I changed my career again

I'm in my 30s, and I changed my career again.

I had various jobs in my 20s, and this time I chose the tech industry.

In my late 20s, I left my full-time job to study information systems/business analytics at uni, which was so different from web development. Crunching data to find insights was interesting but I found a new passion in building features in web development, which was exciting.

I got a job as a junior web developer about 3 months ago. I don't have a CS degree; I just learnt how to code using Udemy, YouTube, FreeCodeCamp, etc, outside of my university course. It took me about one and half years to get a job since I started my lonely journey, but it was worthwhile.

Getting started

• I went to a few tech-related meetups to get to know some people in the industry and what they're like and learn about the culture. Of course, I was attracted by the free food and drinks too.

During the journey

• I used a checklist for daily tasks every day to keep track of my progress. It made me feel fulfilled whenever I ticked off each check box. For instance,

  • I did yoga and went for a run every single morning to motivate myself to have a productive morning and get my circulation going. I did coding challenges on Codewars, Edabit, and HackerRank. I also made sure to progress on my portfolio, which was a website that contained some features that I built throughout the Udemy courses as well as YouTube videos

• Whenever I felt lonely studying at home, I watched YouTube videos about self-taught developers like myself and other motivational videos

• I built a lot of websites and features through watching YouTube videos and put them on my website to use as my portfolio and put the link in my CV

• Repetition is the key to understanding some difficult concepts. Every instructor has a different teaching style and different examples to teach. I often watched different videos about the same concept until I came to understand it fully

• Reading technical documentation is hard for most of beginners (I am still struggling). So I watched YouTube videos or udemy videos first before reading the documentation, which allowed me to comprehend the documentation better.

• Motivation comes and goes, so I wrote down why I wanted to change my career and stuck these notes on the wall as reminders

• I stayed motivated by watching videos of other career changes on YouTube and listening to podcasts. I also met some career changers in real life through meetups.

Finally, looking for a job

• Practice, practice, practice. I practised recording video interviews about 20 minutes per day because that is the way many interviews are being conducted during the pandemic

• I tailored my CV and cover letter to each job advertisement and emphasized my passion for learning technology

• I kept a diary to reflect and self-assess my performance in each interview and improved for the next interview

• Fail fast. I applied for many entry dev jobs to get used to interviews and feel more comfortable in interviews with people. Practice made me less nervous.

Selecting a company

• Aim high. I was aiming to get three job offers when looking for a job. I managed to attract two offers in the end.

• I thought through what vibes I got from interviewers to see what type of people would be working at the company. Also, the questions would be related to daily tasks.

• I did a comprehensive comparative analysis based on public reviews and feedback from my network. The tech world is very small in my city.

Books helped me to get through

• Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds
• The Dalai lama's cat
• The Alchemist
• The Barefoot investor

Podcast

• Code newbie