Yes. I didn't even study math or comp-sci in college. Learned to program BASIC for build BBS systems when I was 12 (in 1982). Took two Pascal classes (1 in high school, one in college while I studied psychology). Discovered I could apparently program professionally while an intern for a startup. Turns out, computer languages of all sorts come to me pretty easily, probably because of that early exposure.
I've ended as one of the better programmers most places I've worked, and my current role is as a director and software architect at a mid-size biotech company (building tools to facilitate genetic engineering; if only my teenage nerd self could see me now!).
I still have no real advanced math or computer science training. My approach and experience is entirely practical/pragmatic, and for user facing applications development, I've almost never felt the lack of comp sci training impacted my work. I think of myself as a bit of a hedge witch :).
That said, I sometimes have pretty extreme imposter syndrome, and find myself bowing out of of roles that would otherwise be exciting but math heavy, especially ML heavy stuff that's all the rage these days.
I still think I'd like to study computer science, fwiw, but there are only so many hours in the day and I am a person with a whole lot of competing interests.
FWIW, I think this is already the case with standard Tesla (non FSD). I have a buddy with a 2 hour commute that does Duolingo while letting the car drive for the vast majority of his commute (which is mostly freeways).
This is very true. I've seen a single bad manager destroy an entire wing of an engineering organization in a couple of months. This person wasn't even a particularly mean or bad person, and had apparently been a successful middle manager for Pac Bell in their previous role. But they had no feel for the team they had taken over at all, and tried to impose a new structure all at once (basically boiled down to all of the senior devs were now technical project managers and wouldn't be coding). Everyone left within a couple of weeks.
Amyris | Senior Software Engineer | Emeryville, Ca | Remote Ok | Full Time | http://www.amyris.com
We are searching for a talented, curious, and self-motivated engineer to join our software engineering team in building the most advanced production-scale synthetic biology platform on the planet. R&D at Amyris is a highly multidisciplinary effort, where we need brilliant contributions from every area of the life sciences and engineering disciplines in order to take projects from concept to market.
Our tech stack is (primarily): Python, React, Postgres
Amyris is established but still growing rapidly, very successful, has a mature software development process, competitive pay, and great benefits. It's a fantastic place to work.
Amyris | Senior Software Engineer | Emeryville, Ca | Remote Ok | Full Time | http://www.amyris.com
We are searching for a talented, curious, and self-motivated engineer to join our software engineering team in building the most advanced production-scale synthetic biology platform on the planet. R&D at Amyris is a highly multidisciplinary effort, where we need brilliant contributions from every area of the life sciences and engineering disciplines in order to take projects from concept to market.
Our tech stack is (primarily): Python, React, Postgres
Amyris is established but still growing rapidly, very successful, has a mature software development process, competitive pay, and great benefits. It's a fantastic place to work.
Amyris, Inc. | Software Engineer | Emeryville, CA | Full-time, ONSITE, http://amyris.com
We are searching for talented, curious, and self-motivated developers to join our software engineering team in building the most advanced production-scale synthetic biology platform on the planet. R&D at Amyris is a highly multidisciplinary effort, where we need brilliant contributions from every area of the life sciences and engineering disciplines in order to take projects from concept to market.
From hacking directly on DNA in the lab to full scale factory production, every aspect of our work is facilitated and accelerated by software and hardware automation. Our tools integrate the activities of scientists, engineers, and industrial robots to enable the rapid optimization of genetic designs and laboratory processes.
Among the tools we have developed are a CAD/CAM system for genetic engineering: a compiler toolchain whose target architecture is life itself. This stack physically integrates high level genetic modules into microbial hosts. We also derive novel strains through random mutagenesis and directed evolution. Using our custom control platform, we then subject these experimental organisms to high throughput performance screening in our state-of-the-art robot labs.
Do you want to work with brilliant scientists and engineers to help create a better future for ourselves, our children, and everyone on the planet? Have you ever wished you could have gotten in on the ground floor at the dawn of the integrated circuit revolution? This is your chance to do foundational work in biotechnology. We are past proof of principle; we have begun the rapid expansion of a technology that will characterize this century. We think we're doing something far more interesting and exciting than almost anyone else out there, and we offer competitive compensation, excellent benefits, unlimited high quality conversation, free lunches, and beer!
We're looking for full stack developers to help build (mostly) web based tools for facilitating all aspects of the scientific and engineering process. Our stack is primarily Javascript (React, JQuery), Python (Pyramid), and Postgres, with a fair amount of F# and a bit of legacy PHP. Right now we're looking for developers with at least 5+ years of industry (software, not necessarily biotech) experience.
Amyris, Inc. | Software Engineer | Emeryville, CA | Full-time, ONSITE, http://amyris.com
We are searching for talented, curious, and self-motivated developers to join our software engineering team in building the most advanced production-scale synthetic biology platform on the planet. R&D at Amyris is a highly multidisciplinary effort, where we need brilliant contributions from every area of the life sciences and engineering disciplines in order to take projects from concept to market.
From hacking directly on DNA in the lab to full scale factory production, every aspect of our work is facilitated and accelerated by software and hardware automation. Our tools integrate the activities of scientists, engineers, and industrial robots to enable the rapid optimization of genetic designs and laboratory processes.
Among the tools we have developed are a CAD/CAM system for genetic engineering: a compiler toolchain whose target architecture is life itself. This stack physically integrates high level genetic modules into microbial hosts. We also derive novel strains through random mutagenesis and directed evolution. Using our custom control platform, we then subject these experimental organisms to high throughput performance screening in our state-of-the-art robot labs.
Do you want to work with brilliant scientists and engineers to help create a better future for ourselves, our children, and everyone on the planet? Have you ever wished you could have gotten in on the ground floor at the dawn of the integrated circuit revolution? This is your chance to do foundational work in biotechnology. We are past proof of principle; we have begun the rapid expansion of a technology that will characterize this century. We think we're doing something far more interesting and exciting than almost anyone else out there, and we offer competitive compensation, excellent benefits, unlimited high quality conversation, free lunches, and beer!
We're looking for full stack developers to help build (mostly) web based tools for facilitating all aspects of the scientific and engineering process. Our stack is primarily Javascript (React, JQuery), Python (Pyramid), and Postgres, with a fair amount of F# and a bit of legacy PHP. Right now we're looking for developers with at least 5+ years of industry (software, not necessarily biotech) experience.
