Quit to full time job search?
Background: 4 YOE as vehicle controls software (embedded controllers) and calibration engineer, 3 classes left to go in my computer science masters through Georgia Tech, bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan, developed 3 full stack single page web applications on my own as personal projects. Situation: I want to live in Seattle and work as a full time SDE. My girlfriend just graduated dental school and starts work this coming Monday in Tacoma(south of Seattle) and is waiting for me to make the transition. I can quit my job at Bosch now, and live with her while interview prepping and trying to get as many job offers to line up as possible. It’s risky but I’d have her to support me in the transition. Orrrrr, I keep working full time (in Michigan) until I have a job offer. I currently have about 3 hours of free time / day to study and interview prep while working full time. Problem: I’m currently taking a term off of my masters and it starts back up Aug 20th. I’ll be taking the most difficult class I’m required to take (Graduate Level Algorithms). Because of this I’d like to have a job lined up by Aug 20th or the week after. This only leaves me ~2 months to get completely prepped for interviews and get a job. Question: Do I quit my job and work full time on getting an SDE position in Seattle? I feel like given the timeframe I don’t really have a choice. But at the same time quitting is risky.
Sorry to ask an irrelevant question but you prefer making web apps to writing software controlling vehicles?
Yes. The software we work with is fairly archaic and is built within an IDE created by ETAS (lookup ASCET) and is super dated. All that boils down to not being very applicable in other places outside of Bosch.
Forgive all the questions. Trying to make sure I understand. So you work at Bosch (full time?) In Michigan, but are in grad school at Georgia Tech (online or on campus?). Your next (and last?) semester is coming up where you will be taking graduate-level algorithms. Assuming I have all this right, the best course of action is to quit your job and work full-time towards finishing your degree, acing your Algos class (because that will help you with interview prep) and finally spending the rest of your waking hours on Leetcode and other interview prep. I can't imagine whatever you're doing at Bosch to be particularly relevant unless you're trying to get into autonomous vehicles (are you?). At minimum, you'll be out of work for about 3 months until you finish your degree. If you follow the steps above, you should hopefully have an offer within 3-6 months after that. You could (and should) overlap your interviewing with this last semester. Try interviewing at some companies you don't care that much about and saving your FANG interviews for later when you're more prepared. Good luck!
I’ll still need to complete two more classes after this coming term. It’s the OMSCS (online program). I am working full time. Not necessarily trying to get into autonomous vehicles, but also wouldn’t be opposed. Top priority is to be in Seattle working full time in software.
One thing to watch out for is that Tacoma is pretty far from Seattle. You can't realistically live in Tacoma and work in Seattle without hating the commute. I used to commute from Seattle to federal way and hated it.
Yeah I understand that. Once I got a position I’d be living around Seattle not in Tacoma.
so what did u do?
Lol! I like the follow up. I quit, road tripped across US, lived with my gf in Tacoma WA, leetcoded / studied algorithms for 3 months, finished my graduate algorithms course at the same time, interviewed at Blue Origin, Amazon and Google with offers from Blue and Amazon. Went with Amazon as an SDE II. Now I’m living in a penthouse in downtown Seattle. It all went way better than anticipated. TC 230K
wow! amazing journey. congratulations.
Happy to see that you are doing great now
If she’s willing to support you until you get your signing bonus, then go for it. Don’t waste another minute at your current job. Well, maybe give them 2 weeks notice.
That’s kind of what I’m thinking too. I’m fairly confident in myself. I’m currently working through “The Algorithm Design Manual” book along with LC to prep myself. I’m fairly certain that if I get through the entire book and a fair amount of LC problems I’ll be fine.