Switching Careers: my road to software engineering

I'm officially a software engineer!

Lucy Suddenly

@lucysuddenly

I'm thrilled to announce:

I'm going to be a software engineer at Outreach.io!

16:49 PM - 01 Feb 2020

15 654

A quick recap of How Things Came to Be This Way:

• My whole life I've dabbled in code. When I was 10 years old I programmed in BASIC on a x386. All through school I dabbled in custom HTML and CSS on various websites. I took a VB class in high school. I really enjoyed all of it but for reasons I can't quite figure out, I never imagined myself as a programmer!

• I attended WWU and got a B.A. in Psychology. Hybrid statistics/research and psych history. I did not use this degree to satisfy any work requirements, but it taught me a lot about how to think critically and how to work with people.

• I spent a decade working in live entertainment presentation doing tech-adjacent work. My job was mostly to turn tour riders into the code necessary to sell tickets, but the compensation and advancement opportunities were slim.

• I went to Flatiron School's in-person web development immersive (read: bootcamp). I spent 15 weeks (50-60 hours/wk) learning how to create full-stack applications. I came away with a passion for the culture and history of programming, a greater understanding of vital concepts for modern web development, and a love of writing code.

• Flatiron School hired me as a software engineering coach! I got to give back to the process that changed my life. I also got a lot of practice teaching! Giving lecture was my favorite part of the job and my lead instructors were always kind enough to let me poach lectures from them. Now not only do I feel comfortable learning a new concept or technology and implementing it -- I can then teach it to others at scale.

• My job search looked like this: frustration with applicant tracking systems, giving up on cold applications, and attending every meetup I could find. I got the offer for my current role by addressing a table of professionals, listing all of the things I was doing to prepare myself for job interviews, and asking if there was anything I was missing. The conversation was helpful, but it apparently impressed who is now my skip boss, because he put me in the interview loop.

• The interview was REALLY hard! I didn't finish any of the problems in the time allotted, leading me to think I hadn't done well enough to advance. But I got the offer! So even as you're in the interview realizing you won't have enough time to solve the problem -- don't panic! Just do your best, explain your reasoning to your interviewer, and use all the time given to you.

That's it! I transitioned careers and you can to! Happy to connect to talk more about any of this, show up in the comments!