New to the software industry

Hey.

I've been blue collar for the last 13 years, with my final stop as a manufacturing engineer (which is basically a pseudo-engineer). I'm approx. 1.5 months away from a cs degree and am entering the software industry without any real experience.

I got hired, somehow, as a security engineer and start Monday...but I'm freaking the fuck out! I'm used to the manufacturing setting, I know how it works and how to conduct myself inside it. The IT world is completely foreign to me and I have no idea what to expect.

What is it like?

Pathetic self bump

What made you decide to move to the IT industry?

>security engineer
>no experience

Let them teach you. Ask questions. After your first couple of days, you should be googling and figuring out the stuff they show you on your own.

It's hard to know what to tell you. It depends on what they were looking for in the job posting and the interview.

If it's a "security engineer who writes cryptography code", you should really GTFO. You shouldn't be doing that without experience and failing at it will hurt you a lot without prior experience.

You likely haven't fooled anyone though. You can do the work if you made it past the interview. A lot of places give as much as 6 months to ramp up so take advantage of it.

I hated the manufacturing industry, enjoyed writing code, and played in ctfs in my free time. I discovered that hacking could be a profession so I started down that path.

did u actually went back to school for that CS degree?

Say "hi" and smile. Small social messups aren't looked upon badly. In this industry, mild autism is the norm.

Just don't be noisy (especially if you're in an open-office environment) and you should be fine

No crypto, it's more application security, so bug hunting. I don't have ZERO experience, just no professional experience.

I plan on saying nothing and soaking in EVERYTHING.

Thanks for the advise

Yes. I had an associates but realized I would be stuck where I was at without at least a bachelors

Lol thanks. I'm a bit of an introvert myself.

how long was the CS degree? 2 years?

No, it was the whole 4 years. Literally none of my associates transferred because it had been so long

ok so while you were studying, were you also working part-time?

Yes, well let me clarify: I'm almost done with a traditional 4 year bachelors degree, which has taken me 6 years to get, because I worked full time through it all

should have stayed in manufacturing

Can't man, it's killing my will to live

You have nothing to be afraid of. In the same way that your manufacturing eng degree prepared you for the job, your CS degree has done the same, assuming you learned things in class.

>it's killing my will to live
If you think that IT/CS is less soul-crushing than engineering, then boy have I got news for you. Please do not cut off all your engineering contacts, as you may be calling them in a few years. Tell those around you that you are leaving for a "break" of a few years, not "leaving for good".

I hope so. This is the first job that I've felt unprepared for.

In the last five years at my manufacturing company:

>12 month "lean rollout"
>7 one week furloughs
>5 layoffs, with no back-fill once margins recovered
>2 departments offshored
>4 departments outsourced
>117% healthcare cost increase
>permanent suspension of all company sponsored employees parties (to include retirements)
>ever heard of Teamcenter? It's a fucking nightmare
>near constant SAP issues

I can't fathom it being worse than where I'm at. Manufacturing is dying, it's only a matter of time. I chose a career path that will at least last until I retire.

>lean rollout
Don't trigger me

Equifax paying you good?

Just do not get your hopes up too high. From what I see on TV/movies, the SV CS/IT startup has this nice stereotype going for it where everyone goes to work on a scooter, slides down to a ballpit, drinks some free green soup in a cup, sits on a beanie chair and laughs with 5 others in a "meeting", everyone votes to pick a colour from a choice of 3 colours, and that is your work done for that week.

Perhaps you know the above in an exaggeration, but it does shift your expectations. You think that if the IT/CS jobs are so nice on TV, there must be at least a bit of truth to it, right?

In reality, CS/IT is gruelling work. You get supervised by people who less than you: Getting supervised by an engineer is like winning a lottery. Your deadlines are unrealistic, and working till midnight or even overnight several days in a row, several weeks in a row... is common. Your teammates can vary widely in skill level, to the point that getting a new co-worker is often a nightmare situation where you end up spending more time teaching the co-worker than actually working. Your clients often have no idea what they want, changing requirements willy-nilly, and heaven help your if your project manager is stupid enough to accept a job without a set-in-stone requirements list. 20% of your work is programming, 80% is debugging, and about 80% of those bugs are caused by someone else. You are basically walking around a park collecting other people's dog poop and calling yourself a "park manager".

HR sees you as a monkey, and is willing to hire a cheaper monkey to replace you whenever possible. The company sees your department as a department of monkeys, and is willing to shut you down if they can temporarily hire a cheaper department of monkeys from overseas.

So please do not get your hopes up too high. You might get lucky, and I hope you do, but so very few us get to have fun in CS/IT.

Goddamn user...

I might just skip Monday

Kekles

Do not do anything rash, CS/IT still has some positives, but they take time. If manuf eng is really dying, IT is not. After ~10-15 years of experience in IT, and assuming you can look people in the eye and not stutter too badly when speaking, you can be the head of department or even start your own business. Then, you will be much happier, as you will be able to set your own work, with realistic time goals and realistic features, instead of some business-degree-holder who thinks that 9 women can conceive and birth a baby in a single month.

Jesus man, i'm almost wanting to change my degree halfway.

I'm assuming your american?

Will going to grad school and getting a corporate research position save me from this drudgery?

anymore stories like this?