I’m an ME and have been wanting to make the switch for a long time now. With only mechanical engineer job titles and no legitimate software background it’s been a long process and it’s been hard to not get discouraged with all of the layoffs and hiring freezes making competition even harder than it already is. But as of today I’ve got an offer for a Meta contract SWE role. Yea it’s just contract role, but I finally have an actual SWE title to keep me moving in that direction and much better pay. One of the things that kept me going was seeing a buddy of mine succeed with the same switch, so wanted to pass that on. Keep trying, it’ll happen. Current TC 96 New TC 176 (just base pay no RSUs or bonus) Learning resources: - Jovian - Data Structures and Algorithms I used this material to get a better understanding of a lot of the algorithms and it helped a ton for being able to do LC problems - Udemy “Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Applications” I took this to get an idea of actual uses instead of just theory/LC. Didn’t complete everything, just what I had interest in - Back to Back SWE YouTube channel Does a good job of explaining things. Was really good for some of the weird tree or graph problems I was stuck on, and backtracking Resume: I was able to position myself in my current ME job to be able to do some coding related stuff. I built out a lot of automation stuff for my team that wasn’t there before. I brought up some ideas to my manager and was able to make some Python applications for data review and things like that. I filled my resume with those SWE related bullet points and removed anything else unless it was relevant to leadership/mentorship LC prep: A few months of just learning material, then LC and more LC. LC premium. I honestly didn’t touch LC till about 2 months ago but have been doing tons of it. Did 145 problems since April (62 easy, 74 med, 9 hard). Went through the top interview questions for FB and Google, and added any problems I used the solution for to a separate list so I could go re-do them later. Reviewed the solutions and went through discussions to try and understand better/faster solutions. Got a lot of YouTube resources from the discussions also. Basically at least a few hours every day after work, and honestly usually half my work day also. Spent most of my weekends just studying for a couple months Apps: Spammed out over 55 apps across 15-20 companies. Bombed a few interviews, did ok on some. Interviews: Did ok on the coding parts but did not do excellent by any means. Got through brute force but didn’t get to solid optimized solutions, but talked through all of my thinking, edge cases, weak points, and things that would break my code. I got a system design question and tried to talk through logically, but I was very honest with my lack of system design experience and didn’t try to pull stuff out of my ass. That led it in more high level discussion direction and apparently went well enough. Current TC 96 New TC 176 (just base pay no RSUs or bonus)
Can you add more details like how did you prepare. What resources you used ? How long did it take ? Congrats
updated!
Congratulations! This is the kind of stuff that we should have more of on Blind 👏
stupid question, what's an ME
Mechanical Engineer
Amazing! Wonder how much easier it was coming from an engineering background? My spouse comes from a non-technical background but is interested in becoming a SWE.
Probably slightly harder since they might not have as much opportunity to do SW related stuff in their current job, but definitely still doable. My buddy was a chemical engineer who had just graduated, so rather than working on job/resume stuff he focused more on making example projects to include in a portfolio to show his coding. Hardest part is getting the interview, after that it’s just being decent at LC problems, luck, and being personable
Did the same, now I’m working from home in a bucket list town and loving it. congrats dude🍻
Curious what town! I’m in the southeast looking for a change of scenery.
Let’s just say I’m 5 minutes away from some world class skiing and I very much enjoy my lunch breaks😎
I did the same. Went from an ME job after I graduated, to working at IBM and then Microsoft. Starting with Meta in July. I have had a great career trajectory and ME hasn't hurt me at all, after my first SWE job. My compensation now is literally 10x my first ME job. Best thing I ever did for my life!
Awesome glad to hear that it’s only gonna be better. I figured all it’s gonna take is the first SWE job to snowball after that
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Good job. Knew someone who made the same switch and they were elated.