Finally switched careers from ME => SWE! (career switcher motivation) I've been a Mechanical Engineer for about 5 years and 2 years ago I decided I wanted to switch into Software Engineering. I can go into a TON of detail about why I left ME but that's another huge post. In the last 2 years, I self-taught myself a ton of stuff at home and pretty much became an expert in nothing (web dev, game dev, mobile dev etc). However, what I believe was truly pivotal was that at work I was able to shift my responsibilities to coding by proposing custom apps for our 3D modeling software. I ended up successfully building a few custom apps for my co-workers using C# (.NET) that'll probably save the company millions of dollars as it's used through the years. Teams of technicians and engineers use my apps on their day-to-day tasks now. In a nutshell, I automated several 3D modeling tasks that increased engineer productivity by a significant amount. I put these C# apps on my resume and scored a full-stack Software Engineering position in the Space industry. The best part is that the team I'm joining uses a very modern tech stack that I really enjoy working with. This of course happened after 10+ failed interviews and rejections. I just want to let my fellow career changers out there know that it's possible! I didn't have to do a Master's degree and I didn't have to attend a bootcamp. I probably spent $100 on Udemy classes that helped me survey various fields in Software Engineering. I don't believe I followed a very structured path in my learning. I used a combination of Udemy, YouTube, Google, and bunch of other resources during my learning. I think the biggest takeaway for me in my experience is: the best learning happens when you try to solve a problem you or someone else has with code. In my case, I noticed that myself and my co-workers were getting stuck on very repetitive tasks on our day-to-day 3D modeling activities and I solved this problem with C# scripts. So if you're cheap like me, don't spend money on college or a bootcamp. Find a problem that bothers you or someone else and see if you can tackle it with code. Old ME TC: 90k New SWE TC: 130k #softwareengineer
Hm, was your custom app to serve a specific edge case unique to your last employer? Sounds like life just gave you a nugget my friend. If it's scalable; i.e. can be used at other companies and other industries, maybe it's entrepreneurship time :)
I did the same change, but took me about 10 years of stagnating in ME. I took a boot camp because I really needed to be around people making similar changes. Super happy now and it’s a world of difference working around intellectually curious people and constantly learning every day (I was in a super conservative ME field that was pretty soul crushing). And already making way more than I was in my last job.
Congrats. Now delete blind and enjoy life before fang chasing gets to your head.
Noted lol
+1 here go enjoy life outside of this ridiculous app that I can't stop using