Plainly, I’m miserable in the banking industry. I’m an Investment Product Manager, so we have very limited tech/software exposure. I am in a unique position that allows me to work with project managers, program managers, and developers, but nothing close to the responsibilities of a tech PM. I am at the point where I will genuinely quit without a safety net and sign up for a coding bootcamp if it means I don’t have to spend another year in banking. I code with all of my spare time, brushing up on Python and data analysis skills, trying to get a firmer grasp on data structures and algorithms. I have loved coding since I was in high school, but went the finance route to chase early money instead of happiness. I’ve been applying to tech roles and not even getting phone screened, and I’m starting to feel like I’m in quicksand. I am even willing to take a pay cut if it means my future will be in tech. Any advice or guidance you can offer on what I should do would be really appreciated. YoE: 4.5 TC: 102.5k Loc: NYC
Assuming you graduated at 21, you are around 26/27 years of age. If coding is your passion, why not consider doing a bachelor's. Long term this is beneficial IMO.
Why do you hate banking? Examine this before jumping into another career.
I’ll say I’m cognizant that a job is a job. It’s nothing other than me doing something that my heart isn’t in whatsoever. I can stay up until 3am working on simple coding courses, go to work and all I can think about is getting home to learn more. Not motivated by the money, just the happiness of doing what I’d rather be doing.
Think of transition to Product Owner in some fintech
Do you want to do application development? Continue with product management but in tech? Data science? Machine learning? It's not clear what you want to do.
Probably between product and program management. Program in tech seems more in line with a bank product manager.
IDK then except the standard stuff. Message recruiters on LinkedIn. Meet people in tech. Getting a referral or recruiter contact always helps, since you can skip resume filters. Sometimes big companies have talent development programs. You get hired and then do training for some months. You could look for that kind of program for tech product/program management. Find their internal recruiters and pitch them your skillset and goals. Coding is generally good, but if you're not even getting to talk to companies at all, then you need to get past that boundary before just coding more will help your immediate situation.
Move to fintech in whatever role you can get and go from there
Definitely a second bachelors. Without a degree and a good career start from that degree, you’re going to make peanuts for a long time. Expect $60k at most for the next 4 years, maybe $80k after than. That’s after the 6+ months of not having a job and looking. With a degree you may be able to get into a FANG making $200k.
Does school name matter as much in Tech as it does for Finance?
Not name as much as what companies are actively trying to recruit from the school. That is, what companies are there for the school fairs and what not. As far as just sending your resume out, there’s not a lot of weight given to any particular school.
Early money? 102k tc?
Haha yea, see where I went wrong? Literally did coding and comp sci through high school then was basically told I should study finance instead. This is why mentorship programs for high school kids are so important haha.
Aha fair enough. I feel like I was told in high school too that every Joe Schmo who studied business is going to be making 7 figures on Wall Street. Little did they know it was all the stem majors making 7 figures working on Wall Street
Why not SWE instead of PM if you have passion and exposure to coding from HS. No degree needed for SWE. Do Leetcode. See if you can solve easy problems. Then start interviewing for the good companies once you can solve the most mediums and some hards. This is better path than getting a degree... don’t do it. Cheap online MS might be ok. As a SWE you’ll need to search a lot. So, learn that. Start with searching blind on the same topic. This topic has been beaten to the death with so much details, arguments and counter arguments. No one has energy to write long advice again and again. So, please search and read all the conversations. You’ll see that many people from 30s, 40s, or even 50s asked the same question. You’ll also see many people from Google and Uber who are earning high TC like $500K said they did fine w/o degree. That doesn’t mean you’ll not need to learn. You’ll have to do it for your whole life. Besides direct coding and SWE things you’ll have to learn CS things as well, like OS, Databases, Networking and so on. You’ll also learn about how to accelerate learning on the job. But all these will start with searching for old questions and perusing them. People who already offered great advice won’t do it again and again. So, please do search.
Will do. Thank you.
Im in a similar boat as OP, I'm a Civil Engineer (BS+MS) getting ready to relocate to Seattle for a new company (2 YOE, TC 85k lol). Eventually I'd like to transition into tech, ideally UBER, Lyft, INRIX as my interest is in MaaS/Traffic tech. Would a degree in CS help to crack it in Seattle or could I self teach my way into an interview? I heard that competition out there is ridiculous with so many formally educated individuals trying to break in.
Maybe look into getting a masters
Bachelors is in Finance, I’d have to do a lot of prereqs for Comp Sci
So? The pre reqs are there for a reason. It's to make you a competent Engineer.