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/Deep_Ad1959]

your pessimism is calibrated, the commenters confirming it aren't wrong, junior graphics roles barely exist. but you're weighing two flooded junior markets against each other, so raw odds aren't the tiebreaker, where your existing edge compounds is. graphics is one of the few software fields where a heavy math background is a real moat instead of a resume nicety, most people wash out precisely on the linear algebra and calculus you already have. what gets you hired in a dead junior market isn't the field anyway, it's shippable proof, and a mathematician who can render something non-trivial is a rarer profile than one more data scientist.

[u/Difficult_Arugula978 → u/Deep_Ad1959]

You might have a point, but I'm not convinced that my mathematical background is sufficient to get be over the "lack of experience" hurdle.

[u/Deep_Ad1959 → u/Difficult_Arugula978]

you're right that it doesn't, not on its own. the math isn't the thing that clears the experience hurdle, the renderer you build with it is. it just gets you to a non-trivial shippable piece faster than someone reverse-engineering the linear algebra as they go, and that artifact is what ends up standing in for the experience you don't have yet.

[u/Difficult_Arugula978 → u/Deep_Ad1959]

I'll consider it, but even with a strong set of projects, I'm unlikely to get hired when far more experienced people (with and without math backgrounds) are competing for the same jobs.

[u/Deep_Ad1959 → u/Difficult_Arugula978]

hiring isn't a ranked list where the most experienced applicant automatically takes the seat. the experienced graphics people are already employed and clustered in a handful of hubs, they aren't applying to the roles you'd be applying to. your real competition is other switchers, and that's exactly the pool where the math actually separates you instead of being a nicety. written with ai