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Mostafa Saad Ibrahim

Computer Vision Researcher @ Huawei Canada
PhD - Simon Fraser University
Bachelor / Msc - FCI Cairo University

Ex-(Software Engineer / Teaching Assistant)

Audience
● Someone with a specialisation far from Computer Science and want to do a
career shift.
● A student who is about to graduate and used to ignore studying, but now
regrets and wants to find the shortest way to the market.
● Don’t try to do this plan while also busy with something else (e.g. another
college)
Prerequisites
● English skills: Good or plan to be good soon
○ Reading skills: To be able to learn from books
○ Listening skills: Learning is faster from videos / online courses
○ Writing skills: For communication inside companies / applying for jobs
○ Speaking skills: Sometimes talking to English customers
○ If your english skills is weak; don’t start. Enhance English first.
● Hard worker
○ You need 12-15 months in this guide to get in the market / 8-10 hours a day
○ Then 2 years follow up plan to cover more basics, parallel to work
○ You will keep learning the new fields/technologies/frameworks forever, like everyone
Knowledge Skills
Knowledge & Skills ladder

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Skipping fundamentals

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3 roadmaps out there!
● Full courses study, as if u were a student (3 years)
○ E.g. following a big university courses list or OSSU
● 9 / 15 months plan
○ ITI has 9 month program. Not sure of prerequisite. Great opportunity
○ My roadmap is 15 months
■ 4-6 months fundamentals: programming, oop, problem solving (algorithms/data
structures)
■ 3 months: expanding some knowledge in CS courses
■ 6 months: Market technology focused
● 3-5 months diplomas
○ Some guys announce such very short courses/projects
○ I believe this is very bad choice … and most of providers targets fast turnover
Roadmap Big Picture: 3 Stages
● Mastering a programming language, such as Java or C#.
● Mastering Object Oriented Programming (OOP) Skills
● Fair understanding for data structures 4-6 months
● Some background in Algorithms / skills (the more, the better)

● Enhancing your CS background

○ Major courses 3 months
○ Non Major courses

● Master some popular technology market direction

○ Backend 6 months
○ Frontend: web or mobile [IOS, Android]
Stage 1A - The critical core
● Programming.
○ Strong in programming => Most of next things will be a piece of cake
○ You should learn several languages. During this roadmap, focus on 1 or 2
■ Java or C# are general purpose languages. Python also increasing in the market
○ In your first language: set a goal to read a book from A-Z (something 1000+ pages book)
○ To learn initially: Attend a course or youtube playlist
○ Programming can be thought as 2 parts: Basic syntax and OOP
● Programming:: Basic Syntax
○ Data types, Selection, Repetition, Functions (aka Methods), Arrays
○ Also: Very Basic class creation, Java Collections, Basic Files read/write
○ Now, Implement 1-2 projects of a reasonable size. Here is an example (it is from my playlist)
Stage 1B - The critical core
● Programming:: OOP
○ Objects, OOP (Inheritance and Polymorphism), Exceptions
○ Develop new 1-2 console projects using OOP (e.g. from TopCoder projects)
Stage 1C - Problem-solving [recommended]
● If you want be stronger in coding, highly recommended to do it
○ It is based on data-structures and algorithms, but learning them in incremental smooth way
● First, understand what is: Online Judge / Codeforces.
● Follow my sheet and solve levels 1 ro 3
○ You can solve level 1, then 2 and 3 later in parallel
● Stage 1C can go parallel or before Stage 1B
○ Going before actually makes you stronger
Stage 1D - Data Structures Course
● Do after Stage 1B.
○ If started after Stage 1C, you will understand so fast
● Study the basic topics (Stack, LinkedList, Queue, Binary Search Tree)
○ Write code and play with it
● Understand and use Hashtable / Sets
● The most critical outcome:
○ When to use a data structure?
○ What is the time complexity of it?
● Internet has many courses. My playlist
Stage 1E - Algorithms Course [recommended]
● If you did 1C, you won’t need to do 1E
● Learn to compute Algorithm Order Complexity
● Algorithms
○ Graph Theory: Representation (DFS, BFS, Dijkstra).
○ Binary Search technique
○ Trie Data structure
○ Dynamic Programming
○ Greedy
● I hate to tell you can skip this phase, but many do so and they're working
Stage 1F - More programming concepts
● You need to understand & be good in more concepts
● Complete a programming book from A-Z
○ multi-threading, client-server, crawl internet pages.
■ Better learn multithreading after some chapters in Operating systems
■ Better learn client-server after some chapters in Networking
■ Implement a client-server chat app that uses multithreading
○ Be aware of things such as Unicode, Internationalisation, Regular expressions
○ Deeper in files reading/writing/exceptions - Mastering Collections
○ Do a project or enhance the previous projects with what you learned
○ Learn basics of GUI, but don’t waste time over it [optionally]
● Optional: CS 50
Stage 1 Summary
● Must do 1A and 1B
○ You must do good-size projects to build an important skill (building projects skill)
● Must understand 1D to some extent
● Optionally but recommended either 1C or 1E
○ You can also make it parallel to stage 2 and/or 3
● Proceed with 1F, but better parallel to stage 2
Stage 2: Enhancing your CS background
● Stage 2A: Core practical CS subjects (initially 3-5 chapters)
○ Networking, Operating Systems, Databases, Software Engineering
■ Last 2 are much more critical to go deeper, especially Databases for backend guys
■ SWE: Learn to build class and Sequence diagrams. The waterfall model, the agile.
● Later, learn design patterns
○ Do projects/apps that utilize what you learned
○ Also Discrete Mathematics is very useful to mind & skill (enhances also 1C)
● Stage 2B: Relevant courses
○ Read initially 1-3 chapters
○ Computer Theory, Assembly programming, Computer Architecture, Computer Graphics,
Cryptography, Security, Cloud Computing, Parallel Computing
○ Avoid Math (Probability, Calculus, Linear Algebra)
○ You can stage parallelize 2B with stage 3
Stage 2: Materials
● Most of choices are ok. E.g. Use OSSU
● For databases: Arabic Playlist - Course - Course - Book
● Discrete Mathematics: Arabic - book
Stage 3: Market Track
● Front/Back end software engineers
are the most popular

● Many nice jobs are still limited in

Egypt (2020)
○ Data science, Machine Learning,
Embedded development, Games
Development, Security

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Stage 3: Search for jobs: Get sense of Technologies
● Google it, e.g. backend developer cairo jobs
Stage 3: Search for jobs: Get sense of Frequency
● Google it, e.g. android software engineer cairo jobs
Stage 3: Search for jobs: Get sense of Frequency
● Notice: Many of the opportunities are hidden
○ Handled through recommendations insider the company
○ Networking with people (in the company, college, meetups, conferences) is critical
● Use linkedin
○ See for job postings
○ Create profile, add people
■ In their connections, see what are their jobs / job history
Stage 3: Market Track - Front End

● Frontend (Web, IOS, Android)

○ Android: udacity-nanodegrees - Skill Set
○ IOS: IOS - Course - Arabic Course
○ Web: Web / Web / CS50 / Video

○ Cross Platform (e.g. Flutter, React Native)

Stage 3: Market Track - Backend

● Backend: Core(OOP, database, SWE design) + Technology Track

○ Database: Learn SQL very well, then later NoSql

● Several Technology tracks - Search & decide as varies over time

○ Guide
○ Php & Laravel
○ Ruby on Rails
○ Python, Flask & Django
○ Java EE (web services, JMS, JPA, ...)
○ Node.js
○ Course
Stage 3: Market Track - Full Stack

● Full Stack = Can handle both front and backend

○ Maybe better select first one area to be good at first

● Full Stack
Stage 3: Enhancing Skills

● Don’t rush in the core part - moving from technology stack to another easy
● Whatever track: Build 3 projects of big size. This is your CV Core
○ Apply SWE concepts as much as you could
○ Well documentation for your project
○ Upload on github with screenshots and/or demos

● Then, build linkedin account and find job

Find a job
● Send CVs to companies. Attend job fairs. Your first job will be hard to find
● In parallel, start to do freelancing: such as upwork or others
○ It takes time to understand the process
○ It takes time to get your first customer
○ You can be 15-20 dollar per hour
● Salaries
○ Some companies make use of guys without certificates or weak graduates
○ Might be paid 2000-3000
○ Proper salaries are 5000-6000 … some companies a bit more
○ Anyway. Get your ‘good’ job. Good here in terms what you will learn not the money
○ Later move to the right opportunity
Stage 4
● Now you got a job. Work in parallel to enhance your background
● Learn several other programming languages (e.g. Python, Go, Javascript)
● For every CS subject, go deeper. Do a project
● Good in several OS: E.g. Windows and Linux (ubuntu)
● Soft skills: Presentation / Communication / Writing skills ...
Challenges
● Self-discipline
● Time availability: being a student in another college
● No provided assignments/projects
● No TA to help/mark assignments/projects
● Weak connections
● No internships
● Difficulties in the first job
Concerns
● Certificate
○ No / Online / Some institute
○ Working abroad
● Age
● Tools
○ Office tools (microsoft or google ones): Word, Power Point, Excel
○ Git / Github
○ Command lines
○ Management tools: Trello.com
Notes
● You can’t learn 1-2 courses and find a job or freelance!
○ A lot of effort must be put
● You can be bad in math and still be very good software engineer!
● Learning programming in the first 2-3 weeks might be hard! But after that,
normal.
● It is better to attend online courses for Programming and OOP
○ You may also attend for data structures and algorithms
○ You don’t need to attend in other
Got lost?
● The first 2 targets are fundamental and when you are good, you will
understand remaining Easily (Programming language + OOP)
● 1- Learn programming language such as Java or C#
○ Learn from online/onsite course
○ But, Read it later from a book, page by page.
● 2- Do 2 console projects (See example here)
● 3- Learn OOP
● 4- Do 2 OOP projects (better new ones)
● 5- Learn github tool. Upload your projects with screenshots
● Now, after that read the roadmap again
Anticipating the future
● One property in this field is its dynamicity
○ Today languages/technologies will die at some time
○ Search about Javascript/Machine Learning in market size
● Few things to do
○ Keep your eyes on the new things - try them out
○ Try to understand the trends.
■ Don’t wait till something be so clear as part of the next 5 years.
○ More importantly, be a graduate with strong basics
○ Being strong in basics = Fast learner = More confidence
○ Don’t fully depends on what faculty gives. Do your homework. Go beyond that
● Skills & Responsibilities for my next career steps
Links
● 7asebat playlist
● My ask.fm
● OSSU
● ITI
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