Interview Joseph Chang: From Psychology to Engineering
Learn From the Best: Joseph graduated with a Psychology degree from National Taiwan University. He is a self-taught software engineer who is now Crescendo Lab’s Frontend Team Lead!
- What motivated you to start learning how to code?
During my time in the military, I’m lucky that I can use my own computer during my free time. I started my own blog, wrote articles, and adjusted the UI by myself. That’s how I entered the world of front-end engineering. I liked the quick feedback from the computer — the UI changed right after I changed the code.
2. What resources did you use when you first started?
There are a lot of online resources for learning front-end engineering. All I needed was English. I could always use English keywords to search for solutions to technical issues I encountered online. StackOverflow is the most-viewed website for answering technical questions, other sources including Coursera or Codecademy are also suitable for beginners.
3. Some people who didn’t graduate with an engineering-related major fear that they would never surpass those who did, do you think that is a valid concern? Do you have any suggestions for people who have this concern?
For front-end engineering, I would say that it’s not a big deal. Front-end engineering doesn’t require the skill of writing complex algorithms. It requires problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and logical thinking, which are skills I’ve learned from my Psychology courses. The way to improve these skills is to build things, software, or websites. You’ll learn by doing. Pick a topic you like and keep building and learning. For example, if you are a dog lover, find a non-profit organization that is dedicated to dogs and see if they want to build a website. Join the development and you definitely will learn something.
4. What were some difficulties you faced as a software engineer who didn’t graduate with an engineering-related major? Were there advantages to that?
I’m not good at any algorithms. It’s mostly because I didn’t get this kind of training in college. However, I like to build things, especially visible things. That’s what front-end engineering is for, so I think my advantage is from my passion. If I want to build something, I do some research, try the code I found, and adjust it to fit my requirements.
5. How did your Psychology major help you in coding?
I didn’t learn coding during university, I only used a little R language in a statistics course. What I learned were critical thinking and logical thinking, and I found them helpful in coding. For example, debugging is crucial in software development. While debugging, engineers hypothesize and then verify. This is also the primary mindset in Psychology and other science subjects.
The End.
