Transition to Developer

Has anyone transitioned from IT, or still in IT to a role, where you now incorporate programming into your job without any prior programming experience such as getting a CS degree, simply learned it on your own and managed to get into a much better role because of it?

Anything from "I knew a little bit of Python and was able to get into this role." Or, "I am now in a full blown development position."

I know I am being called by a lot of recruiters wanting Powershell, Python, or anything related to AWS back end experience and that is why I am asking.

Thanks.

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paul78

$bvb379 wrote: »

I know I am being called by a lot of recruiters wanting Powershell, Python, or anything related to AWS back end experience and that is why I am asking.

That doesn't sounds like development role. That sounds more like DevOps. There is a need for good devops engineers. It's less about software engineering and more about continuous deployment and integration.

And yes - I do know several sysadmins and netadmins who have made the transition.

gespenstern

I write rather advanced 100+ LoC scripts in powershell, cmd, python all the time. I'm not even sure how other people get by without doing this.

Typical scenarios are automated reactions in SIEM, DLP and SCOM to certain events.

SCCM compliance assessments (because of not everybody has Carbon Black), like give me all computers that show this or that IoC.

Migrations/deployments of different agents and security tools. How else would you uninstall/install an agent on hundreds/thousands endpoints otherwise?

ADDS queries. Like, go over all AD objects falling under these criteria, collect this and that information from them, put it into an new object and then export it to a CSV for management to consume.

Calculating various stuff. Like, you got an .eml and need to make sure that DKIM signature is correct. Etc.

Understanding/modifying various exploitation code which is often written in python. Using impacket/ranger/empire scripts. How do you do that if you don't have a basic python knowledge?

BlackBeret

Does BroScript count?

amcnow

The great thing about DevOps is the ability to transition from an administrative OR development background, which makes sense. The goal is to bridge that gap to promote continuous integration and deployment (particularly within an Agile methodology). It's also a great opportunity to incorporate security practices into the SDLC.

PowerShell and Python are just two examples of tools used to support DevOps.

BlackBeret wrote: »

Does BroScript count?

No. Bro code on the other hand...

DoubleNNs

I learned bash programming at a previous job to help me automate some tasks and get the boring parts of my job done quicker so I could ask for more exciting work. Every since then, scripts and small programs have been part of every job I've had since.

It's not too hard to pick up, but might take some time at first. I now use bash and Python pretty often. I've edited some PHP, Perl, PowerShell R, and Ruby code, even w/o fully knowing the languages -- the basics of computer science languages pretty much carry over and you have Google/ StackOverflow etc to help. I've also done a bit of SQL and HTML/CSS and markup since.

Coding hasn't been a primary responsibility in any of my gigs. But it has been a skill I've emphasized that I bring tot he table and has helped out, regardless of whether I was asked to automate a task or I did it on my own.

EagerDinosaur

Less than 25% of the developers I work with have IT or CS degrees. Some don't have degrees at all, having come from military or other backgrounds. I did physics at university, although I took some courses in the CS department. I've tried to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge by reading more traditional CS books by people like Donald Knuth and Erich Gamma.

I think it's very possible to transition into a development position if you have an aptitude and enthusiasm for it, but you may have to spend a fair amount of your own time learning.