Breaking into engineering

A breaking a blogging dry spell :D I spent so much effort on this email, it'd be
a shame to let this go to waste

_posts/2022-04-20-breaking-into-engineering.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Tips for breaking into Software Engineering
+tags:
+- opinion
+- leadership
+- software
+- software development
+---
+
+I was recently emailed by a new friend asking for some tips on how to break
+into software engineering. I *love* emails like this for two reasons: I really
+want to help everybody be successful in this industry, and I think we need more
+people from "non-traditional" educational backgrounds to enrich the industry.
+Since I had some _scarce_ free time, and I ended up writing them a novel of a
+reply, I wanted to share my tips with anybody else for whom they might be
+useful!
+
+My new friend, let's call them Sarah hasn't been working in the tech industry,
+but has lots of experience in managing a business and working directly with
+people. They asked (paraphrased):
+
+> I am looking to break into a programming job, I've done lots of Perl and
+> Python scripting for automating mundane tasks at work before and in my hobbies.
+> There's still a lot I still need to learn, but what suggestions would you have
+> to start re-orienting my career?
+
+
+Below is my advice almost verbatim.
+
+---
+
+My advice would be to look down one of three avenues for breaking into the
+software industry given your background and current level of experience:
+
+* QA/Test Automation
+* Data Scientist / Analyst
+* Infrastructure ("DevOps", which used to have a real meaning)
+
+
+I have worked with a number of folks that have broken into Engineering by way
+of QA from let's call them non-traditional software engineering backgrounds.
+The benefit of folks like you is that you have good people skills, high levels
+of user empathy, and haven't spent the last decade in the narrow
+user-experience silo that most developers have. In many of these positions
+people will find themselves writing integration, Selenium, or Appium tests
+which are commonly Python, and might match well with some of your existing
+experience and desires. I have seen this job position also described as
+"Software Development Engineer in Test" (SDET). From the QA organization, it's
+easier to train up on an existing code-base, and the motivated individual can
+start fixing bugs, rather than just filing them, beginning a transition into a
+more traditional Developer role.
+
+
+Data Scientist / Analyst or even a "Machine Learning Engineer" are all really
+people that don't typically have a software engineering background, but are
+good at smashing scripts around to get the answers they want from data. Knowing
+SQL well enough is usually a pre-requisite, but that's something I am sure is
+within your reach. These positions are poorly defined and the interestingness
+of each company may vary widely. Sometimes they're in the Engineering org,
+sometimes they report under CFO or COO types, so it's kind of a crapshoot if
+your ultimate goal is to transition into a classic Developer position. That
+ambiguity can also be to your benefit because if the Finance org is
+interviewing you, your bar is going to likely be more focused on communication
+and people skills rather than raw technical experience. At the end of the day,
+it kind of doesn't matter how sharp of a programmer you are long as you are
+able to read the tea leaves of data effectively for what the business needs in
+these roles.
+
+
+Infrastructure engineers used to be called sysadmins and were ornery bearded
+dudes who wrote Perl, they have all since had to reform and learn how to write
+Terraform and work with other systems. The benefit of the infrastructure space
+is that it's really a job of gluing things together rather than creating
+software from whole cloth. Your existing experience might be the weakest here,
+but the scripter background bodes well for jump starting on some of the many
+online training resources that are available in the Infrastructure space. I
+don't give much credence to certifications, but training up for an AWS
+certification would likely give you the fundamentals you would need to get your
+foot in the door in many infrastructure organizations.
+
+
+Lastly, everybody is remote, that is to your advantage and disadvantage. That
+means your hiring pool extends far beyond your current location. But that also
+means you may be competing with folks who are able to command a lower price
+because they live in Nowhere, Indiana.
+
+My career has been defined by startups, and the benefit of many of them is that
+their hiring processes aren't rigorous and formulaic like a Google/etc, and
+people with gumption can go really far in these types of organizations.
+
+Depending on the direction you want to go, I would also recommend tailoring a
+resume to that end rather than submitting your CV. I can help provide some
+guidance there.
+
+
+---
+
+
+I hope this is helpful to anybody else looking at breaking into the Software
+Engineering space with some scripting experience.  I'm happy to help review
+resumes, give pointers, or in any way my capacity allows, just shoot me an
+email!