What's your question here?
#I got laid off from my job (not in tech). Need help bouncing back
signal nacelle
slender veldt
What's your question here?
My question is, is it worth it to go back to school and get a second bachelors degree in Computer Science? Or should I look into joining a reputable coding bootcamp. I am based in the US
covert meteor
My question is, is it worth it to go back to school and get a second bachelors d...
In my opinion, the time of bootcamps is over, because the hiring frenzy of the last two years will not come back.
slender veldt
In my opinion, the time of bootcamps is over, because the hiring frenzy of the l...
So would it be worth it to get a second bachelors degree in this case? How about self-teaching myself?
covert meteor
What is your first bachelors? Could you take an adjacent role and move towards a tech role while already inside a company?
The hiring market is tough now. There are CS newgrads struggling to find junior positions. I wouldn't think you can effectively compete with them with bootcamp or self-study.
slender veldt
What is your first bachelors? Could you take an adjacent role and move towards a...
My first bachelors is in civil engineering
I am honestly unsure of adjacent roles. I received my bachelors degree in May 2022 (so fairly recent) and got laid off after a year of experience
covert meteor
Why do you want to change? How is your financial runway?
slender veldt
What are some examples of adjacent roles? Would it be data analyst, projects management, etc?
covert meteor
Business analyst, tester. Product owner for software targeting civil engineering customers.
Some companies use product manager as synonym for product owner.
slender veldt
Why do you want to change? How is your financial runway?
I took a coding class during my junior year of CivE, and excelled at it (despite it being an introductory class). I found it much more interesting than concrete/roadway design/structural analysis. I did a few internships during undergrad within different civil engineering disciplines and didn’t find the work interesting. My biggest regret these days was not changing my major to CS, even though it would take me longer to finish school
slender veldt
Why do you want to change? How is your financial runway?
I have $15k in savings, not including the severance pay and potential unemployment I’m getting (if this is what you’re asking).
covert meteor
I have $15k in savings, not including the severance pay and potential unemployme...
More of if you are able finance studies or longer search, or if you need something soon.
slender veldt
Business analyst, tester. Product owner for software targeting civil engineering...
I can definitely find a way to get a role as a product owner for softwares targeting CivE customers! My supervisor told me I’d be great at project management
slender veldt
More of if you are able finance studies or longer search, or if you need somethi...
I can finance studies and a longer search
covert meteor
You could take a look on the job descriptions available for you, create a CV highlighting transferable skills, like project management and mentioning which coding class you did. And try your luck with analyst, tester and product owner roles.
In the meantime, you could prepare going back to studies in case you don't have a catch with the CV.
You could learn tech skills that are relevant for job ads by building a project and contributing to open source.
Product owner is a bit more/different than project manager. It is a bridge between customer and stakeholder needs and the dev team. You could maybe take a course on Udemy/Coursera to get an impression of the job. Or look up people, like Shreyas Doshi or Marty Cagan articles.
slender veldt
@covert meteor this is excellent advice. I will definitely create a CV that highlights my transferable skills and mention the coding class(es) I completed! I will also learn additional tech skills that are relevant for these roles.
I did some Udemy courses on JavaScript and Python and enjoyed it a lot! I’ll try it out for product ownership too. Will look into Shreya Doshi’s and Marty Cagan’s articles!
Thank you so much for sharing this advice to me. I will give it a shot, it will help me bounce back too ☺️
covert meteor
The JavaScript or Python course should be followed up with building a project for yourself.
Python + SQL are good skills for data engineer and product owner as well.
slender veldt
Thank you very much!!! I’m going to watch this YouTube video tomorrow morning (almost bedtime for me where I’m at). I am super excited to learn more about product ownership 🙌☺️
covert meteor
The hiring market for tech newgrads is very competitive now. So to be honest, the chances of getting an offer in dev roles without degree or experience are very low.
So if you try adjacent roles and plan to go back to studies as plan B, then your chances would be much better in my opinion.
slender veldt
The hiring market for tech newgrads is very competitive now. So to be honest, th...
This has been my fear - so many folks are graduating with CS degrees and so many people want to break into tech via career change. It’s making the job market for entry-level positions very competitive, and I’m quite scared about my future and this career switch I want to do.
I will definitely try adjacent roles for now. My ex supervisor said I’d be great in project/product management (basically the adjacent roles you’re talking about) and is willing to give me a good reference for those roles too.
Giving this a shot and will keep you posted on the journey ☺️
Thank you once again 🙌
vocal sonnet