Name: Video recording for Getting into tech without a Computer Science degree - Codementor Events
Uploaded: 2021-11-17
Description: A microbiologist by training, Anita will share her personal journey on becoming a front-end developer and provide some resources to help you enter into the tech industry.


## About the talk

“Tech” nowadays plays a central role or a crucial supporting role in almost every industry. As such, learning how to get into the tech industry without a technical background is more relevant today than ever. We'll cover how you can use computer science courses and self learning to become a developer.
  
### This talk will cover
  
  - The idea that having a computer science degree is a must to get started in tech.
  - How Anita, a microbiologist by training, successfully transitioned into tech as a front-end developer and advocate.
  - Why your educational background is secondary to you entering tech.
  - The valuable resources that can help you enter into the tech industry.


non-technical events about getting a job like getting hired by FAANG

Job Search

### Is a computer science degree useless?
A lot of people say it’s not possible to get into the tech ecosystem without a computer science degree. A few years back, most of the job descriptions required a computer science degree and something like 5+ years of experience. But overtime, employers have realized that it’s not about how many years you’ve spent in school learning about coding, or a certificate, but how much experience you actually have with coding over time. 


That is not to say that computer science degrees are utterly useless, you can do so much with one, but there are also so many people without a computer science degree that are doing so well and are at the peak of their careers. Computer science degrees are great but they are not a primary requirement for starting a career path in tech. 


### What is open source and how it helped me?
I got into a community and started contributing to open source, and once I got started I started to get a hang of things. I know at least HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so if anyone questions me, I can at least defend myself by saying I can build a landing page. I had a lot of imposter syndrome, and imposter syndrome never really goes away. Up to this point I still feel it sneaking up on me, but ultimately my contribution to open source communities is what helped me land my job as a developer advocate. My role hasn’t stopped me from advocating for open source and I continue to write as a technical writer. In my current role, I’m learning a lot about Kubernetes and more about tech. 


### What to expect diving into the tech ecosystem
It is rosy when the return starts coming in, but there are so many other things that come with it. For instance, it’s time consuming — you’ll spend most of your time researching on Google and reaching out to people. It does get overwhelming, but this is an ecosystem with so much to learn that you’ve probably never heard of, and the more you learn the more you realize there’s a vast void waiting for you to fill up with knowledge. 


It is an ever evolving ecosystem so you’ll always be learning new things in tech. Last month I learned so much about Kubernetes, but this month I’m learning completely new things about Kubernetes again. You don’t just stick to a particular few, because if you want to stay relevant in this ecosystem, you have to keep evolving with the trends. With that said, it’s also life changing. You get to meet tons of people and share your experience with others from around the world. 


### How do I get started in tech? What career path should I choose?
The first thing is to do your research and do your finding. What exactly about programming do you want to know? Whatever you do, just focus on learning the basics. It doesn’t matter if you want to be on the code end, documentation end, design end, or analysis end, there are many parts in this vast tech ecosystem you can explore.


If you want to go into programming, always look at different programming languages to see what you’re interested in, where your strengths lie, and which area you want to go deeper into. There will always be new programming languages coming your way, so don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged, just look at which one you want to get the basics down and focus on that. 


Also, understand the career paths for each programming language for when you have to start doing job searches. For instance, if you want to focus on Python, you’ll find a couple of different career paths. Same with JavaScript — you can be a front-end developer or you can jump to the back-end and focus more on Node.js. Whichever programming language you learn, you can dive into any ecosystem and areas once you’ve gotten the basics down. The next thing to do is to look at different career paths in areas like web development, database, design, administration, marketing & relations, and cybersecurity, and decide what you’re most interested in.


![Decide your preferred path in tech](https://ucarecdn.com/0ef1e94a-caaf-4646-a299-c55f3df7f97d/)




If you're still a student learning, you can use some time outside of your school work to do research, work on side projects, and contribute to open source to get you into the doors of tech. Even if your degree has nothing to do with computer science, you can still get into tech by working on projects or pivoting your school projects to fit the tech ecosystem.

Front-end developer, technical writer, public speaker, and open-source advocate

Anita Ihuman

GitHub

Twitter

Linkedin

A microbiologist by training, Anita will share her personal journey on becoming a front-end developer and provide some resources to help you enter into the tech industry.

Video recording for: Getting into tech without a Computer Science degree

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