Do you regret not learning to code?
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Why would you regret something you can pretty easily change? You can learn to code today. Will you become a SWE at a top tech company? Maybe not. But it’s definitely easier to pivot to SWE than it is to pivot to high finance once you enter early to mid career.
I think mainly because as you get older and into your professional life, you most likely won't have the time to learn to code (at a decent level) + as you get older it's harder to learn new stuff.
I think that is a bad mentality to have. Firstly, you should be perpetually learning. Secondly, as long as you were better than you were yesterday, I would say you are progressing. Being at a “decent level” is relative. Instead of comparing to others, compare to your past self. The real hurdle is overcoming self-doubt. With the plethora of resources online, there is something accessible for anyone from a child to a senior citizen. Just got to want it enough.
Tbf you could definitely make it to a top tech company at some point if you grinded it for long enough. Just not really worth it though imo
y is it not worth it
Definitely when I see my roommate in tech making $180K as a SWE working 20 hours a week while I work 80 and probably will get a shit bonus
And at the end finance and business produce the most CEOs thank you bye fuck SWE, SWE are dweeeb
ur not gonna be a CEO of a big company lol... unless you plan on being the 0.0000001%
Also tech produces more billionaires than finance so not sure what your point is
What company?
No
why
It doesn’t interest me whatsoever
No 1) Specialization is good. Finance is a critical skill set with tremendous value as is coding for innovative product development. Both actors need each to reach their full potential.
2) I much rather spend my time making connections with professionals and academics who made computer science, coding, and tech more broadly their specialization rather than trying to learn on the side haphazardly to be a mediocre coder at best.
3) There are basic coding skills you can learn today to make your finance / business day-to-day more efficient (Python / SQL etc.) I don’t get this weird circle jerk around tech being so much better than finance - do you want to spend all day writing code or being in excel? If you want to spend all day writing code pivot and grind for 5 years for a chance to catch up with your peers who have been studying the craft since college most likely. Newsflash, you’re gonna work the same hours trying to learn how to fucking code as you would being good at your finance job (Ie 20 hrs / week comes from knowing how to do your job…if you been writing code for 5 years of course it’ll take you less time)
Your life’s work should be at the intersection of what you’re good at, what you like to do, and who you want to help. You will trade off more of one for something of the other as there is no free lunch.
that's true. I meant moreso having like a base level knowledge.
Oh well in that case there’s no need to regret. You can have a base level of any programming language after about a year of online courses most likely. To apply those however, i think it makes more sense to use a language that can be applied to finance rather than C++ or something random just to say you can code
I’ve thought about trying to learn but it doesn’t interest me as much as finance.
Why would I learn to code, when I am doing gods work in banking, because of me the GDP of USA is 3x every year, without banking there is no economy simple , no need to code when we are the matrix
If you want to learn to code, learn to code.
But I don’t see what use a base level of knowledge is going to do to help…
potentially for creating startups, i think it would help immensely
‘coding’ is just a small part of what is needed to get a MVP off the ground.
You need to know theory, system design, the language(coding would fall here i guess?), data science, AI/ML( likely for new companies and ideas) and computer systems.
I’d rather focus on leveraging what I’m already an expert in.. and hiring/bringing on experts in implementing my idea.
Yes, my parents put me in coding camps when I was a kid. I enjoyed it, but gave up because I couldn’t type fast enough. I didn’t learn touch typing until I got to college. Not knowing a basic skill, has led me to working 90hrs a week.
it is easy to pick up coding. I was studying math in college, picked up coding 3rd year for modeling something and im now coding full time for my job (Im not in a finance role im in back office).
It takes 1-2 months of hard work to learn a programing language and 6 months of practice to be good at it.
Opposing view here - Regret getting a CS degree because so many classes were useless for industry use, would have had a lot more fun in college with 1 less major. Writing big tech SWE-quality code is way easier than the math part of modeling and I should have learned more stats.
No interest at all.
yes. regret my finance major every day. the positive though is i have a 3.9+ gpa and my workload is about 25 hours/week (including class time and studying).
Ofc you do you didn’t make it to IB
so broad code for what
My group sometimes makes clickable buttons in excel...so we are pretty technical
Not really. Sometimes I wonder if I should've focussed on maths more because I was always pretty good but not sure if I was genius level for quant. Plus I think I would get bored just sitting writing algorithms all day, which is why I don't regret not learning to code. I think its pretty boring to do for your whole life tbh - working on deals, models and building relationships with people is more interesting to me, plus finance feels more like a competitive game than what I'd imagine a FAANG is like (slower paced and people focussed on WLB). Plus the macro view of the work isn't really interesting, don't wanna spend my time working to make gmail 1.2% more streamlined. When I think about working in tech I'd much rather work in a PM, strategy or SWE manager role (and even then it seems slow paced so may as well just work in consulting at that point) rather than actually coding, so I'm clearly not interested in coding all day.
I think I could have built my first few companies faster/better, but it's a pretty worthless skill once you can afford a good dev team. Also I've been using chat GPT to write basic SQL queries that im too lazy to write or assign out. I imagine this only compounds exponentially and coding is a pretty worthless skillset in ~5 years.
What were your first few companies?
How do you find a good dev team and how much did it cost you to build code for a company?
Definitely.
My mother is a primary school teacher, they now make basic computing school essential part of the curriculum.
Seems to also be coming an ever more present part of secondary school teachings.
Not to mention outside of education and the workplace, being able to code websites, tools and automated services can be a very profitable practice.
While I am very interested to code, and the resources to be a SWE grade programmer are probably out there for free, I honestly don't think I have to discipline to do such alongside my current position.
I am also quite passionate in pursuing further education at MSc and eventually MBA level, so my plan is to study MSc Computer Science at UCL after I hopefully secure my return offer this Summer.
Although I’m not interested in becoming a programmer and I’d like to re-enter banking. But I’d just be like to able to have a foundational understanding of that domain, enough to maybe fulfil a managerial position that oversees SWEs. Something I think the calibre of the UCL course could offer.
The course price seems reasonable for the brand of UCL (£18,000), if I already secure a return offer and make it through the Analyst Stint I think it could offer a better return than a MSc Fin from the same/similar school at a £42,000 asking price.
Let me know what you think of my plan.
If you want to learn coding but not become a programmer don't do a masters in CS, it's way too time consuming/tough. You sound like you only want a marketable degree, in which case it is best to get an MBA.
End game for bankers is to be a high ticket salesman.
Coding is not neccesary for the purpose of revenue generation in IB.
Yeah, it's fun and a lot like learning a new language. It can be mentally stimulating which I like and you can automate a lot of mundane repetitious stuff. But I don't regret not learning about the math/algorithm side of things. The optimization stuff is best done by professionals, way more time efficient.
My father in law is an immigrant who taught himself how to code in his closet while working lower paying jobs. He just learned from books on the subject matter. You can do the exact same thing with the bonus of their being courses on the subject.
100%. So much copium in this thread tbh. College would’ve been way harder, but I’d have a valuable skill that isn’t all too common and is very desired. My upwards mobility might be diminished, but at least I’d have a degree of WLB and would probably make just as much, if not more, money fresh outta undergrad. I don’t really desire becoming an MD anyways and eventually want to venture into entrepreneurship so knowing how to code would be useful.
Idk why we lie to ourselves and make this lifestyle sound normal or desirable. We’re in an industry where working 60 hours is considered GOOD. We are expected to be in the office most days of the week. We have our lives dictated by sociopathic seniors who chose to forgo an enjoyable lifestyle where they can actually have family time, hobbies, etc. in order to climb the corporate ladder and get money. Oh, and we are our clients’ bitches.
Fuck yeah, I’d learn how to code. Silicon Valley has its own issues but at least a lot of tech companies value work life balance and don’t operate under the expectation that their employees want to live to work. The lifestyle just seems so much better in tech.
damn
Not really, I can barely do calculus
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