Ask HN: How to get a non-technical friend into tech?

My friend wants to learn software engineering and eventually land a job at FAANG / big corp.

Trouble is, they have zero engineering or leetcode experience.

They also dropped out of their bachelors degree a decade ago.

Do I point them to a intro Python book? Something else?

Edit: big corp job would be a dream end goal. They just want to know how to take their first steps.

al_borland 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What steps have they taken so far? What have they been doing for the past decade since dropping out of their bachelors degree?

Do they actually like coding? There are a lot of tech adjacent jobs that have a lower barrier to entry, like a scrum master or PM, which could get them in the door. There are also support roles that don’t require coding, or less coding than a full on dev role.

Harvard makes their CS50 class available to the public. That would probably be a good foundation to build on and give them enough information to know if they want to keep going.

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speedgoose 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If your friend can’t figure this out by themselves, it’s going to be challenging.

If they has a very good network, perhaps they can get a MBA and get recommended.

	▲	khurs 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>If your friend can’t figure this out by themselves, it’s going to be challenging. Yes.

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palata 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do they want to get into tech because it sounds like it will make a lot of money, or do they want to learn how to code?

If they want to learn how to code... honestly there is infinite resource on the Internet: books, videos, tutorials, games, ... It's all about finding what works for oneself, and spend enough time and effort studying.

It's like learning an instrument or a new language: it's not about "finding the good book", it's about spending a lot of effort learning.

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bigyabai 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> and eventually land a job at FAANG / big corp.

Help them temper their expectations. Many people study programming their entire life and get rejected for the lowest-pay L1/L2 engineering positions open at FAANG. These are not easy jobs to land (even in the AI age) and they have to be self-motivated to land one of those seats.

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VirusNewbie 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>rouble is, they have zero engineering or leetcode experience.

Sounds like they want the perks of working at FAANG, and not that they want the job, right?