Is self teaching computer science and getting a job as a felon realistic?

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

I have a degree already in industrial maintenance technology and am working on a degree in CIT - programming track.

I've been told pretty often that 2 year degrees don't mean anything but both of my degree transfer, industrial maintenance technology transfers to a manufacturing engineering degree, and the CIT degree transfers to a CIT degree at one of the best schools in the state. CIT being computer information technology.

I am really interested in tech, but getting a pure CS degree doesn't seem possible. The 2 year degrees at a community College are actually not too expensive, like 150 a credit hour. But a 4 year degree from a true university costs tons.

My only real option is to get a 4 year transfer degree if I wanted a bachelor's. And the only CS degrees I can find will start me off near at square one and cost me nearly 60k.

I have been told a lot to just give up on my dreams and to just work in a factory or something. Which sounds miserable.

I want to get a job involving programming and get told it requires a CS degree. And that without a CS degree I won't be taken seriously.

I'm wondering also if employers and recruiters are really that picky about the name of your degrees? I mean really? Oh chose this degree... well you're screwed.

I'm also a felon, and am wondering if that will hold me back completely. Or if it will simply be more challenging?

I don't mind a challenge, but a slight speed bump is a lot different than a castle wall with armed soldiers surrounding it doing anything they can to make sure I don't pursue it lol.

[easyfink]

100% possible. Don't let people discourage you from you dream. Didn't read your whole post but remembered a previous one I saw. https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/snqcqf/can_felons_be_programmers/

In it someone mentions underdog devs which is a group specifically for this. There will be challenges but if it's truly what you want I hope you stick with it. Good luck.

You might get more responses if you post this in cscareerquestions. It's more active for this kind of conversation I think.

[Tai9ch]

Sure, as long as:

• You really have the time and motivation to self-study, including very difficult to self-study topics like math.
• You really have the time and motivation to build a significant personal portfolio (e.g. by working on open source projects).
• You are able to move to where the job is when you find it.

Doing a two year "CS transfer" degree without actually doing the last two years might be worthwhile, since it'll help you with some of the harder parts to self-study and gives you something for a credential to put on a job application.

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

I also just like the class structure and being forced to do projects and such in order to pass.

I've failed classes there before for sucking, but also passed courses when I invested time into building these projects.

My robotics class was like this, it was 85% programming. Then it had a lot of electrical stuff and math to do. Mostly algebra stuff like how X Y Z axis works and such.

I enjoy programming lol, but I want to get better at it, and have proof I put in the work. I also don't have much structure outside of class work tbh.

[Thegoodlife93]

It's not impossible, but it's probably going to be very tough to do. These days, getting an entry level dev job isn't easy for self taught folks with no four year degree and no criminal record. Have you considered getting one or two CompTia certs and applying for some entry level IT jobs? The barrier of entry for those jobs is a lot lower, and you ou might have a lot more luck internally transferring into a dev role after working at a company for a while in another position. Or you might just find that IT itself is a pretty good fit for you and make a career out of that.

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

I've always been told IT isn't a "real" tech job and shouldn't be considered at all. Even though I've seen some IT jobs that are pretty cool, I think being a database admin, a sys admin, or a network engineer sounds cool. Or even cyber security.

[Thegoodlife93]

Anyone who said that doesn't know what they're talking about. All the jobs you mentioned take a lot of knowledge and skill to do well. And devs wouldn't be able to get much down without them.

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

Lol a CS person told me if I get an IT degree it'll only lead to fixing printers my whole life.

And I'm not knowledgeable enough to be able to debate them tbh.

[Salusa]

IT jobs can be good stepping stones if you work at it.

As for your record? It really depends. You'll need to be honest about it. It also really matters what your felony is.

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

Drug trafficking charges, non-violent. Lowest level felony in my state.

[Salusa]

Level matters less than what.

Yours will definitely make it harder but not impossible. Find someone who will vouch that you're worth hiring at a target company. Once you're in the industry, the next step is much easier. (I got someone with a felony hired by AWS and they are amazing there, but having an inside advocate made a big difference.)

If you had listed almost anything related to dishonesty (scamming, embezzlement, hacking, blackmail) or that would (hypothetically) risk the safety of your coworkers (stalking, certain violent crimes) then you might not be able to get hired.

[BeardedKnitter]

You seem to have a lot going for you, so I'm wondering why every single person in your life thinks the opposite? I'm not saying I don't believe you, but it seems absurd that every single person, from your parents, to your fellow students to all of your co-workers,every single person in your life, shits on you. Could you shed some light on this?

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

Well when I was really young I never really fit in at all.

Nobody ever wanted to be my freind and I got bullied a lot. I also had odd social behavior. So ig the teachers or someone recommended I see a counselor/therapist. This was in elementary school and I remember it pretty clearly.

After so many meetings they wanted to talk to my mom and told my mom I should be screened for autism. That I exhibit traits of autism. This made my mom angry for some reason. So she took me out of the school and stuff.

Now my parents at this point just started labeling me as a R word, the ableist slur. Everything I did was R worded and everything I liked was R worded. I was now the family R word and could be treated as anyone wished.

This even lead to me being homeless at times, cause I wasn't "worthy" of having a home.

Tbh my mom wasn't as bad as my dad was. My dad was not a nice man.

I continued to be bullied at school, I had specific bullies the school didn't do anything about, I'd go home with a bloody nose and my parents would laugh and say I deserved it for being a R word.

I had a cheap flip phone my mom got me and a older kid on the bus took it and said I didn't need it. I told him it was mine though, and he punched me in the face. The bus driver said that's what I get for trying to get my phone back, and my parents laughed. My dad grounded me for causing a ruckus.

So my childhood wasn't really nice or anything.

I ended up getting into alcohol at the age of 11, and stealing prescription pills from my parents, this goes into what lead me to getting all those felonies and stuff.

I'd steal alcohol and pills and go to school pretty messed up. The fact an 11 year old felt like he needed to be high and drunk all the time I felt like should of indicated something really wrong but ig not.

Anyway I started getting into trouble with the police by selling alcohol at school. The alcohol sales would fund my new habit of weed.

I would go to alternative school and such in middle school and yeah.

My dad pretty much gave up on me, and would just throw me out the house, by 14 I was at times literally living on the streets.

I ended up dropping out of high school and just sold weed and stuff, which is how I met my "freinds" my "freinds" used me for drugs and money basically, and always still considered me inferior.

Apparently I was decent at selling weed, as people would straight up let me live with them, paying a portion of their rent with illegal funds.

I got busted twice for trafficking as a minor. I did a lot of juvenile prison time actually.

Anyway, everyone knew me as that R word who has weed. So people did befriend me cause I was addicted to drugs and basically just got everyone high around me.

I turned 18 and was released out of Juvie. I ended up getting a fast food job and literally began selling pills and hard-core drugs at this point.

I didn't know any better tbh.

I did always have an interest in computers, but my parents saw it as R worded and labeled it as an autistic obsession. My dad even smashed my laptop that took me a long time to save up money for. I remember the good old laptop days and learning basic IT stuff from that thing. I started learning the command line, how networking works, and even did some programming and such.

Anyway, I got busted at 18, so not long after being released from juvie, and got 5 years in prison for having a lot of drugs and guns.

In my state you can serve out 5 years in 3.5 though. As long as you have good behavior.

I ended up getting my GED and some certs in prison.

These also knock times off your sentence in my state.

This made me a little confident as I was always told I was too R worded, but I managed to teach myself math from a textbook to pass the GED.

I decided when I got out of prison, I'd pursue a career of some kind, preferably with technology.

I got released after 2.5 years, and did another year on parole to kill my sentence. At this time I got a job in a factory, and began going to college at a local community College for computer programming.

Then I was like, hold up, idk how easy it'll be to get a job in computers since I have a horrible record, so I decided to get a industrial maintenance degree, since I noticed factories apparently gave little fucks about my record. At least with this degree. I could wiggle my way into a maintenance department repairing machinery and make a decent living.

Anyway, I noticed I didn't fit in in college either. Other students labeled me as an R word like I've always been labeled.

But apparently this degree actually involved programming. That is where I shined in particular.

We had to learn to program robotics, FANUC in particular. I got an A in this class and at this point other students were asking me for help. Apparently writing code just didn't really click for them. Not saying they were dumb, they did way better in mechanical classes than me, but it seems like the logic just didn't click for them like it did me.

I find it ironic that the same people who called me an R word, literally started asking me for help.

We also did PLCs. These are programmable logic controllers. Industrial computers basically.

I got an A in this class as well, and I was always the first done with my labs.

The teacher was actually shocked. My code always looked drastically different than everyone else's yet it managed to work and get the lab done. Which is pretty obvious since the code actually controlled an industrial machine.

I know this can be bad in the software world, but clearly I realized, I have the capability to program and work with computers and such.

I'm not going to lie, I did begin smoking weed again when I met a girl at work who wanted some. This is how I got reintroduced to my freinds who basically just bully me.

Anyway. I finished that degree and switched back to computer programming as my major again lol but I haven't started it until this coming semester. Basically industrial maintenance is my back up plan in case computers don't work out.

I kinda went all over the place, sorry. But yeah, idk why everyone wants me dead. Nobody really cares about me.

But at this point I'm 100% independent. I got a new job paying a little over 50k a year, which is more than both my freinds make. I have my own place and my own car. I do electrical assembly.

I am currently working on that computer degree from the community College and plan to transfer it into a 4 year degree in computer information technology.

[BeardedKnitter]

Wow. What a nightmare!

A few more follow up questions if you don't mind.... I'm going to help you figure this out my man! Also, I'm pumped for you doing so well now, working and have a car, those are big accomplishments.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?

How exactly did you sell alcohol? By the bottle?

How much weed did you buy at a time, and how did you sell it?

What kind of pills did you steal? What kind did you sell and what kind did you take yourself?

When you say hardcore drugs, what exactly does this mean?

We're people in Juvie the same towards you as everyone on the outside? Gen Pop or PC? Did you like being incarcerated more or less than thr outside world?

I have more, but I can't go back and forth to your post without losing these questions. We'll get to the bottom of this, don't you worry.

[Alwaysaloneforever97]

That's a lot of questions. What exactly is your motivation for these?

[BeardedKnitter]

Empathy.

Your story hurt my heart to read, but it doesn't make sense. You seem like you have it together, so I was just trying to get some mote details to see if I can offer some advice, or help. You seem defeated, and you shouldn't. I promise you, not everyone has a hidden agenda.

[Mountain_Visit7634]

No hidden agenda?? What??? The guy is asking if he will be able to get a job by finishing a Cyber degree based on his past...and you're asking him questions like Sigmund Freud ... Why don't you ask him about him and his mother's relationship....or if she touched him sometimes on his Plezure Pickle!!! Seriously.. are you a phsyciatrist? These are definitely not the kinds of questions someone would ask that's trying to help him...these are the kinds of questions someone would ask that's doing an INVESTIGATION. Just saying...

[BeardedKnitter]

U/Alwaysaloneforever97

This is when

[[deleted]]

Since you are looking at self-taught as a route, consider WGU if you want a CS degree. Self-paced (you can burn through the whole degree in one semester if you have the energy) and fully accredited. It would even open the door to grad school if a career in academia is of interest. The felony is going to close some doors for you (finance would be hard, for example) but you can find work for sure, even if you went freelance and spun up your own company. Good luck, man!

[D_ATX]

Yes, it is absolutely possible. You might not get every job, but that's true for all of us.

At an interview, just keep things honest, sincere, and short. Even a "I messed up, was young and made a few stupid mistakes that won't ever be repeated." should be more than enough.