Free 2nd Bachelor’s Degree in CS or stay in Tech Sales?
I graduated college in 2022 with a degree in Political Science and am currently working at a minor cloud provider in a sales role. I primarily sell the LLM platform and Cloud Software.
I have realized that my goal is to transition to a technical role, and have spent the last few months recruiting both internally and externally. I also think I might be interested in trying out AI research and going for a PhD/Research scientist role if I really like it. I completed a few Statistics/ML courses in undergrad and have most math prerequisites (Calculus, Linear Algebra). I also have been completing CS courses at online universities at night (Data Structures & Algorithms, will start Discrete Math shortly).
I do have Data Science and Python skills from coursework and assisting the Sales Engineering org with technical projects, but I admit that I am not a SWE and my entire job is not focused on coding. I also lack technical depth outside of the Data Science/ML domain.
Unfortunately, I interviewed with about 5/6 companies and it failed to prove fruitful. I haven’t been able to pass technical interviews externally. When I interviewed for internal switches, I wasn’t selected due to lack of development experience.
I wanted to get opinions on how a second bachelor’s degree would be perceived in the industry? My mother is an employee of an Ivy League University, where I have the option to take classes part or full time this Fall semester. I could have a Bachelor’s in CS by the end of the Spring/Summer 2025, and a masters by Dec 2025 or May 2026 depending on how many credits I take each semester/if I take summers off for internships. The bachelor’s and half the master's would be completely paid for by tuition benefits.
I wanted to ask about recruiting for either SWE/ML/Research internships at FAANG/other tech companies. Would this be viewed as cheating since I already have work experience? I would be enrolled full time in a CS program, but I want to ensure that I am not violating any rules.
I see the pros as being able to more easily transition into technical roles and get more time to prepare for interviews without having to stress about my normal job. I would also compete with students for entry level internships instead of experienced hires. I could also try AI research and see if I’m really interested in an AI PhD. I see the main cons as losing out on salary, and the job market potentially still being bad when I get out.
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Discussion
(4 comments)- 14 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
The opportunity cost for getting a full degree is large, so I definitely wouldn't spend the 2+ years getting both a Bachelor's and Master's. If you want to go back to school, I'd just pick one, probably the Master's.
- For undergrad (BS) in particular, a lot of the value is social/network. Assuming you'll be in a different life stage/age compared to other students, you won't be able to leverage this benefit as much.
- A master's is a great option if you get into a top school (you mentioned Ivy League, which is awesome) and it's free! The MS is more "vocational" than a bachelors, so I'm confident you'd be able to complete your pivot into software engineering afterward.
However, a few other options to consider:
- Just grind Leetcode and study on your own (find an accountability partner or mock interviewer)
- Join a bootcamp or interview prep program. This will be more expensive, but shorter and more intense. Given your background in the tech industry, you likely already have the network to get interviews -- you just need to one company to give you the engineering offer.
- Can you get into a larger tech co and then transition internally into a SWE role after you've worked there in a sales role? Perhaps sales engineering is easier, and then your next job after you get the Sales Eng role would be straight SWE.
We have discounts on partner companies at https://www.jointaro.com/perks/ for some of the services that may be interesting
- 0
4 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroAs I talk in my job searching course, there are 2 phases for a job search:
- Get interviews
- Pass interviews
Based on your question, you are having some level of success with Step #1, which is a great sign. If you are able to get interviews regularly, your highest ROI would be to build side projects and do LeetCode to pass the interviews. Getting a degree takes a ton of time, far longer than grinding side projects and LeetCode.
However, if those 5-6 interviews you got took 1,000+ applications, then the degree could definitely be the issue. Unfortunately many companies haven't evolved past traditional thinking and will hard-require a Computer Science Bachelor's for junior engineer interviews.
I am a bit hesitant though as a Bachelor's that only took 1-2 years could be a red/yellow flag to recruiters as that's way shorter than 4 years. However, you mentioned that you have an in for an Ivy League, so that will cancel some, if not all, of this debuff.
Anyways, I'm leaning towards doing side projects and LeetCode, but if your funnel is really bad, then the degree doesn't look half bad. The school name is very, very important and while Ivy Leagues aren't the top for Computer Science (Stanford and Waterloo are #1 by a wide margin), they're still very good.
- 04 months agoEntry Level [OP]Taro Community
Thanks for your thoughts Alex. I would definitely agree that my primary difficulty is passing the interviews. The degree would also definitely be an accredited 4 year degree, the total time would be only be reduced due to the number of credits I already completed.
Do you also have a strong opinion on recruiting via the internship/student pathway vs grinding Leetcode and recruiting as an experienced hire? This was one of the primary draws of the school route, since I think a higher level of technical competency would be expected of an experienced hire vs a student?
- 04 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
The tricky thing about internships is they sometimes don't allow people who already have experience. However, your experience isn't engineering so I imagine that's okay?
Landing an internship is generally easier than landing an entry-level full time position though, yes.
