Hi there, I’m Emily! 👋 Welcome to Hired Humanities, a biweekly newsletter devoted to helping humanities students build careers on their own terms.
This week we’re kicking off Career Chats, a new interview series that highlights fellow humanities students who have built diverse careers outside academia.
My first guest is Blaise Gratton (he/his), a former colleague of mine from Vanderbilt University who made a hard pivot out of academia into tech. Read on to learn about Blaise’s path to becoming a software developer and how you can start exploring programming as a career.
Tell me about yourself.
I completed an MA in Classics at Vanderbilt University in 2013. At that point, I made the difficult decision to not continue in academia and ended up working odd jobs and tutoring for about a year. If I had a plan, it was to land a high school position for a little while and learn programming on the side, but what actually happened was that I enrolled in a full-time six month program at Nashville Software School. Since then, I have worked at a variety of places around Nashville and contributed to the tech community through giving talks, volunteering, side projects, etc. My current role is a senior developer at Givful, a startup that facilitates contributing time and money to nonprofits.
Photo by James Harrison on Unsplash
How did you decide to pursue programming?
Several factors contributed to that decision. At the time, I remembered being delighted by the little bit of BASIC programming I did in the eighth or ninth grade and even started figuring out the syntax and writing my own programs, so I knew on some level that I was fully capable of that type of thinking and work. Unfortunately, that was all the dabbling I had really done. I was also kicking myself for not taking any CS or programming courses in undergrad as it seemed like such an obvious skill to develop.
At a really high-level, I think a part of me has always been fascinated by being able to look at something on a screen or page and extract meaning from it or understand what’s going on—that’s partly why I find studying human languages interesting, and interacting with computers also scratches that itch. Taking all these factors, along with the more practical thoughts of “how do I use my skills to make money”, led me to be pretty sure that this was something I wanted to do.
I think a part of me has always been fascinated by being able to look at something on a screen or page and extract meaning from it or understand what’s going on—that’s partly why I find studying human languages interesting, and interacting with computers also scratches that itch.
What was the most challenging aspect of transitioning from an academic environment to tech?
A couple things jump to mind. On the academic side, when certain individuals learn that you are not staying in academia, there can be a sort of immediate withdrawal of any niceties they were putting forth. A cold shoulder, as they say (although I suppose this could be true of certain people in any capacity). It is definitely a hard world to leave and it’s not a trivial process.
On the tech side, two things: the pace of change and the distributed nature of software and those who work with it. Tools, languages, frameworks, and more all change (and break) at a sometimes shocking rate compared to some fields, and there’s no way to get used to that other than jumping in and getting used to it. It can definitely be exhausting to just keep up with what’s currently out there and considered “good”.
That leads to my second item: due to how a lot of software and tools around it are built (i.e. anyone from anywhere can create something and put it out there for use), you have to develop your own sense of whether or not a certain thing is going to help you accomplish your work. Trusting something based on its pedigree or source is more difficult to do as there are fewer institutions and authoritative bodies, so to speak.
What misconceptions did you encounter about your humanities background when you started working in tech?
I don’t recall so much any misconceptions about transitioning from my particular background to tech as much as a general misconception about the type of person or skill set that is suited to doing work in tech and programming. I’ve observed people deflating any interest they would have in learning programming by saying “I was never good at math, though” or similar— there’s a sort of expectation from the outside that programmers just stare at numbers all day. While of course there are areas in computing and programming that are mathematically intensive, there are plenty of areas that are far from it and more focused on design or architecture or graphics. In my opinion, the best way for a person to measure their own aptitude for it is to find a way to use technology to connect with something they really care about.
Blaise and his rescue dog, Tazza
How does your humanities background help you in your current role?
It manifests in different ways, but it’s definitely there. On a direct and pragmatic level, having a solid foundation in Greek and Latin gives one an immediately more intuitive grasp on a field’s technical terms (with the obvious caveat of “if that particular field developed its vocabulary from Greek and Latin elements”, which computer science absolutely did). It is by no means necessary to have such a specific knowledge, but it yields surprising insight and explanatory power at times.
In a broader sense, a humanities background provides an excellent foundation to build on. A lot of programming time is really time spent reading code, assessing problems, comparing solutions and competing routes, and discussing with other people. Many of these things are not done alone, so the better a person is able to develop skills around clear communication and sound analysis, the more effective they are in a technical role.
What advice would you give to humanities students interested in computer engineering as a career?
Lots! First of all, stay curious about your own field. There is always a problem that can crop up that can somehow take advantage of technological tools we now have readily available. Some of the most creative and innovative work done with programming happens when experts in some other domain pick up programming in order to solve some problem or answer some previously unknowable question.
Second, if you’re testing the waters to see how you like it or trying to learn on your own, I encourage you to connect with someone who has more experience and is available to bounce questions off of. Getting started can be such an overwhelming up and down of success and frustration, and trying to figure it out alone can be much more on the frustrating side (speaking from personal experience).
And lastly: learning any amount of programming is worth it, even if it’s just an afternoon or a short course. The fabric of our daily lives is more and more integrated with computers and networks and it’s always beneficial to have more than a surface level knowledge and insight into how to use them.
A parting note
Thanks for tuning in this week! Please don't hesitate to drop a line if you have questions or feedback. And, if you think someone else in your life would love to receive this newsletter in their inbox, feel free to spread the word.
Cheers,
Emily
Reading List
A few of my favorite links
👀 I’ve been looking into how different groups give and receive performance feedback for work, and this study in particular got my wheels turning.
🔎 Sarah E. Bond’s article from 2018 traces the Roman acronym SPQR from antiquity to the modern white nationalist movement.
⭐ Being kinder to yourself can be hard. Check out Alice Boyes’ practical advice for building a better self-compassion practice.