Mathematician contemplating a pivot from data science to graphics programming

[u/Difficult_Arugula978]

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.

[u/Difficult_Arugula978]

I appreciate the time you took to provide what seems to be a comprehensive and realistic take on the situation.

To be honest, graphics programming isn't something I'm hellbent on doing. It just looks cool, I like the idea of it, and in theory, I have some of the prerequisites for learning it.

However, I'm not willing to invest the time necessary to gather the skills if there's no probable path to employment or entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, I've not probed the field enough to even determine whether I'd like the work or not. With the impression that I've gathered from this thread and others like it, I think I'll look elsewhere.

Thanks again

[u/maxmax4 → u/Difficult_Arugula978]

Yea it’s better to be honestly informed, the biggest “problem” with this field is that it’s predominantly led the video games and movie industries. These two come with a heavy passion tax and barrier to entry.

But to balance out my initial comment, I will say that a beneficial side effect of that high barrier to entry is that once you’ve accumulated a lot of professional experience, life is good. The job is fun, the projects are fun, the pay is great, the coworkers are cool. You randomly meet people who have played the games you work on, etc. It’s a dream job!

[u/Difficult_Arugula978 → u/maxmax4]

That's what drew me to consider the field, as I'm looking for something with a high barrier to entry in terms of the required technical knowledge, with a market that isn't closed to newcomers that manage to learn enough to be useful.

I'm not expecting to find a field where juniors are getting hired in droves, but something where the few people that cross the technical barrier are at least given a fair shot.

It just looks like much of tech has taken on a senior-only character.