Breh makes 500k as a self taught software Engineer

[8WON6]

damn, sounds like multiple dudes in here make $500K a year themselves. Alot of nikkas in here shytting on other men for not attaining that salary in here. I didn't know the coli was full of self-taught millionaires. I assume the people that are using this video to wag their finger at other black men are on dudes level. Yall better than me.

 

[desjardins]

Dude literally posted his tax return so he’s not capping.
It’s possible if you get into a big company, get RSUs, and the stock does well. A $250k salary can turn to $400k+ with ease if the stocks double over the 4 yr period
I think the point of him sharing is to show that it’s POSSIBLE. he really got it from the mud in a non traditional way and is now sharing information and opportunity with other black people. Dude got me an interview at a big company, he ain’t some bullshytter just trying get views. He really out here networking and trying help brehs

 

[JT-Money]

Damn


As for the topic, it seems like the easiest sub discipline of programming to get into without a degree is the UI related stuff (ie strictly the phone apps and browser related code) so the competition will be crazy high on that part.

All of the stuff that makes the app actually smart will probably be relegated to computer science/engineering grads so the talent pool will be a lot smaller. Might as well get that degree to keep all of those doors open.

But then again at $500k you can retire early if you invest smart. It's like telling Kobe to get a degree

I would do web development since it's virtually future proof for now.

This dude also says forgo college especially if older.

 

[Scottie Ca$h]

Currently looking for a career change. Where should I get started if I'm interested in the software engineer route?

 

[Marci-Senpai]

Subs cause I got a programming degree…I will watch later

 

[Spatial Paradox]

Personally I don't think there's a right or wrong answer and my advice would be tailored to the individual I'm talking to. If it's a young 16,17,18,19 year old asking my advice would probably be to go to the college. And the degree wouldn't even be the number one reason. College can be an invaluable experience for the networking, connections, relationships and memories you make that just won't happen in another environment. And to that I'd even tell them don't get a computer science degree or possibly not any science/eng degree at all. Just get whatever easy 3-4 year degree you can get. Alot of these companies don't even care what degree you get so long as you have one especially if you went to a decent name brand school. Learn all the programming and tech shyt on the side on your own or via bootcamp during summers. A lot of these programming classes are way behind what the current industry is looking for and they can be difficult just for the sake of being difficult. Maybe take a few of the classes just to put on your transcript. However this advice would change if their dream is to work at a FAANG. If your ultimate goal is to work for one of those then yeah the typical comp sci is probably going to be your best route. But if you just trying to make a bag especially working in govt just having some skills is enough.

Now if I'm talking to someone in their late 20's or 30's and they're wondering whether to go to college I might advice against it. Or at least not initially. Once they get a job if they want to get that degree overtime to eventually have that stamp then go for it.

Well yeah, ultimately, the best approach for someone trying to get their first job as a software engineer will depend on their specific situation. And I agree that for someone in their late 20's/early 30's, other options might be more attractive than getting a CS degree.

But in a general sense, it's easier to get your foot in the door with a CS degree than it is without. That's all I was getting at.

A few posters have mentioned that people trying to break into the field need to be realistic about their salary expectations for their first job. And generally speaking, that's true. But the exception here is FAANG companies that offer internships that can become full time roles. Those internships are usually only available to people in CS programs. Playing your cards right in school and you can walk into a $180k - $200k+ full time role right after college. And those are the same companies that are paying senior engineers like breh in the OP half a million in total comp.

I'm an iOS software engineer with a non-CS degree and I self-taught myself iOS development. Trust me when I say it's a lot easier to get your foot in the door if you have or are going for a CS degree. It's doable, but it's more difficult and you will likely not hit six figures for your first job. And even in my case, I don't have a CS degree, but I do have a CS background, so I was already familiar with all of the CS concepts that I'd need to know to continue teaching myself and working to get that first job.

 

[duckbutta]

This is false and I’m in IT with a comp sci degree…it’s ultimately about selling yourself and networking, if you can learn on your own, post projects you’re working on and worked on, and build up a network of like minded people in the industry you’re trying to get into via social media, create a impressive resume and treat interviewing like a 9-5, you’ll land. A traditional college gives you access to all this, and internships but many people have the mentality that allows them to do this without the guidelines of a college.

I mean yeah you will land a job but the chances of you doing so is less than a person with a degree and its already hard for the person who landed the degree.

As a hiring manager, if I want to hire a "self taught" dev or engineer the first thing I have to do is straight up tell the HR rep working the opening that is what I want. I have to directly tell them "send me resumes where people mention they are self taught" or "send me resumes for people who don't have a degree". Because if I don't say it they flat out won't do it. If I don't mention 4 year degrees at all they are just going to default to only sending resumes with the qualifications and the degrees. So the chances of a "self taught" person resume getting to me period is almost non existent unless I directly ask for it. And why would I directly ask for it?

The other option is that I am going to go look myself. I'm going to go to github or dev.to and be like "let me find some projects people are working on to see about hiring someone who is "self taught". Why would I do this, when I can just write down exactly what I am looking for and send an email to HR saying "send me resumes that look like this."

Not to discourage "self taught" people but there seems to be this movement to tell people they can land a job this way....and yeah you can...but you can also build your own wooden stove and heat all your food with chopped wood...or you could just go buy a microwave...

I wish the self taught people who never found a job posted youtube videos to so people can see just how much the deck is stacked against you.

 

[Neo. The Only. The One.]

I’m still on Day 2 of 100 days of code

You too much of a fool to get through it. Whoever that was that was discouraging yall to do it, he was talking about brehs like you

 

[Neo. The Only. The One.]

This is one of the hardest concepts I have had to learn for the past 2-3 years, and I am still not a master at it. 50% of my time studying for certs was more dedicated to learning how to self-learn in a efficient way.

-It is hard when you don't have any structure
-no professor to go to or classmates to help you when you get stuck
-spending thousands of hours on Google for one topic,
-too many resources to pick from that you have no clear direction,
-being in tutorial hell,
-lack of motivation & discipline,
-time management etc.

A degree helps with most of the things above, so it makes your life easier. You still don't really need one though unless you shooting for upper level supervisory roles.

You gotta expand your network, brotha. I built up a whole network of ppl, a village if you will, of ppl that I could go to for assistance. And then I pay it forward by helping others. And I did all this just by reaching out to other folks and chopping it up with them. Programming is a field where most ppl wanna help other ppl. If for no other reason, than that it helps them by encountering more problems to solve (programming at its core is nothing but solving problems).

 

[Thanos]

Not to discourage "self taught" people but there seems to be this movement to tell people they can land a job this way....and yeah you can...but you can also build your own wooden stove and heat all your food with chopped wood...or you could just go buy a microwave...

I wish the self taught people who never found a job posted youtube videos to so people can see just how much the deck is stacked against you.

I'm siding w/ actually getting a degree, a lot of people get into here and realize it's not for them and nothing else to fall back on since it's all they doing web development. A lot of workers lost during transfer to Jr->Mid. And to your 2nd, that's not gonna get views on youtube,

 

[SuaveyBoi115]

Only if I had the passion for this

 

[Blessings]

Been promoting Blind, and Leetcode
Anonymous Professional Network
LeetCode - The World's Leading Online Programming Learning Platform

I considered making the switch from consulting to programming...sticking it out with consulting

 

[StretfordRed]

Currently looking for a career change. Where should I get started if I'm interested in the software engineer route?

You’ll need to figure that out yourself.

I’d say go to your favourite company, look at
Their jobs then narrow down on their development openings and see the languages they use, then go from there and Google “starting Python/C/Swift” etc.

But TBH if you’re not in tech at all learn Linux casually, as large devops companies are built from Unix.

But it’s a massive, massive field if you don’t have an initial direction.

 

[Oldschooler]

fukk what you saying dawg. Brehs should educate and elevate themselves higher.

Just look at the bolded.... "most of y'all won't" why so much negativity and doubt? I mean being realistic is one thing but then going on to set brehs expectations so low... it's discouraging. And false too.

Then I check your post history: https://www.thecoli.com/search/31367976/ and you're in other similar threads with the same bs... and even shytting on crypto which legit made brehs alot of money.

You're a boomer in every sense of the word.

If you're old enough to remember the dot com bubble then you're just old.
Times have changed, demand has changed.

What are you talking about breh if you read my post history I'm all for education and an advocate for free education actually. I have a master degree in structural engineering specializing in linear infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, sewers). I work in construction management now because the liability taken on as an engineer just wasn't worth the money you got paid. I saw a saturation and a race to the bottom in the traditional engineering fields. I was competing against habibi for pennies on the dollar. Most design at big firms got outsourced to latin america. I was the PM just overlooking at designs i had almost no control over. There was a pressure culture at big consulting firms to just give the okay. As a black man in that space it was just a matter of time before i was going to get railroaded. I did think hard about making a progression into tech, but i just never had that passion in it.

Anyways, a lot of my close friends went on to become software engineers, back in the early 2000s. I know a breh that made career switch too from traditional engineering (civil) to becoming tech recruiter and eventually software engineer. Everyone's story is different some made very good money...some burned out because that's the culture and some became dinosaurs because again it's one of the few professions where you are expected to know and be the best at the latest tech. There's no other profession like it because tech moves too fast. I would argue it's a profession where the career progression triangle is upside down.... you're at the top in your younger years, then you have to make an exit strategy because it's natural as you get older you stop learning. I'm not trying to discourage nobody I'm just saying to think about what you're getting into. If you have the passion and motivation you will be successful.

 

[Juliano Soprano]

I mean yeah you will land a job but the chances of you doing so is less than a person with a degree and its already hard for the person who landed the degree.

As a hiring manager, if I want to hire a "self taught" dev or engineer the first thing I have to do is straight up tell the HR rep working the opening that is what I want. I have to directly tell them "send me resumes where people mention they are self taught" or "send me resumes for people who don't have a degree". Because if I don't say it they flat out won't do it. If I don't mention 4 year degrees at all they are just going to default to only sending resumes with the qualifications and the degrees. So the chances of a "self taught" person resume getting to me period is almost non existent unless I directly ask for it. And why would I directly ask for it?

The other option is that I am going to go look myself. I'm going to go to github or dev.to and be like "let me find some projects people are working on to see about hiring someone who is "self taught". Why would I do this, when I can just write down exactly what I am looking for and send an email to HR saying "send me resumes that look like this."

Not to discourage "self taught" people but there seems to be this movement to tell people they can land a job this way....and yeah you can...but you can also build your own wooden stove and heat all your food with chopped wood...or you could just go buy a microwave...

I wish the self taught people who never found a job posted youtube videos to so people can see just how much the deck is stacked against you.

People getting into IT with no degree has been a thing since the 90s breh. I’ve been on both sides, I went to college after my tech career took off.

I started out in tech without a degree, first cert was A+ and started my own lil tech support business, then got on as a IT contractor, company had me doing help desk, tech support and network support. At that job I met my first mentor, black guy who was a senior database developer working full time for the company I was contracting at, he’s the one that originally told me the advice I tell everyone and what I said in this thread, you know why? The breh had an associates degree in Arts (not gonna say exactly what it was cuz he could probably be identified, that’s how bs his degree was lol) and was working corporate IT, he blogged when blogging was the only real medium. I chose to go back to school cuz I could and I knew with my drive and the structure of a college, I would make it, I went to a community college then transferred to a 4 year and did everything I said in my responses on this thread and had my full time job before I even graduated. Could I have got there without college? Yeah, it would’ve took waaay more selling of myself though, way more finding like minded people that are right next to you in college classes, way more career building when the career center is right there for you in college, way more self taught projects when projects are built into the classes etc.

Hopefully my posts didn’t come off like it was easy to get into tech without a degree cuz it’s not, it’s a constant grind until you land, me grinding the first couple years without one is what made college so easy to navigate for me…but with the amount of people in tech without a degree or straight up bullshyt degree or degree that’s not even remotely IT, you can’t say it’s like making a wooden stove