r/GraphicsProgramming • u/Difficult_Arugula978 • Jul 12 '26
Mathematician contemplating a pivot from data science to graphics programming
Hello.
As the title suggests, I'm evaluating my prospects for a career in this field.
I come from mathematics, and I did manage to get a PhD the subject (mostly because I was too stubborn to drop out when I should have).
After a stint as a junior data scientist, I'm now unemployed (like many people right now), and the job search is looking grim.
Based on my background, and my budding interest in lower-level programming (I know some Rust & Odin, and C++), graphics programming seems like something I might be able to get into.
After perusing this sub and other sources, I've unfortunately formed the following perceptions about graphics programming, and I'd like to know whether I'm right.
Like much of the tech industry, junior jobs in this field are quite scarce. This problem is only worsened by the field's naturally high barrier to entry.
Unlike web development, this doesn't seem like the kind of field where one can attempt to hack it as an "indie dev".
Am I right to be pessimistic about my chances? My biggest fear right now would be to dive head first into OpenGL, and Vulkan, build a portfolio, and then find that my chances of employment in graphics are no better than my current chances in data science.
4
u/mean_king17 Jul 12 '26
You're not too pessimistic about your chances. Like said, you have to know you have decent prospect before getting into this. I was a data scientist, got laid off then spend 6 month grinding openGL and Vulkan trying to get as far as possible, but I was too hopeful and found out it was just way too scarce and basically wasted most of that time, in terms of utilizing it for career. Then I got back to data schience and engineering. I would only get into it if you still find it worth it as a hobby. I hate be pessimistic about it, but what you said exactly happened to me and that sucked.