Hello Everyone,
So just to give an overview of myself and my career thus far: I'm 34 years old and I graduated with my degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Probability and Statistics in 2013. I have worked mostly in SQL since graduating college, but I have worked with SAS, SPSS, and R as well through my classwork in college.
I got my first job right out of college working for a healthcare company working as an "data analyst." Unfortunately, being a data analyst for me has just been what I call a report jockey just cranking out reports all day long. It's really boring and I just feel as though I have made a mistake in my career and my education.
During my time as an analyst though, I have realized I really enjoy the programming part of my job and really not much else. I like working with SQL to produce what my end users like to see (or maybe not see depending upon the circumstances).
Realizing that I do not think I want to be a data analyst for much longer since I am tired of just producing reports and nothing more than reports, I want to change over to programming since I want to do more and have more challenges in my career.
I started out at Codecademy and I've been bouncing between there and Code School as I learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Really love JavaScript. I hope to get either Ruby or Python down and then move into
Java from there.
I do realize that these are web developer languages, but I feel as though that this is at least a good start in getting my feet wet.
What I am worried about is that since I have a Math degree and not a CS degree that I am going to be disregarded regardless of any skills I may obtain. I have been thinking about signing up for classes at a community college that is nearby to either get a certification or an Associates Degree, but I also wonder if that will be worth it to employers who would want to see maybe a four year CS degree instead of a four year Math degree.
I am hoping to see if there is anyone out there that has any thoughts as to how a Math degree would be viewed when applying for a programming position. Is it that big of a deal to have a CS degree or can other majors get programming jobs if they can show they have the chops?
Also, what would be some career paths that I could possibly take from moving from a data analyst position to programmer? I know that I probably wouldn't get into programming right away given my current career experience, but if I could have some ideas about transitional careers, that would be great as well.
Thanks so much!!