Physicist/applied mathematician trying to switch to SE. Is it possible?

Career Advice
1

Hi peeps,

I am trying to shift my career from academia to software engineering and would apprecite your advice about some concerns I’ve been having due to a high number of rejections.

I’m coming from an academic background of astrophysics and applied maths, currently nearing the end of my contract as a postdoctoral researcher. Throughout my uni years as well as my current role I’ve always just loved coding and done a good deal of it over the years and have experience coding in c++, python, fortran, bash and thought that would be enough to kick off a career in SE. But so far I’ve got nothing but rejections.

I should mention that I live in Australia which presumably has its own recruitment requirements potentially at odds with other places. Now my questions are:
1. am I trippin trying to pull off a mission impossible here and should go back to academia?
2. What certificates/qualifications should I get to increase my chances as a full stack developer?
3. What other programming languages should I add to my arsenal?
4. What other resources do you recommend?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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There exist Research Software Engineer roles if you are interested in a combination of the skills, though I’m not sure what the RSE community is Aus looks like in compared to the US and Europe.

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  • There are plenty of opportunities in IT ( literally 100+ various kinds of roles available )

  • I would suggest watch good number of YT videos to understand various kinds of roles available and which one you would love to work till say 50

  • Also check JD from popular tech jobs websites in Australia and make note of skill set needed

  • Do you have sufficient quantity and quality of projects on GitHub to showcase ? If not, then it is very difficult to get 1st job

  • You can also think of applying in Japan, SK, Singapore, Malaysia etc to get that 1st job, later you can move back to your own country

All the very best

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4

did you see yesterday’s presentation from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ? I feel you should stick to “Python” itself and make career into real world AI

Do google “nvidia cosmos github” and how this is going to help car companies to turn their dumb car into autonomous vehicle ?

This is really amazing project they are working on which can be make roads across globe much safer while saving precious human lives.

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If you want to make best use of NVIDIA hardware, you’ll want to know C++

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Thanks Vikram I appreciate the responses. Yea that does sound like an exciting project for sure. In your experience, are coding bootcamps/coursera certs/other certs worth the money or should I just stick to expanding the range of my github projects?

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Yea I think so too. Most serious ML computations have already been shifted towards using gpus anyway.

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  • I would suggest catch hold of like minded people who are in learning phase and serious about getting job in next 6 - 12 months, start building projects together.

  • You can find great team with FCC community, as well checkout Frontend Mentor community as well. I’ve benefited from both these amazing communities.

  • Do start going to local meetups in your city / online etc just to expand your network

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GPUs are pretty heavily used in most computation intensive workflows these days for sure.

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Hi

Transitioning from the existing educational background and career path is the most courageous step.

While researching deep about the above mentioned concern. I have found few resources that might suggest the clear path , the skillset and future opportunities aasociated with the SE -

Thanks!

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Thanks Vikram, all great ideas!

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