Are FAANG TCs realistic for non-eng people who pivot into software engineering
I’ve been thinking about pivoting into software development for a while now. I’m graduated 6 years ago (finance) and currently L7 at Accenture nearing L6 level. I went into it for the money, didn’t know much about software back in the day as I grew up in a rural community (mom worked nights at Walmart), my aspiration was an “office job” in a city. Feel lucky to be where I am and I’m not complaining about pay.
My biggest worry is the time to get back to my salary range and eventually higher. I’ve spoken to a few devs, I usually get the same old “do a bootcamp” or “do CS50 and then full stack open” and I’ll make $90k first couple of years, then the pay begins to skyrocket after year 3. Figured the blind community would be more honest.
I see some of the ranges on here… TCs of $200-500+ with a few years of experience, which seems insane to me. Are all of you comp sci and engineering grads from competitive schools? Just curious to know if I’m crazy to want a career change and if reaching those TCs if realistic for a non-eng background.
#engineering #software #swe
comments
Can you transition to SE from a non-engineer background: sure
I wouldn’t go into if you need #1 to be the case to make it worth it for you. If you want to make 200-500k or else you won’t like it, then that’s a risky bet. Very very smart people work a decade and don’t reach that.
I think you should go in if you enjoy it. Because that way in the likely scenario you aren’t the top 5% of talent, you still feel happy with your career.
Some survive, others don't.
Otherwise, it's meaningless to compare upper pay for developers at Google to some finance worker at Accenture.
Either that or run your own company (and most likely fail).
It's all about connections and timing (luck) and leverage. If you are too vital, you get pigeonholed to that role.