Career Change to Tech: Not So Easy After All

[letsquitpharm]

A software engineer spent 8 hours daily applying to entry-level coding jobs for 6 months. She was rejected 357 times before receiving an offer.

FYI, she went through Hack Reactor's 1000 hour full-stack coding camp and had an online (github?) portfolio. She previously worked as an assistant general manager in the Californian restaurants' industry.

Welcome to the year 2021. Tech industry jobs are increasingly competitive to get and flooded with talents...an analogy of that...think getting a hospital pharmacist job fresh out of school or after a few years in retail?

A software engineer spent 8 hours daily applying to entry-level coding jobs for 6 months. She was rejected 357 times before receiving an offer.

Like millions of others during the Great Resignation, Sophia Cheong quit her job to switch careers. Despite shortages, her move into tech wasn't easy.

news.yahoo.com

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[RxPreceptor]

Does anyone else want to hear from @PharmtoCS ? Grass is always greener

 

[letsquitpharm]

Does anyone else want to hear from @PharmtoCS ? Grass is always greener

or from @alpha12
I guess the next argument being made up might look like "bootcamps are worthless because she can't pass a coding interview"

 

[alpha12]

Sounds like a happy ending. She is getting 120% more than her previous job. After getting experience she will get many offers.

 

[alpha12]

or from @alpha12
I guess the next argument being made up might look like "bootcamps are worthless because she can't pass a coding interview"

Your article proves my point. Got 2 job offers after boot camp.

 

[RxPreceptor]

 

[PharmtoCS]

think getting a hospital pharmacist job fresh out of school or after a few years in retail?

That’s a good question. Is landing a “cush” $120k non-retail pharmacy job after $200k+ student loans and 4 additional years of schooling any easier than landing a $120k tech job out of a coding bootcamp or CS degree?

 

[letsquitpharm]

Your article proves my point. Got 2 job offers after boot camp.

Now your point switches to "bootcamp is NOT worthless"?

If that's the case, people should literally all go to cs degree programs lol. People in my program use Amazon and Microsoft as backups if they can't get in Google or Facebook (Meta now), and last time I checked, my program also costs less than 1/2 of Hack Reactor.

 

[letsquitpharm]

That’s a good question. Is landing a “cush” $120k non-retail pharmacy job after $200k+ student loans and 4 additional years of schooling any easier than landing a $120k tech job out of a coding bootcamp or CS degree?

She is in California......I think a typical hospital pharmacist in California gets paid around ~$170k TC.

And she went through 1000 hours of code camp + 6 additional months of uncertainty. She kept working while doing that, so 1000 hours probably translates to ~1 year on a 3-4 hour/day commitment schedule. If she can pull that off with such incredible self-discipline and grit, she's already proven herself better than 90% of pharmacy grads.

 

[alpha12]

Now your point switches to "bootcamp is NOT worthless"?

If that's the case, people should literally all go to cs degree programs lol. People in my program use Amazon and Microsoft as backups if they can't get in Google or Facebook (Meta now), and last time I checked, my program also costs less than 1/2 of Hack Reactor.

You have to be a troll. I have always maintained knowledge is what matters in tech.

 

[letsquitpharm]

You have to be a troll. I have always maintained knowledge is what matters in tech.

Then why was the girl in the article rejected 357 times, by companies big and small? She has a portfolio and she went thru 1000 hours. What's your new argument now? She has insufficient knowledge lol?

 

[alpha12]

Then why was the girl in the article rejected 357 times, by companies big and small? She has a portfolio and she went thru 1000 hours. What's your new argument now? She has insufficient knowledge lol?

For her it might have been lack of experience. I had a similar experience as her when I first started albeit it wasn't 357 times but once I got my foot in the door, I was set. Now with the labor shortage all those companies that rejected me when I first started are sending me multiple emails and linkedin inmails asking me to interview again. I suspect after a couple years this girl will also get more employers asking for her services. Thanks for posting this article. It proves my point you can skip school and try to get your foot in the door.

 

[alpha12]

That’s a good question. Is landing a “cush” $120k non-retail pharmacy job after $200k+ student loans and 4 additional years of schooling any easier than landing a $120k tech job out of a coding bootcamp or CS degree?

I just checked the cost of hackreactor and its $18,000. So for 18k and maybe 12 weeks of her time she got in to tech with a 120k salary. Pharmacy school would be 4 years and 200k. Someone people just don't understand simple mathematics.

 

[Emmet2301]

For a person in a situation like that girl was 6 months isn’t too long to find a job. Even for some BS CS graduates it takes that long.

 

[PharmtoCS]

I will wager that many new grads take 6 months or longer to find their first job.

Even longer for new grads without residency who don't want to work retail.

 

[PikminOC]

There are boot camps that guarantee jobs as they have pipelines to jobs.

 

[mentos]

I probably applied to 357 jobs before escaping retail.

 

[Emmet2301]

There are boot camps that guarantee jobs as they have pipelines to jobs.

True. But I think even those give you like a 3-6 month range for getting you a job because things have to align with the client company as well.

 

[one pharmacy call]

I got my CS degree in May 2020, started applying for jobs in March 2021. I want to say I submitted around 100-150 applications for software engineering positions. About half of them were the Indeed/LinkedIn Easy Apply, and the other half I had to create an account on the company websites to submit the application. I got the offer for the job I'm currently working at in May 2021, for about $85k.

I had a decent number of responses, considering I applied months after I graduated and did not do an internship. My first and most memorable one was for Epic Systems. I did the initial phone interview and the infamous 3-hour long proctored skills assessment. It was divided up into several sections. The first two sections involved math and word logic problems like in the high school SAT exams. One of the sections involved doing as many math problems in two minutes, and another was a condensed survey of the proprietary programming language they use with questions that checked how quickly you could pick up on the language. The last section contained four leetcode easy/medium questions. At the time, I was preparing for leetcode questions using the Go programming language, so I was taken by surprise when it wasn't one of the allowed options for the questions. Around the third question, I just decided to use Go since I was taking too long writing it in Python, and ran out of time for the fourth question. Needless to say, I bombed that assessment and didn't proceed to the final interview. After that, I started taking leetcode preparation a little more seriously and use the more common languages like Javascript or Python.

 

[letsquitpharm]

I got my CS degree in May 2020, started applying for jobs in March 2021. I want to say I submitted around 100-150 applications for software engineering positions. About half of them were the Indeed/LinkedIn Easy Apply, and the other half I had to create an account on the company websites to submit the application. I got the offer for the job I'm currently working at in May 2021, for about $85k.

I had a decent number of responses, considering I applied months after I graduated and did not do an internship. My first and most memorable one was for Epic Systems. I did the initial phone interview and the infamous 3-hour long proctored skills assessment. It was divided up into several sections. The first two sections involved math and word logic problems like in the high school SAT exams. One of the sections involved doing as many math problems in two minutes, and another was a condensed survey of the proprietary programming language they use with questions that checked how quickly you could pick up on the language. The last section contained four leetcode easy/medium questions. At the time, I was preparing for leetcode questions using the Go programming language, so I was taken by surprise when it wasn't one of the allowed options for the questions. Around the third question, I just decided to use Go since I was taking too long writing it in Python, and ran out of time for the fourth question. Needless to say, I bombed that assessment and didn't proceed to the final interview. After that, I started taking leetcode preparation a little more seriously and use the more common languages like Javascript or Python.

I think epic system has a bad reputation for low pay and inflexible management style. Many people told me they would never work for epic unless they have no other options.

 

[alpha12]

I got my CS degree in May 2020, started applying for jobs in March 2021. I want to say I submitted around 100-150 applications for software engineering positions. About half of them were the Indeed/LinkedIn Easy Apply, and the other half I had to create an account on the company websites to submit the application. I got the offer for the job I'm currently working at in May 2021, for about $85k.

I had a decent number of responses, considering I applied months after I graduated and did not do an internship. My first and most memorable one was for Epic Systems. I did the initial phone interview and the infamous 3-hour long proctored skills assessment. It was divided up into several sections. The first two sections involved math and word logic problems like in the high school SAT exams. One of the sections involved doing as many math problems in two minutes, and another was a condensed survey of the proprietary programming language they use with questions that checked how quickly you could pick up on the language. The last section contained four leetcode easy/medium questions. At the time, I was preparing for leetcode questions using the Go programming language, so I was taken by surprise when it wasn't one of the allowed options for the questions. Around the third question, I just decided to use Go since I was taking too long writing it in Python, and ran out of time for the fourth question. Needless to say, I bombed that assessment and didn't proceed to the final interview. After that, I started taking leetcode preparation a little more seriously and use the more common languages like Javascript or Python.

I would use python or java. If you interview at Amazon you should use java. That's what they use there and if you use python and some idiot interviewer has a hard time understanding your code, they might fail you.

 

[zelman]

I probably applied to 357 jobs before escaping retail.

How many bothered to reject you?

 

[mentos]

How many bothered to reject you?

I had maybe 3 interviews the whole time. I was competing against 300+ applicants for each job.

 

[PikminOC]

Why don't these companies just outsource the work to another country where people will work harder for cheaper?

 

[alpha12]

Why don't these companies just outsource the work to another country where people will work harder for cheaper?

They tried it. They found out that work was garbage.

 

[DagS132]

i honestly feel bad for anyone that took advice from this website where someone just told oyu to watch a couple of youtube videos and to google stuff to be ready for a job in tech

 

[alpha12]

i honestly feel bad for anyone that took advice from this website where someone just told oyu to watch a couple of youtube videos and to google stuff to be ready for a job in tech

You just love strawmen don't you.

 

[DagS132]

You just love strawmen don't you.

why you so insecure to think i am talking about you? even so, how would that be strawman argument?

 

[Gombrich12]

This will be me in a year or so. If I can't get a tech job, I'll move onto something else. As long as I'm not working in retail pharmacy anymore I consider it a win.

 

[alpha12]

why you so insecure to think i am talking about you? even so, how would that be strawman argument?

Did i ever say watching a couple YouTube videos will get you a tech job? All i said is that you can skip the degree but you found it easier to attack the former argument which I never made.

 

[PikminOC]

Right now doctors use scribble a scribe service from india

 

[DagS132]

Did i ever say watching a couple YouTube videos will get you a tech job? All i said is that you can skip the degree but you found it easier to attack the former argument which I never made.

Did i ever say you said that? All i said is that your advice is terrible but you found it easier to make up arguments that never existed

 

[quickpic007]

I got my CS degree in May 2020, started applying for jobs in March 2021. I want to say I submitted around 100-150 applications for software engineering positions. About half of them were the Indeed/LinkedIn Easy Apply, and the other half I had to create an account on the company websites to submit the application. I got the offer for the job I'm currently working at in May 2021, for about $85k.

I had a decent number of responses, considering I applied months after I graduated and did not do an internship. My first and most memorable one was for Epic Systems. I did the initial phone interview and the infamous 3-hour long proctored skills assessment. It was divided up into several sections. The first two sections involved math and word logic problems like in the high school SAT exams. One of the sections involved doing as many math problems in two minutes, and another was a condensed survey of the proprietary programming language they use with questions that checked how quickly you could pick up on the language. The last section contained four leetcode easy/medium questions. At the time, I was preparing for leetcode questions using the Go programming language, so I was taken by surprise when it wasn't one of the allowed options for the questions. Around the third question, I just decided to use Go since I was taking too long writing it in Python, and ran out of time for the fourth question. Needless to say, I bombed that assessment and didn't proceed to the final interview. After that, I started taking leetcode preparation a little more seriously and use the more common languages like Javascript or Python.

So whats the next step and final goal? What salary range do you expect in 3 years?

I was thinking of tech for a while, but decided to hang around in RX a bit longer

 

[RN2RPh]

Tech jobs are like manufacturing jobs. They will be outsourced as soon as it is possible.

 

[alpha12]

Tech jobs are like manufacturing jobs. They will be outsourced as soon as it is possible.

I have been hearing that for two decades and it hasn't happened. I was talking to a recruiter for Goldman Sachs and he told me that they tried outsourcing to India but it was harder to find engineers there so they had to open jobs in the us. It was actually costing them more there than here.

 

[DagS132]

Tech jobs are like manufacturing jobs. They will be outsourced as soon as it is possible.

If that was the case, AI would take over before outsourcing. Tech jobs are not like manufacturing jobs at all

 

[one pharmacy call]

So whats the next step and final goal? What salary range do you expect in 3 years?

I was thinking of tech for a while, but decided to hang around in RX a bit longer

My short term goal is to make closer to what I was making as a pharmacist ($150k). I’m currently working remotely, but it’s subject to change, so I’d like to work at a remote-first company or have the option to live wherever I want rather than living within commuting distance from the office.

I would like to casually work PRN at a hospital just to stay up to date on stuff, without any set commitments.

 

[DH1987]

I think epic system has a bad reputation for low pay and inflexible management style. Many people told me they would never work for epic unless they have no other options.

Sounds a lot like Walgreens/CVS.