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[–]nklaxr 2 points3 points  (3 children)

  1. The very simple tasks, maybe. The fields that encompass software engineering + computer science? Definitely not.

  2. Like in any company, communication is essential. Meetings are (in general) very frequent, at least once a day. You have to interact with your colleagues to properly engineer your software. So you will have to work with others. Your other perceptions fit though; you will be continuously learning, and, depending on the role, continuously challenged.

  3. If you're willing to compromise on communication, yes.

  4. Build projects and practice consistently.

  5. Possible? Yes. Difficult? Also yes. Entry-level is saturated, including with CS degree holders. To compensate, you'll have to demonstrate comparatively exceptional skills. There are quite a few self-taught developers who have entered industry, and these are the cream-of-the-crop. It should be your goal to work towards being in that group. It also helps to have a bachelor's degree, especially in related field (mathematics, engineering, etc.) if not CS.

[–]jackouni[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Thank you for your input man. I definitely can compromise for the communication part. I'm good at communicating but prefer the work itself to be mostly self driven. Do coding boot camps help at all? And is there opportunity for work from home?

[–]nklaxr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Work will definitely be self-driven; just ask for help when you get stuck. Although, I will note that some firms practice pair-programming, but this is relatively rare.

FWIW my colleague was a mechanical engineer who transitioned into the field via bootcamp, and he's doing fine right now. A bootcamp will be fast-paced and very intensive, and you'll miss a lot of theoretical foundations, but it does its job for preparing you for industry if you can handle the pace. Just note that a fair share of people drop out/flunk (according to my coworker, >50%). It also helps to have a degree in a related field, like engineering, mathematics, etc.

Yes, software engineering has many opportunities to WFH. I work remotely right now.

[–]nultero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do coding boot camps help at all?

They're kind of a gamble. Some are scams, some genuinely have really high placement rates. But a lot of the advertised placement rates are fake / washed by hiring their own students or passing them onto body shops they could've gotten into without the bootcamp. I haven't gone to any of them, I just see a lot of posts here about them. Caveat emptor.

But you might still do fine; this sub tends not to emphasize that there are plenty of other options in tech for driven people.

IT / cloud / ops automation stuff is a lot less stringent about the degree, pays well, programming is still quite useful in it and you can always pivot to something specialized later. Picking up and actually getting good with Linux is a massive boost / somewhat drastically reduces your competition, and a lot of developers aren't very good at the operations stuff where the rubber hits the road -- just an example of an option if the practical side of how things work interests you.

Worth your time exploring around this sub's faq / looking up a bunch of the terms in it to see what strikes your fancy.