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I was almost 30 when I started in tech. I'm not in your commonly discussed SV tech scene, I live in flyover country and work remotely for a giant non-tech compa
by potta_coffee 5y ago
I was almost 30 when I started in tech. I'm not in your commonly discussed SV tech scene, I live in flyover country and work remotely for a giant non-tech company. But I got to a point where I was absolutely desperate for any decently paying work. After doing graphic design for a few years (I studied art), I realized that was never going to pay. I did carpentry, construction, labor, painting, literal ditch digging, sign making, and used car sales. Somewhere in there I was a US Marine and went to war. Eventually I stumbled into a QA job at a small company and learned Python.
All this to say, now I'm well into six figures. I've work six crappy tech jobs, really bad ones. I've had one decent one and now, one really good one. I had to fight really hard to get where I am now. I mean this to be encouraging, it can be done, you can do it.
My advice? You can check out at a job, but never check out on yourself. At every crappy job I've been at, there was opportunity for me to learn something new. Job 1, I learned Python and built test frameworks. Job 2, I learned VueJS. Job 3 I learned how to build complete software projects and deliver them. Job 4, I combined development skills with cloud migration, dealt with tons of nasty legacy code, and was able to deliver major improvements to existing systems. And so forth. Also to get better jobs, I've put in hundreds of resumes. One job literally took me 200 applications to get.
TLDR I hope it's not unwelcome advice but I hate to see people give up.
- giantg2 5y agoI put in about 250 applications too to get my first tech job. That was during the 09 downturn. I have a lot of constraints in my life with my family. I don't really have a future that would be any better than the job I have right now.
- randomopining 5y agoHow much doe. Over 150k? Over 230k?
- giantg2 5y agoWhat's it really matter what he makes? Those are both substantial incomes, especially in cheaper states.
- randomopining 5y agoIdk he says "well into six figures" which sounds like at least over 200k which is pretty high for a non-fang.
- potta_coffee 5y agoCloser to 150.