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It might be time to try something new.
The tech industry has been booming since the early days of the pandemic and has been booming since the summer of 2020. In the past year alone, this means an increase of 143,700 jobs for a 55% year-over-year increase. CompTIA. That means there’s plenty of opportunity at hand for professionals who choose to leave established careers to pursue a career in technology.
technical.ly He spoke to four people who have made that choice and are either in a new position or actively looking for one. Here’s why they made the jump, combined with their advice for others looking to do the same.
Gavin Huang: ‘It’s never too late’ to pursue a career in tech
Gavin Huang He left his job at a federal agency and became an associate UX designer in Chester Power house improvement In the year Beginning in 2022, Huang spent six years with the government and eventually worked his way up to lead a group that manages drinking water grants for five states.
But he said the federal job wasn’t quite what he thought it would be. He craved a fast-paced environment and didn’t want to go any further in his career as a gift coordinator.
“I wanted a creative outlet and I’ve always been interested in computer science — and to be honest, if I could go back to college and do it all over again, I would definitely major in computer science,” he said. “To me, what the tech industry represents is a way to constantly reinvent yourself. It’s constantly changing.”
So he started teaching himself how to program when the outbreak happened. He took some courses and watched YouTube videos, but nothing stuck until he learned full-stack web development from free and open source. The Odin Project. After completing only half of his course, he started networking to find a job.
Gavin Huang. (Courtesy photo)
Browsing LinkedIn, he found a former colleague from 10 years ago, which eventually put him in touch with his current boss. He was hired in February.
“That whole process, it was a shot in the dark,” he said. But yeah, trying to break into the industry is what I did because that’s definitely the hardest part. You can apply for jobs, but there are 300 people applying for entry-level positions. And I think that’s what makes it difficult to break into the industry.
Huang saw the freedom of transitioning to a tech career, where he could move around, “invent” himself and try new kinds of work — something he felt his government job lacked.
Huang says he loves his current role. Advice for those who want to quit their job and pursue another: If you are serious, don’t give up.
“Don’t let those bad thoughts get in your head and get you down,” he said. “Today is a great day to renew yourself and change your life. It’s never too late.”
Jessica Clay: Explore all your options first
Jessica Clay She is a special education teacher looking to complete her move into the tech industry. In the year In 2018, Clay said, she noticed that working with technology gave her a different feeling than working in the classroom. She said she loves education, but technology doesn’t feel like a career to her.
“I got to the point where I said, well, well, I have to make a decision. Do I want to stick with this? Or do I want to explore what’s there?’ “And all the careers I explored in the tech field, they all seemed really interesting and something I wanted to pursue.
She started her tech journey by building pilot projects, then applied for a bootcamp. New York Code + Design AcademyWhere she learned skills like JavaScript and Ruby on Rails. (The school closed in November 2018.) She then spent a year applying for jobs before Covid hit.
Jessica Clay. (Courtesy photo)
Faced with an uncertain employment landscape, Clay decided to attend online conferences and meetups and meet more people in the tech industry. She said she started applying for jobs again this year and is taking more education courses. She is still teaching, but plans to transition fully into a career in technology.
“My biggest goal is to get my first role in technology,” she said. This could be engineering, QA, DevOps, customer success or support engineering. I am looking for a place where I can be an asset while learning more about technology.
Clay, for her part, said she wants to go technical because she wants to see more tangible results of her work. Her advice to other people looking to change careers is to take your time and explore your options, “talking to a lot of people in the field and hearing what’s possible, before you settle on one.”
Kathleen Mead: Get started with free tech training
Before moving on to technology, Caitlin Meade He was a mental health counselor, an outpatient with people with addictions. A few months before the outbreak, she felt burned out at work. It was emotionally taxing, she said, and she began to question whether she had made the right decision in choosing her career path.
Mead also makes a point to talk about other topics she’s interested in — technology being one — and other professionals who have made a big difference in their careers. She started taking free online courses CodeacademyShe worked full-time for eight months before taking further steps. Like those, in a Tech Lift Bootcamp in January 2021.
A few months later, she was hired. JPMorgan Chase As a software engineer. She has been in this role for about a year now.
Caitlin Meade. (Photo via LinkedIn)
She pursued med tech because she wanted to get back to using some of the technical skills she had developed in high school and early college — “I really liked doing really logical puzzle skills,” she said. Other factors to consider? Higher wages and job flexibility, as well as the opportunity to move far and wide.
Mede’s advice to people looking to make a change or in a similar position is to try out free courses and online tools and build something on your own to see if you really like it.
“I think it can be different for different personalities,” she said. Some people can “teach themselves” and rely only on the Internet to learn something. But [for] For some people like me who are more social and prefer an interactive experience, I think boot camp was a great option.
She also recommends looking into financing options for bootcamps and the like. Mede said she was able to switch careers without having to change her finances too much because she received a scholarship that covered most of her program.
Orlando Perez: ‘It’s very satisfying to be able to finish something I don’t know how to do.’
Orlando Perez He recently quit his job as a gym teacher and joined a non-profit organization Activation code To get dev skills.
One of the biggest reasons for leaving teaching was the lack of pay. But another was childcare: Perez said he had four children and had a hard time working around his family’s schedule while working at the school.
“I want to have the flexibility to work from home but to work at night, to work on weekends, to work around my family, because that’s a priority for me,” he said.
Orlando Perez. (Courtesy photo)
Perez is enjoying his part-time LaunchCode program because it’s self-directed. He has been immersing himself in the world of software development by doing his own research on technology trends through Google and YouTube.
“Honestly, it’s very satisfying to be able to complete something that I don’t know how to do,” he said. “When I’m doing HTML and learning how to do it, and maybe I’m stuck, and I know exactly how the code works, and I do it on my own — I learn how to do it, and wow, ‘That’s how I did it.'”
Long term, Perez wants to help young people learn to code in school and see what opportunities there are in the tech space. He said that what he is doing now will eventually help him to help others.
“My hope is really in seeing this for myself and seeing the opportunities that I have,” he said. Technical background or anyone can show or guide them.
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