College Professor turns Software Engineer

Teaching on a contract basis for universities & colleges in writing and English departments.

An interest in IT and lack of opportunities and stability in my field.

CT’s reviews and rankings, along with the tech stack, start date and part-time+remote modality.

The hardest part for me was the algorithms. Getting a head start on the Code Wars requirement saved me.

The importance of self-study and resiliency in coding — that and fundamentals like knowing how to use Git and the terminal.

My instructor and the weekly projects.

As a contingent professor, I was already used to spending much of my time looking for additional work, so the intensity of the job search after CT didn’t take me by surprise. It did take me a few months to get an offer, and my lack of experience was a hindrance. But following the advice of CT’s excellent career coach worked for me in the end. My portfolio, resume, cover letters, profiles, etc., and overall approach to the job market were effective.

I recently celebrated my 1-year anniversary as a Software Engineer, Developer Relations at Astronomer, which acquired the start up where I was initially hired. I enjoy the mix of responsibilities that I have on the community team and plan to stay at Astronomer in my current role for the time being.

I was expecting an intense, challenging experience, and I got one. But it was even more intense than I expected! To succeed in the bootcamp, I had to spend days and nights working on course work and weekends on projects.

If you are completely new to IT, take some free or low-cost MOOCs to get a feel for programming before investing in a bootcamp. The most helpful one I took was a Coursera course called “Python for Everybody.” And build a project or two on your own if you can. Also, if you have a PC, partition the drive and install Linux for dual-booting (Google it). And get a good head start on the Code Wars or Leet Code requirement!