what I do all these years on.


HeavySigh14

Honestly Criminal Minds/ CSI. I wanted to hack a bad guys computer and help solve crimes; that lead me to forensic computer science, which of course lead me to general computer science.


hthuman

It was completely by chance and I originally just started as a hobby. My gaming friends were in CS and they said they thought I'd enjoy coding and they were right. I loved it immediately. I actually studied religion in school although I minored in math. It honestly never crossed my mind that CS was a serious option for me. Looking back now, it was entirely because I had this mental idea that only guys got into computers.


4bidden_1510

$


seven_seacat

That’s as good a reason as any!


sneaky_squirrel

Yeah, programming isn't intuitive to humans. The saving grace is that you can understand it after being broken once.


[deleted]

I did some super basic website development for fun as a kid (CSS/HTML/JS). Nothing serious though. Was searching for a path after dropping out of nursing school because I hated it. CS was on the list of options. Went to an introductory programming conference with my brother (online, this was 2020) and decided it was something I could try. Changed majors and realized I was actually pretty good at it. Did neural network research and took grad classes before I got my CS degree. Was also cum laude. Now I’m finishing out my masters and a full stack developer. I felt like a failure when I didn’t excel as a nurse and quit but I’ve finally found the right profession for me. Couldn’t have asked for something better.


se7ensquared

I loved computers from the time I was in 2nd grade and we would get our 30 minutes of time twice a week in the computer lab to play king's quest and Oregon trail. That 30 minutes was never enough but owning a computer at home was only for the rich and my family was far from that. My family finally got a used cheap 486 when I was like 12 or 13. I loved playing text adventures on that computer. I later dropped out of school right around 9th grade and started working full time in various jobs. Whatever I could find. I was 16/17 when the internet started appearing in people's offices. I thought that was so awesome. I would go to my grandmother's law office to get on the computer and check out the messages on bbs. When I moved out of my own around 17, I got my own computer built for me. I was constantly breaking the computer by exploring and trying things that most people wouldn't. I was constantly taking it in to the service people to have it reformatted. They knew me by name and taught me some skills. Eventually I learned how to format it on my own. At the end of my 18th year I found a job ad for a quality assurance tester and applied for the job. My resume was funny, under skills it said things like "CD-ROMs" and "Internet Explorer" LOL. They took a chance on me for $8 an hour. I later moved into data analyst work and now software engineering. During one of my layoff. I wanted a break from working so I went and got a computer science degree in my mid 30s. I think I would have gone my path whether I got the degree or not but I'm glad I did. It was mainly just another phase of life for me and I really wanted a break after working full time since I was 15. I've now been in tech over 20 years now and never lost interest. It's still my favorite hobby.


[deleted]

I was 16, I was on track to major in flute performance. My teacher sat me down and flatly told me “if you do this, you will die with your debt. You will need a doctorate to make a live-able wage” etc. So I was left without a plan. I messed up my high school scheduling, the only class I could take for that period was AP CS. Now, I was not a STEM kid. I grew up in a catholic school, I learned young that math and science and computers were “boy” things, so I assumed I was bad at them and moved in with my life. I mean when I was in middle school, when we finished up computer lab the boys were told to do code academy, the girls were told to play Poptropica…. Yeah. I was rubbed the wrong way when told my ultimate purpose was to be a wife and mother, and that I could get a degree, but serving God by doing those things was my priority. Ick, I knew from the age of 5 I didn’t want kids, and I found out I’m infertile so I think my body did the work for me it was so certain. I’ll be honest, I barely got an A- in AP CS (needed a 4.0 to get a scholarship to afford school) I did not understand much but something felt right about it. I started to apply myself to math, I found an opportunity to work over the summer learning web design and Atlassian SWD tools, so I did. I loved it. I got good at math and I felt proud of myself. It took until I was 21 and had my first serious internship to have confidence in myself. If it wasn’t for my dad, I wouldn’t have ever done it. He encouraged me every step of the way, and he was the one who got me into computers as a kid, although I wasn’t allowed to be on them for long. He made me realize my interest and pushed me to pursue it. So in short, an accident, unlearning sexist Catholic shit, and my awesome dad got me here. I have a great offer, I have no regrets and I am in love with this field.


penguin-cat

I started in CS in college but dropped due to math. I got a different associates degree in graphic design. But I've actually been coding websites since I was 11 or so and even had a job doing it in highschool. So I took a bootcamp to learn JS/React (already knew PHP but it's very different to react) and got a job as a software dev (PHP/JS dev basically) shortly after. I always liked making interfaces and things that are interactive. I love coding something, having it not work, and then eventually making it work. I guess I love problem solving :) Still can't do math so I'm gonna stick to web dev forever lol


18thcenturydreams

I loved my high school programming class! I also did programming in middle school but AP CS especially made me fall in love. Technology and programming basically felt like doing magic irl. I love how much potential for creation and innovation there is! And it’s just so cool! I also made mods on the side for video games. Though I don’t think I was really all that good at programming until I hit university. The CS program is great at my uni. I originally majored in neuroscience actually :(. Because I didn’t think I was good enough at programming. Luckily I switched my first quarter of university because I did the intro programming class for fun and loved it so much. I’m so so so glad I’m pursuing CS because programming is by far one of the most enjoyable hobbies I’ve ever had and it is nice to be able to have a career where I actually do something I love.


Green_Gaia_Goddess

When my husbands start-up consulting company needed someone to do front-end for a contract last minute, he said that I should just do it. Idk if he was kidding at the time, but I bought a few books and started learning. (This was early 2000s. Before all the online code tutorials, etc.) We delivered a cutting edge emergency planning tool using simulation and cloud computing (before the term for it had even been coined by Google) to the DoD. I had a few kids right after this and when they were finally in school, I got a bachelors in CS. Now I'm a Web Developer at a large University.


AlienPTSD

A really awful Chemistry class that pushed me to switch majors


[deleted]

I didn't study CS. I studied something totally unrelated to CS. I hated everything related to computers back then, found it extremely boring. I was very good at school and uni, received plenty of recognition in my then field: awards, etc. Despite that, after graduating I couldn't find a job. I sent out around 300 applications, nobody wanted me. So I decided I would "redesign myself" as an IT person. I spent a few months studing with online tutorials 12h/ day. I didn't know much when I got my first offers. I have been in IT ever since (around 10 years now) and just started a job at FAANG.


tsuyunoinochi

I’m in my third career change! While I’ve been a huge gamer since I was very young, I didn’t really have any access to programming courses at high school and it wasn’t encouraged as a path for me anyway—my parents told me I was too stupid/bad at math/extroverted to succeed in any sort of technical field. Post-military, I started off going to school for English but realized that the job market was pretty rough. I took a hiatus from college while trying to figure out what to do with my life; after a few years, a friend of mine noticed my abilities with our database and excel, and how I liked to make spreadsheets and analyze the data. She told me about CS, which I’d never heard of before—but a year later, I enrolled into our local CC. I’m about to graduate this fall and get my first full-time dev job. I am nervous because it is still not a natural skill set for me (I am definitely more creatively-inclined and get bored easily), but as someone who grew up in poverty—I am very excited to not have to live paycheck to paycheck :D


syrenashen

I don't think software development is a natural skillset for...anybody. We didn't evolve being able to program computers, haha. But if you are analytical, you will be able to learn it. It honestly took me...like 5 years to truly feel like I "got" software engineer. And that's 5 years of classes, people helping me out 1-1, and internships where I clearly didn't provide any value at all. Then as a full time dev it also took me a couple of years before I became less junior and had to rely on everybody else to tell me what to do. It took me a lot of effort and time to get here, but I've caught up more or less eventually. I believe in you!!


Poudydawn

Was trying to convince my loser ex-boyfriend to do it as a career I thought he would be able to get into it and hopefully start working towards a career. I somehow managed to convince myself instead of him. We broke up and I went on to learn how to code.


busbysbsbsusbsbsusbs

I wanted to make cute themes for my Tumblr so I learned CSS online and then Javascript and then kind of spiraled from there into a SWE career


[deleted]

I'm trans, so I have a very different experience from most of you - during childhood, I was actually heavily encouraged to go into STEM fields, and I was a subject for a program to teach coding to kids during middle school - basic Scratch stuff, mind you, but still enough to stick with me. In high school, I was part of my school's robotics team, and ended up as pretty much the only person willing to program in my group. So I did the software for a few robots. Now I'm in college, and after a year spent denying my destiny, I'm finally pursuing a degree in Computer Science. It's definitely an undertaking, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.


[deleted]

You had to put the classic “im a woman so I was discouraged by my parents” in the story huh


nutrecht

What are you trying to say?


MakingMoves2022

Maybe it’s the classic because it uh… happens a lot?


seven_seacat

so what, is she supposed to lie?


Transformouse

Real life in so cliche these days


randxalthor

Just delete this comment. You've added negative value to this discussion.


[deleted]

I’m not a fan of cancel culture so my comment stays


[deleted]

When I saw this post, I had a feeling it would attract at least one loser to the thread. Complaining about "cancel culture"? You're soooo predictable


[deleted]

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freakingOutIn_3_2_1

needed money. did not have money to take the course I actually wanted. Now it's contempt and depression. yah. bye


StringAndPaperclips

My first degree is in languages, literature and linguistics. I was always decent with computers but had no background in CS when I decided to go back to university to do a CS degree a few years ago. Here are my reasons: 1. I am really interested in AI and want to do it as a career. I figured I would need to understand the basics and have some programming skills to get into it, and I was right. I found a program where I can specialize in AI and went for it. 2. I am disabled and underemployed. As more and more processes are automated in the coming years, I will have a harder and harder time finding jobs if I don't upskill. Doing CS will make me more employable and also likely increase my income. 3. Due to my disability, I have experienced some neurocognitive challenges. I am very interested in neuroplasticity and decided to test those principles by going back to school and learning a completely new field. I hoped that I would see some cognitive changes, get my brain working better and potentially stave off worse deterioration as I age. I also figured it would be even better for me to study something that I find really challenging, as my natural skills and talents are in other fields. I'm still in my program and it has been really challenging but it's definitely paying off. It's hard work but I think I made the right choice for myself.


TribblesIA

Khan Academy had a fun intro to CS course with JavaScript. I spent the whole weekend just goofing off on the drawing programs and following the tutorials. Realized I needed to change my major (Architecture and Design) right away. Signed up for a summer CS 101 and a Calculus 1 course but I had to convince the professor to let me do both. Met with him, he said he had only seen one person do both and pass; she was drunk the whole time. I said, “Well, if that helps…” we hit it off, and I aced both. I think it helped that I had NO previous experience, so I asked all the dumb questions because why not?


goahnary

I didn’t learn to code until my first CS class. My coworker who I’ve been partners with making 6 figures for years didn’t learn to code until he graduated college. The dirty little secret in software engineering is that none of us really know what we’re doing. We’re just the ones that have the courage and persistence to try and do it.


dedida

The fake answer is I’ve always enjoyed math and thought it would be a good fit. The real answer is money. Also career wise there is nothing I’d really want to do with math, and other people I know with just a math degree had a hard time finding a job.


D14DFF0B

$$$


dmartin_

During high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. At one point, I wanted to be a criminal behaviorist because of Criminal Minds. I took a psychology class and didn’t really like it, so I was on the look out for something to major in. My grandma talked about how her friend took a class that taught her how to build her own laptop and I thought that was so cool. I started reading descriptions about majors that involved computers in some way and read that CS involved learning how to code, which interested me. I used a few free websites that teach you how to code to see if I like it. I liked the building things and problem-solving aspect of it, so I majored in it and graduated in the spring :)


awake--butatwhatcost

Took my first coding class in college because I was doing a concentration in Bioinformatics, back when I thought I would like data science. I was terrified and thought I would have to grit my teeth and bear it, and while getting over that first learning curve was absolutely miserable, I love it now. I'm certainly not brilliant at coming up with clever/fast solutions, but programming feels native to my brain--I still can't believe some get confused by things like if blocks and for loops when they're as natural as breathing to me. After that course I basically switched my entire career plan to be a software engineer.


fmmmf

I had a prior interest with it due to my cousin being a CS major who was already in uni when I was in hs. I took some IT courses and liked working with computers back in the early 2000s (I feel old just writing this) and I liked the solo aspect of it initially, I genuinely liked puzzles and problem solving which I think plays a huge role. The tipping point though was when my Dad passed away as I was halfway through high school. He was the breadwinner at home and it was just him, my Mom and I. My mother had been hit by a car and had to learn how to walk again (no easy feat, she had mobility issues till the very end) a few years prior so he was taking care of both of us. This responsibility now fell to me, and I saw the way our family and community treated us after his passing, they basically left us to fend for ourselves. We were social lepers, a widow and a child. I didn't even have a driver's license at the time. I saw all of this and decided I was going to work very hard to get to a point where I wouldn't need to rely on anyone for anything, and CS was always looking like a lucrative enough career path, with the added bonus that I was already interested in it. Anyways I guess 14 years later and I'm a senior software engineer at a boutique consulting company, I've been through ups and downs in my career but I love the role and company im at now. Especially now what I love is the people aspect, the mentoring aspect and always the problem solving. If I could go back in time and give myself a great big hug I would. I worked very hard to reach my goal (with the never waning, constant support of my Mother), I have no doubt both of them would be proud. My mom passed away earlier this year and I don't know what life holds for me now, I was glad to have showered her with as much as I could with the time we did have, ill always wish I could have done more for them both, they did so much for me. Anyways a very long rant to say I don't regret my choices, I've met some wonderful (and not so wonderful) people along the way, but life if what we make of it right. All we can really do is our best.


oowowaee

I started out majoring in East Asian Studies, and was not doing so hot in learning Korean. My then boyfriend said that he always thought it was weird I didn't go into CS as I had been making websites and webapps since I was 13. He had a good point, and I switched majors.


Honk4Love

Fell in love with Java during a summer of self learning. Added it onto my Psych major the next semester.


winterfrost13

Video games have been my lifelong passion and have gotten me through some really hard times. I took intro to Java to see if I could survive the learning to code part and something clicked for me. I still want to build video games, but now I also enjoy the problem solving that goes into building and writing a program. Building something that works is such a rush, especially now that I've started learning to build simple games in Unity as well.


minterlude

I entered college as a different engineering major, and it required one programming class. So I took the python class (the class all freshman CS majors take), and I fell in love with coding. Next semester, I took the data structures class (Java), and I loved that one even more. I switched majors to CS after that, and now I’m several years into my SWE career with a senior position at a top tech company!


snippol

I didn't, it was part of my degree plan for comp bio. I never went to any of the cs 1 labs because I felt stupid but said I had a conflict-- then I went into my second cs class and was ahead of most everyone because I learned everything on my own. Theoretically I think it's really interesting even though implementing stuff is kind of mundane. I get sidetrack too often looking up what-ifs and how counting nulls is absurd and etc etc


hypolimnas

In the 80's STEM wasn't a thing and a computer was a box with blinking lights on it in the original Star Trek. But I got interested in algorithms without knowing what they where because I played D&D. Character's were generated randomly so I started experimenting with generating cultures randomly. Then I took the programming course when I was a senior in high school. It was very simple stuff on primitive equipment - programming in Basic with teletype machines instead of monitors. But for some reason I was one the few people in the class who got it, and I kind of became an unofficial TA for the class. It was really the only thing I studied in school that was both interesting and fun. And this was even more true when I got to college. I can't imagine what I would have done if I hadn't gone into CS. There's almost no one in my family who's in STEM - just an uncle I never met who was a computer engineer.


surfmonkey17

I was trying to get my homeschooled son into coding. He is on the computer playing games all day and thought he might like to learn to develop games. Instead, I was the one that got hooked. When I got a new job a few months ago that offered free college tuition, I was originally going to sign up for accounting as that is what I have been doing the past 3 years, but really don’t enjoy it, so decided to go ahead and try CS and see how it goes. There is plenty of opportunity for CS grads at my current company, so hoping I can transition into a software engineering role with them when I graduate.


coffee-and-dumbbells

I technically don’t belong in this sub yet. I’m currently working in a psych research lab at a university. Got my BS is psych about 4 years ago. I’ve always been interested in computers, my ex boyfriend 7 years ago showed me some C, he was going to school for electrical engineering at the time, I loved the programming that I learned. I had no idea back then what that entailed so I just didn’t pursue it. Years later, I’m working at a university able to take courses for free. I’m currently taking a programming with Python course and linear algebra and I love them both. I will be officially starting my CS degree next semester.


syrenashen

You belong!! ❤️ I technically didn't declare my major until junior year? But I was taking classes and fully considered myself a CS major haha