Entry into software development

[Sumeet2005]

Hi everyone.

I'm looking for some advice to guide me to future projects.
I'm a medical doctor for the last 9 years with six of those training to be an orthopaedic specialist. Unfortunately it is difficult to get into a registrar post ( to write the final exams to become a specialist) due to many different circumstances in our beloved country. As a result of this I have found myself not doing any medical studying or making major progress in the medical field and thereby getting quite frustrated in my current position.

Based on the pandemic and the way that technology has influenced our lives particularly in the last few months i am toying with the idea of studying something along the lines of software development. I feel like there is currently a large gap between the medical and technological sectors and i think that the future of medicine needs to be in line with the 4th industrial revolution.

I have zero software or coding knowledge so looking for a part time study program which will cover the basics to software development.

My options are a:
BSc in computer science however I feel like this might too high tech as I'm probably not going to be using it as my primary degree.

A higher diploma in software developers from a private training institution eg ctu training solutions .

Doing different short courses in different programming methods ( will not have any structured learning).

Hopefully some of you who are familiar with the tech sector can help guide me in this decision.

Thank you

 

[Spacerat]

Not everyone will be a good programmer. Just how it is. If I were you I would skill up to the point where I understand tech and then partner with highly technical skilled ppl or programmers to provide solutions to the medical field, leveraging your expertise. E.g. high-tech prostheses using high tech materials or robotics to think of one off-hand. Tech-assisted rehab etc
Skilling up to a decent level will take a good amount of time. Use what you got and combine it with others’ skills. Sum of the parts and all that

 

[|tera|]

Doctor = Long and happy life with fun to be had and working hard.
Development = Long road to reach success with years of learning and keeping up to date.

Without any further questioning I would go the medical route.

If you don't want to be a doctor or medical professional then so be it. Replacing a love you have for practicing medicine for a job you have to learn from scratch and years of commitment without getting a good salary is just silly.

Sure, some devs coin it. Others don't however. They have far worse obstacles to face than you have right now.

 

[B-1]

I've always been if the opinion that if you want to be a programmer you just become a programmer and learn as you go. The certification comes secondary to the passion for programming. There is plenty of online material and courses you can use to learn how to do things as you learn thought.

I like to recommend this free course for people that want to find out if they want to be a programmer:

CS50: Introduction to Computer Science

An introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming.

online-learning.harvard.edu

Coursera.org and udemy.com are also good places for more formal style training.

 

[Sumeet2005]

Doctor = Long and happy life with fun to be had and working hard.
Development = Long road to reach success with years of learning and keeping up to date.

Without any further questioning I would go the medical route.

If you don't want to be a doctor or medical professional then so be it. Replacing a love you have for practicing medicine for a job you have to learn from scratch and years of commitment without getting a good salary is just silly.

Sure, some devs coin it. Others don't however. They have far worse obstacles to face than you have right now.

I'm not giving up on medicine. I still want to practice medicine for the foreseeable future. Just looking to get a broader skill to adjunct my medical career, a sort of side hustle so to speak so that when technology and medicine intertwine I'm not stuck being a tech noob.

 

[Sumeet2005]

I've always been if the opinion that if you want to be a programmer you just become a programmer and learn as you go. The certification comes secondary to the passion for programming. There is plenty of online material and courses you can use to learn how to do things as you learn thought.

I like to recommend this free course for people that want to find out if they want to be a programmer:

CS50: Introduction to Computer Science

An introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming.

online-learning.harvard.edu

Coursera.org and udemy.com are also good places for more formal style training.

Thanks I will try this before I make any rushed decisions.

 

[Sumeet2005]

Doctor = Long and happy life with fun to be had and working hard.
Development = Long road to reach success with years of learning and keeping up to date.

Seems like developers and doctors have that in common. Unfortunately practicing medicine is not as glamorous as series makes it out to be, particularly in the public sector.

 

[|tera|]

I'm not giving up on medicine. I still want to practice medicine for the foreseeable future. Just looking to get a broader skill to adjunct my medical career, a sort of side hustle so to speak so that when technology and medicine intertwine I'm not stuck being a tech noob.

Tech and medicine is already intertwined.
Doctors usually use the tech and the development of software and manufacturing of components are done at specific facilities

Doctor = Long and happy life with fun to be had and working hard.
Development = Long road to reach success with years of learning and keeping up to date.

Seems like developers and doctors have that in common. Unfortunately practicing medicine is not as glamorous as series makes it out to be, particularly in the public sector.

I know that Doctors don't have a luxurious work life. They have more financial room to live in luxury though. It's just my opinion.

I've met many Doctors in my life. Even spent a few months in rehab with a Doctor. He was also a patient like me. He was just a bit more human than most are.

I've met awesome Doctors and ******* Doctors. The same could be said for any people, irrespective of career choices.

If you had to choose a side hustle I still suggest you do something you love doing. It won't have much meaning if you are only doing it due to FOMO or having a backup.

 

[cguy]

I've always been if the opinion that if you want to be a programmer you just become a programmer and learn as you go. The certification comes secondary to the passion for programming. There is plenty of online material and courses you can use to learn how to do things as you learn thought.

I like to recommend this free course for people that want to find out if they want to be a programmer:

CS50: Introduction to Computer Science

An introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming.

online-learning.harvard.edu

Coursera.org and udemy.com are also good places for more formal style training.

@OP: While I take the view that learning ad hoc as one goes (vs say a BSc), is usually self-limiting, I do agree that completing one of these online courses like the one suggested is a good first step. You’ll learn something - either that you don’t really like programming, or some useful new skills. If you really enjoy it and want to start a BSc, then doing this will simply make the first course a bit easier.

 

[charlieharper]

Honestly, you have your medical degree and stuff, don't go waste time and money by studying CS for 3 years.
I know people who have honours and masters in CS, yet doesn't know how to ship an idea from start to finish, even less in the latest tech, which is obviously what you want to do.

Having a CS Degree is kinda like having a degree in Music.... You're going to know everything about music, but it's not going to make you a good musician.

Just jump in and learn to code by googling, youtubing and maybe use Udemy.
Honestly no better way of learning.

About 5 years ago I learnt the foundation of (Web) development over at https://www.freecodecamp.org/ while I was studying Business at Uni.
I was on Free Code Camp for about a month, till I thought I knew enough and jumped onto Python + Django and went down that rabbit hole and I'm now building stuff for a few companies, startups and my own side projects.

I think Web dev is a solid place to start to learn the foundations of how software in general works, eg dealing with a database, difference between backend and frontend logic, etc, with minimal entry barriers.

DM me if you have questions.

Not required, but later on getting a Mac or computer running Linux will make life much easier, considering about 90% of documentation focuses on Unix based operating systems.

 

[cguy]

Honestly, you have your medical degree and stuff, don't go waste time and money by studying CS for 3 years.
I know people who have honours and masters in CS, yet doesn't know how to ship an idea from start to finish, even less in the latest tech, which is obviously what you want to do.

I do agree with OP being careful not to waste time, and depending on what they want to do a degree may not be necessary. @Sumeet2005, what do you want to do? Make web pages or look into some things like medical imaging, or augmented reality medicine? This would really determine the best way to proceed.

The second part about "knowing" people with masters degrees who can't ship an idea, is an awful argument.

Having a CS Degree is kinda like having a degree in Music.... You're going to know everything about music, but it's not going to make you a good musician.

This really doesn't doesn't apply. The vast majority of great developers have (usually advanced) degrees.

 

[charlieharper]

The second part about "knowing" people with masters degrees who can't ship an idea, is an awful argument.
This really doesn't doesn't apply. The vast majority of great developers have (usually advanced) degrees.

It absolutely does apply... You can read every book in the world about music (coding), but the best musician (coder) will be the one who spends most their time in front of the piano (code editor), practicing to play songs (ship an idea).

Or put it this way, trust a person who's read every single book about flying to take you on a flight.... or a person who's flown a plane hundreds of times, but haven't read a single book?

My point is, if you're eager to keep learning, willing to spend hours in front of a screen and passionate about building stuff (developing) using the tool that is code in a language of your choice, you'll become hooked and the more you enjoy it the better you will become really quickly.

 

[cguy]

It absolutely does apply... You can read every book in the world about music (coding), but the best musician (coder) will be the one who spends most their time in front of the piano (code editor), practicing to play songs (ship an idea).

No - you can spend your entire life building web pages, and you won't even know where to start building something like Google search.

Or put it this way, trust a person who's read every single book about flying to take you on a flight.... or a person who's flown a plane hundreds of times, but haven't read a single book?

That analogy is nonsensical, you don’t just read books in a degree. When I fly commercial, I would prefer to trust the person who has read 20 books on flying, successfully completed certified flight exams and training, and has logged 1000 hours flying commercial airliners, over someone who has spent 10000 hours in a Cessna 172 with no formal training, yes. If I was going somewhere by Cessna 172, then perhaps I would prefer the Cessna 172 pilot - Cessna 172's aren't the only planes in the world though.

My point is, if you're eager to keep learning, willing to spend hours in front of a screen and passionate about building stuff (developing) using the tool that is code in a language of your choice, you'll become hooked and the more you enjoy it the better you will become really quickly.

I agree with this, but one must realize that depending on what one wants to develop, the optimal path is different, and not just about screen time.

 

[charlieharper]

No - you can spend your entire life building web pages, and you won't even know where to start building something like Google search.

Well, let's be real... nobody will 'simply' be rebuilding a Google search, at least to where it is today - Google is the product of 23 years of constant iteration.
But to build a version of how Google was 23 years ago, I think most full stack devs today would be able to hack together a version with similar functionality, the hardest part perhaps the web crawler.

Anyway, the previous replies is just my opinion, based on what I've read, people I know, etc, didn't mean to debate.

I've spent the last 2 years (pre covid) working from coworking spaces in Thailand, Malaysia, etc and you meet a lot of successful (and struggling) developers, all with completely different backgrounds, etc.

Two of the most successful developers I met and became friends with, happens to be a Business major and a Music major, who solo developed SaaS businesses generating over seven figures (USD) per year and never touched a CS course, all self taught...
I just think they got where they are today is because their passion and drive is absolutely through the roof and not how they they learnt to develop.

peace

 

[cguy]

Well, let's be real... nobody will 'simply' be rebuilding a Google search, at least to where it is today - Google is the product of 23 years of constant iteration.
But to build a version of how Google was 23 years ago, I think most full stack devs today would be able to hack together a version with similar functionality, the hardest part perhaps the web crawler.

I meant 23 years ago, and no, there’s just no conceivable way they would be able to do it. The hardest part is the page ranking algorithm and NLP.

Then in today’s scenario there are hundreds of people working on the core search algorithm and infrastructure daily, improving it. Once again, none of them are full stack devs.

Anyway, the previous replies is just my opinion, based on what I've read, people I know, etc, didn't mean to debate.

I've spent the last 2 years (pre covid) working from coworking spaces in Thailand, Malaysia, etc and you meet a lot of successful (and struggling) developers, all with completely different backgrounds, etc.

Two of the most successful developers I met and became friends with, happens to be a Business major and a Music major, who solo developed SaaS businesses generating over seven figures (USD) per year and never touched a CS course, all self taught...
I just think they got where they are today is because their passion and drive is absolutely through the roof and not how they they learnt to develop.

peace

There’s nothing wrong with being self-taught, although by definition, the vast majority of self-taught devs end up in exactly those areas that are the easiest to self-teach. This tends to self-limit success (they saturate their market).

Pulling one or two names out of a hat that you “know” or “met” shows that one can be successful without formal training, which isn’t in dispute, however, when one makes decisions in life one bases them on maximal expectation, not cherry picked outliers... or at least I hope so.

 

[animal531]

@OP, I would just look at doing some online courses and focus on overlap with your existing medical skills.
For example I'm a good dev, but I don't know anything about the medical field. What are the shortcomings? Where can I make money in it? For example Drs. office software, software used in analysis, testing, etc.

If you can figure out a gap there somewhere, then you can identify languages to learn and skills to acquire, but again, I'd just do that part informally.

 

[Sumeet2005]

@OP, I would just look at doing some online courses and focus on overlap with your existing medical skills.
For example I'm a good dev, but I don't know anything about the medical field. What are the shortcomings? Where can I make money in it? For example Drs. office software, software used in analysis, testing, etc.

If you can figure out a gap there somewhere, then you can identify languages to learn and skills to acquire, but again, I'd just do that part informally.

Thanks everyone for their comments.

Based on what you guys have said I think I will try a few online courses as you have suggested, signed up for the edx intro to cs already so I'll start with that and get some insight into what it entails and probably next year try formal teachings.

There is a lot of scope for software dev in medicine. At this point there is a few aspects that would benefit from particularly mobile based applications. Home based care and self monitoring applications. In my discipline analysis of xrays and pre operative planning for surgoens are big aspects that can be improved. Also artificial intelligence and robotics in Orthopedics and is definitely something that first world are making major research in.In terms of where money can be made, I dont have an answer to that but I feel that the more people that can be helped with the processes, the more likely it can be used to provide revenue.
I know that particularly during the pandemic software development and technology based medicine has already made large strides more so than previous years.

As mentioned before I am really just looking to get principles and basics in place so that when I see gaps in market I can start brainstorming ideas and put foundations in place then start to build on ideas after consultations on viability and things like that with experts on medical and technology