Thinking about a career change? Why you should consider a future in coding
From a healthcare administrator to a software engineer. Sometimes, a leap of faith is exactly what you need.
On September 4th 2020, I received a call from my employer at the time, informing me of their decision to place me on furlough with no set return date. Like many individuals, my employment was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the future was uncertain.
I anticipated the call, and honestly speaking thought the decision would have been made much sooner, but the news was still devastating. I had already changed my career just a couple of years ago & barely got my feet wet. Money was tight, and the likelihood of me finding a rewarding job in a short period of time was slim to not.
It was, plain & simple, a rock-bottom moment in my life.
I spent the first couple of weeks distracting myself with TV shows and video games — figuring that I keep my mind occupied & hoping that my employer would realize they made a mistake and bring me back. Oh, wishful thinking.
Money became real tight. I needed to do something and do it quick.
I had two choices:
- Update my resume
- Invest in another skill and go back to school
After updating my resume, I quickly decided that it wasn’t good enough. I cherish my work experiences, but what was it about my experience & skills that stood me out from my peers? Aside from some “soft” skills that I’ve been fortunate enough to polish as a professional, there wasn’t much. I decided to look into option 2.
I considered a few options; education being high on my list as I’ve always had a passion in teaching. The world is always in need of teachers, after all.
Then I had a lengthy discussion with a friend who had recently graduated from a coding bootcamp. And then another with a separate friend.
I began researching how to get started and what steps I need to take before I apply. After a few weeks of working through some pre-work courses, I completed my technical interview and received my acceptance spot in Flatiron School’s October 5th 2020 cohort.
Fast forward a couple of months and I’m a couple of weeks away from graduating the software engineering program. My confidence level is so much higher than it was a few months ago & even picked up some useful skills along the way. Oh, and a new-found passion and purpose.
Here’s why you should take that leap of faith with me into the world of coding:
Never-ending quest to self improve
In recent years, it felt like I had “settled” into a complacent routine in my professional life. As soon as I arrived to work, I’m met with a mountain of emails that needed my prompt attention. Keeping my partners happy and fire-fighting became a norm.
I stopped learning. I realized I had settled into this day-to-day grind and lost my motivation to go above & beyond what was expected of me, and it trickled into my personal life as well.
Coding has re-invigorated my work ethic and has re-ignited my passion in learning. Attending a coding bootcamp as a full-time student, which is a highly-intensive ~15 week program (depending on the program), forces you to learn. Spending 10–12 hours each day, just so you can keep up with the curriculum, breezes by with each challenge you encounter.
In the moment it feels like you’re treading water in the ocean. But with each obstacle you overcome, you dive into the next one. The feeling of accomplishment is exhilarating — and it becomes almost like an addiction to solve each problem.
In coding, there is no single answer to a problem. You learn at your own pace, and develop your own solution to the problem in front of you. It feels like you have so much to learn to get to where you want to be, and I think that’s the exact feeling one should have to never stop learning.
Supportive Community
I was pleasantly surprised to find such a vast but supportive community in the programming world. As a newcomer, I had the impression that programmers had to rely on themselves to get their code to work (imagine someone coding by themselves in a dark room...or something like that)— boy was I wrong!
One of the first things my instructors taught me was to Google my question if I came across an error message in my code, if my code was behaving in an abnormal way, or if I was confused about a certain concept. There are a wide variety of forums & websites, such as Stack Overflow (https://stackoverflow.com/), that offers an open community for coders to post & answer a variety of coding questions. If you come across a roadblock, chances are there were plenty of individuals who came across the same exact issue before you!
Post your questions and/or read up on how others tackled the same issue. As mentioned previously, there may be multiple ways to tackle an issue. Find what works for you, or if you ever become a trailblazer & come up with your own solution to a problem, post it online & share with your fellow coders!
Technology isn’t going away
As someone who has gone through two career changes, career stability was a big factor in my next path.
Software engineering is a booming field and demand grows for mobile, healthcare, and e-commerce software. Developers are needed more than ever.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor projects software engineering jobs to grow 21% from 2018–2028, compared to 11% for all other occupations combined.
In 2019, US News & World Report ranked software developer as the #1 best job in the US, while Career Cast listed it as the 11th best career field out of 224 other jobs.
Not bad, right? Pair that with some high earning potential and it was a no brainer decision.
Conclusion
Career changes can be an extremely difficult ordeal to undertake. However, taking that first step toward a career change is an exhilarating moment and a career in tech should certainly be on the table.
If possible, I recommend shadowing someone who works as a coder to get a sense of the day-to-day life and see if it’s for you. If you do end up deciding to join me as newcomers in the coding world, I welcome you to a challenging but rewarding career, and hope it changes your life as it did mine.
