Now that I have the experience to help people switch careers into tech, I’m making it my mission to do so.
Once upon a time, I was putting up some decent stats writing articles on Medium.
Why did I stop?
Like most people who start something with the intention to keep going and then stop, life got in the way.
Even though some of my articles did very well, like this one, I was trying to make sense of the tech industry and did not feel like I had the right to offer advice. I was still very much in the early days of being a web developer, after leaving my old career behind.
Like many people in this situation, I felt I had a lot to prove. I thought I needed to go above and beyond in order to be taken seriously and ultimately get employed as a developer.
Then, once I did get employed, all my energy went from trying to break into the industry, to learning how to be successful within it. I no longer had the steam to write about my journey— or at least that’s the excuse I’ve been using.
This past week, just over two years after I finished up a programming bootcamp, I was made tech-lead for my team at a medium-sized startup. You would think this should be enough validation for me to feel like I know what I’m doing. In some ways it has been, in others not so much.
I’ve spent two years trying to overcome that nagging feeling that I don’t belong on a development team because I don’t have a computer science degree; textbook impostor syndrome.
It turns out many of us feel that way. I know people who have been in the industry for a decade and still feel like they’re clueless. It comes with the territory when you spend your days solving ambiguous problems. Really, if we didn’t struggle against the limits of our capabilities, being a programmer wouldn’t be nearly as fun!
So, why am I picking it up again?
I have more to contribute now than I did before, and I get a thrill out of helping others make the transition.
I’m not the only person out there who has been miserable at their job and has turned to a career in technology as a solution. Though I can’t know everything there is to know about making the transition successfully, I can share how I’ve done it.
It hasn’t all been rainbows.
It hasn’t all been struggle.
It has been, however, worth it.
Two years ago, I wrote this article about my decision to leave a miserable, albeit well-paying job.
My peers thought I was crazy.
Maybe I was.
All I know is I’ll never wear a suit, punch a clock, or be strapped to an office again.
As if those intrinsic rewards weren’t enough, the material rewards have also caught up to, and surpassed, those of my previous career.
Not everybody would be fulfilled in a technology job, but if it is something you are considering I want to help.
I will be sharing how I got here in the hopes that it might help you get where you want to go.
GO HERE NEXT -> So you want to be a programmer - Are you sure?
