Let's talk about getting into a #career in #tech.
I'll share some of my thoughts as a hiring manager for the past 10 years or so.
First, tech and software in particular is really a great career, but it's very hard to get into right now. There is unfortunately a lot of randomness and luck involved just due to the sheer quantity of people entering the career. Don't get discouraged!
I'll tell you some things that I look for in hiring, but just be aware you will get a lot of rejections.
2: Because there are so many people getting into tech now, there are a lot of great and strong candidates. So let's look at this from a hiring manager perspective.
Here's what I want to see in a strong candidate for Software engineering:
3: First and most importantly, a demonstrated ability to learn.
In most cases, I'm going to be bringing you into a team where you will have to learn how to work on something old and probably fragile, probably in a language you haven't used, and a framework that is not recent.
That won't usually be the only thing you'll do, but unfortunately, old code is what is currently making money.
So one of my first things I want to know is can you learn a new language and come up to speed?
4: Secondly, I will want to know what you can bring to the team outside of pure coding skills.
This is where you #CareerChangers will really stand out. What people don't think about as much as they should is the team aspect of coding. I wish more management would emphasize this in hiring.
Can you offer feedback (often in PRs) in a kind and effective manner?
In a few months I'll probably be bringing in more people. Can you help them acclimate? Can you teach them the code base?
@kleaders Interesting. As someone who has some training in programming but my degree and career is in something else, I often play with the thought of switching to tech (or at least some programming related job adjacent to my field), but am worried about too sharp a turn in my career.
So I keep wondering, how much do I need to have my (hobby)coding experience up to date vs. relying more on my professional achievements?
@kleaders I'm working on a Python app to draw molecules (I'm in chemistry), and it has some parts that relate to the way atoms and bonds work, but also some geometry for drawing the formula.
I hope that kind of project is good to show how I can apply basic programming principles with my science background.
Kyle Leaders
NiceMicro