Ask HN: Switching field to medicines/bio-engineering as a degreeless programmer | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Switching field to medicines/bio-engineering as a degreeless programmer

6 pointsarchibaldJ7 comments

I'm 24 this year. Started coding at 12. Dropped out of school & wrote my first mobile app at 16. Been in a couple of start-ups.

After all these years I realised I'm more interested in living things. I have recently gotten into an (imo, extremely) decent job and finally have the confidence again to think about what I really want to do in life.

I would like to switch fields to medicines or bio-engineering. How difficult will this be? Does having ~8 years of software engineering experience help although I don't have any degrees and formal qualifications?

For anyone who've been there done that, what advises would you give to someone like me? Thanks!

p.s. I can code in coq[1] and I have strong interest in applying automated theorem proving in consciousness research and BCI. And so I want to acquaint myself with medical studies & bio-engineering-specific stuff before I get too old.

[1]: I've done a Ph.D course in programming language theory at 19 when I was vagabonding in a univ with my older sister's ID. And I've also done some work in combinatorics (never got published; just posted on arxiv & shared with friends in academia). I'm currently working on a new proof for an old theorem using coq and hope to get it published.

You are going to have real problems breaking through without at least an undergraduate degree. Or artificially limited even if you land something.

I'm old enough to know that nothing is impossible, but how hard do you want the road to be?

I went back for an undergrad in CS in my mid-20's, pulled my MS in CS in my early 30's, and even after a decade of dev work, it took a lucky break in my personal network to get me into the academic research world in the medical space.

Just eat the time and knock out some type of undergrad - when asked, I usually tell folks to major in X with a minor in CS. The minor in CS is enough signalling for most programming jobs and the major in X with that minor gives you a head start on the competition in X. I think this is generally true for X=math, biology, chemistry, business, etc.

I see! Thanks! Interesting to know that!

Yup, feels like medicines & bio-engineering have such a high barriers to entry (which well makes sense too).

I have been thinking a lot about going back to school for an undergrad. Hope schools in Germany still take none-EU students like myself who are “past their prime” as undergrads. Or maybe I will look around in other places.

Yeah I agree with clusterhacks! I have a background in medicine and it will definitely be more difficult to get anything decent without a formal background in the field. Only because the risks associated are typically higher, so this is almost always a requirement for every decent job/career in that space. I saw that you mentioned you were in a bit of a situation, but I'd say try to do everything you can before eventually deciding whether or not to give up. It'll be difficult, but definitely not impossible. Your previous experiences might help you go through the courses a bit easier

Thanks for the encouraging words! I'm a bit lost at the moment in this regard. And there are still lots of work and life to deal with in the present. The career transition is certainly not going to be smooth and it will involve a lot of work. As much as I'm somewhat looking forwards to it (if it can be realistically executed) I should start sorting things out and optimise my work/life before taking in this challenge.

I've known friends who did Bachelor's and PhD's in bio-engineering, computational biology, etc, worked in the lab one or two years, didn't find the career development aspect of things to be prosperous (this was 2005~2015), and then made the (often smooth, employment-wise) transition into the software industry and went on to become succesful product managers and CTOs.

But I've never known of the reverse.

I imagine for much serious work, you probably have to go back to school and get at least some education in area. Assuming you're american: luckily at 24 going back to school is slightly easier than it would be in past years because of the nonsensical "dependent" requirements the financial aid system. If not, I imagine your education system is generally better for returning back to anyway.

Yeah I was thinking something along the same line. But unfortunately I'm in a messy situation in terms of nationality right now. And the chance of attending local universities is quite improbable due to my current circumstances.

I'm planning to save up to go to schools in EU. At the moment I'm looking at Germany, which appears to have more relaxed rules for high school reports for none-EU students.. And even then I hope I don't get stuck in some kafkaesque bureaucracy.

And yup so at the same time I'm exploring for alternatives. (Still, schools will be amazing if I can get into an inexpensive & decent one!)

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