Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!ucbvax!agate!dana@ernie.Berkeley.EDU
From: dana@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Dana Bergen)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Moving from humanities to software
Message-ID: <11535@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 28 Jun 88 21:51:34 GMT
References: <11101@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 41
Approved: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu (Moderator -- Trish Roberts)
Comments-to: comp-women-request@cs.purdue.edu
Submissions-to: comp-women@cs.purdue.edu


In article <11165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> marla@Sun.COM (Marla Parker) writes:
>The practical aspects of how to switch from being an unemployed history
>graduate to an employed software engineer are another matter altogether,
>one that I know nothing about.  Tech writer->tech support->engineering
>seems to work for some people, but maybe someone who has transferred
>into software from a different field could write about how to do this.

I got my B.A. in English and worked at various jobs that came along; some
involved writing, some were secretarial/administrative assistant-type stuff.
In 1982 I was working as a secretary and got interested in computers
through word processing.  (Word processing on a mainframe can be something
like programming -- you have to debug your file to get the document to
look right.)  I took a 6-month commercial programming course and got a job
doing applications programming, mainly in COBOL.  

Applications programming is fine if you are interested in combining 
technical work with communications/management/organizational skills,
with more emphasis on the latter and less on the technical aspects as
you move up.  I decided I wanted to do more strictly technical work.

Making the switch from applications programming to software development
looked very difficult.  I did not have contacts who could help me.  
Recruiters basically couldn't/wouldn't help; they want people who are
directly qualified for jobs and I needed an employer to take a chance
with me.  I decided that going back to school was my best bet.

I had the good fortune to discover the Computer Science Reentry Program
at U.C. Berkeley.  The program is open to women and "underrepresented
minorities" who want to go to graduate school in Computer Science but
have an undergraduate degree in something other than C.S.  Through it,
I was able to take undergraduate C.S. courses at Berkeley without being 
enrolled in a degree program (this is normally not allowed).  On the 
basis of this coursework I was admitted to Berkeley for graduate school,
where I am now working toward my MSCS.  

If anyone wants to know more about the Reentry Program, feel free to 
write to me. 

Dana Bergen
dana@ernie.berkeley.edu