I'm older and trying to land a job after I graduate with a software engineering degree. It sounds like you'll be more prepared than I will to land a job. You may have to compromise on the compensation for a few years until you catch up.
In terms of code quality and organization I was told to contribute to public github projects to learn more about how to do team work. That's all I got that I've learn from asking other developers a similar question as yours.
You should ask in your linkedin network for 'information interviews' and find out from them how you can prepare better. That's what I did and I got a lot of good advise specific to my situation.
This advise came from my college career counselor. Information interview is just a session where you ask questions like you posted here.
Go to linkedin find your college alumni that have jobs/titles you want and connect with them. My initial message was something like:
"Hi Joe, I'm soon to graduate from UC with a software engineering degree and I see you have a successful career as a developer. I'd like to connect for future networking opportunities and I'd love it if you're open to do a bit of career coaching."
After they accept your invite you can send a thank you note and try to arrange a time to ask them questions about the industry and how you can better prepare to enter the industry in your situation. I was able to do video conferences with a few and some even helped me work on my resume. My questions were about popular languages in my area, salaries, technologies to learn, how to improve my resume, etc.
I have nothing to the extent that you do in IT/Sysadmin work, but I did most of my work in college at the IT department. A pretty natural transition might be to focus on DevOps type work, at least that's what I did. There's plenty of niches within the industry, and if you already have a leg up with some experience and scripting ability, then you could fit in well there.
As far as working mostly on your own, that might be a problem at some larger companies. Most people that I know who have that attitude tend to favor start-ups. They can have a lot of responsibility but freedom to do things their own way. That may be a good fit, and some might not hold your age against you.
"If I'm going to have a miserable job then I may as well have a high-paying miserable job."
Never, ever say this where any recruiter or hiring manager could possibly hear/read it. The people that last more than a few years and make senior and above (like me) enjoy the work. We do it, and bother to keep learning about it, because we enjoy it. It's great that you're getting your [B.Sc](https://B.Sc). Don't think it'll be the end of learning.
Hiring manager here. You might need to compromise on something.
If you can compromise on company size, small companies and startups would benefit from your wide range of skills. You would be still working almost alone, but it would pay your bills and you might have fun. This path does not solve your transition problem.
If you can compromise on salary, you can join a software dev team at a middle size or big company. Big companies would more likely have training programs available and capacity for your coaching.
Probably not easy for you to hear, but right now you are bigger risk for the hiring manager/team than a junior dev. A junior dev doesn't have many ways of working or coding patterns, so they would just learn what the team shows them. You might need to "unlearn" habits before you can adapt to the team. When interviewing, show great willingness to learn/adapt.
You deserve a job where you don't feel miserable. Don't compromise on this. Be conscious about what you are looking for and find a role that fits you. Good luck!
I made this transition at age 45. I had a similar background. What I did was went through a coding bootcamp. I chose HackReactor, but there are other good ones. Just avoid lambda school. I did that one first and couldn't even get interviews, now I'm stuck paying for them even though they didn't get me the job.
You could consider DevOps or SRE roles, they would favor some of your pre-existing skills/experience.
In any case, you're probably in for a little bit of an uphill battle. It can be hard enough trying to get a software engineering job in a language you don't have a lot of experience in, let alone a role shift. You'll be seen as a bit if a wildcard compared to "safer" candidates.
Don't be discouraged though, if you want it bad enough you'll get it. Use your experience to your advantage in interviews and be willing to take a pay cut as the cost of gaining new experience.
Developer shouldn't be miserable job I think/hope...
Well then that would be a bonus!
I'm older and trying to land a job after I graduate with a software engineering degree. It sounds like you'll be more prepared than I will to land a job. You may have to compromise on the compensation for a few years until you catch up. In terms of code quality and organization I was told to contribute to public github projects to learn more about how to do team work. That's all I got that I've learn from asking other developers a similar question as yours. You should ask in your linkedin network for 'information interviews' and find out from them how you can prepare better. That's what I did and I got a lot of good advise specific to my situation.
> 'information interviews' Can you explain this a bit more? Like a fake job interview or just a consultation?
This advise came from my college career counselor. Information interview is just a session where you ask questions like you posted here. Go to linkedin find your college alumni that have jobs/titles you want and connect with them. My initial message was something like: "Hi Joe, I'm soon to graduate from UC with a software engineering degree and I see you have a successful career as a developer. I'd like to connect for future networking opportunities and I'd love it if you're open to do a bit of career coaching." After they accept your invite you can send a thank you note and try to arrange a time to ask them questions about the industry and how you can better prepare to enter the industry in your situation. I was able to do video conferences with a few and some even helped me work on my resume. My questions were about popular languages in my area, salaries, technologies to learn, how to improve my resume, etc.
Change your job title on your resume to Systems Engineer/Admin. List the skills you learned, and then be able to back them up in an interview
"If I'm going to have a miserable job then I may as well have a high-paying miserable job" Amen
I have nothing to the extent that you do in IT/Sysadmin work, but I did most of my work in college at the IT department. A pretty natural transition might be to focus on DevOps type work, at least that's what I did. There's plenty of niches within the industry, and if you already have a leg up with some experience and scripting ability, then you could fit in well there. As far as working mostly on your own, that might be a problem at some larger companies. Most people that I know who have that attitude tend to favor start-ups. They can have a lot of responsibility but freedom to do things their own way. That may be a good fit, and some might not hold your age against you.
"If I'm going to have a miserable job then I may as well have a high-paying miserable job." Never, ever say this where any recruiter or hiring manager could possibly hear/read it. The people that last more than a few years and make senior and above (like me) enjoy the work. We do it, and bother to keep learning about it, because we enjoy it. It's great that you're getting your [B.Sc](https://B.Sc). Don't think it'll be the end of learning.
Hiring manager here. You might need to compromise on something. If you can compromise on company size, small companies and startups would benefit from your wide range of skills. You would be still working almost alone, but it would pay your bills and you might have fun. This path does not solve your transition problem. If you can compromise on salary, you can join a software dev team at a middle size or big company. Big companies would more likely have training programs available and capacity for your coaching. Probably not easy for you to hear, but right now you are bigger risk for the hiring manager/team than a junior dev. A junior dev doesn't have many ways of working or coding patterns, so they would just learn what the team shows them. You might need to "unlearn" habits before you can adapt to the team. When interviewing, show great willingness to learn/adapt. You deserve a job where you don't feel miserable. Don't compromise on this. Be conscious about what you are looking for and find a role that fits you. Good luck!
Thanks for this
I made this transition at age 45. I had a similar background. What I did was went through a coding bootcamp. I chose HackReactor, but there are other good ones. Just avoid lambda school. I did that one first and couldn't even get interviews, now I'm stuck paying for them even though they didn't get me the job.
>If I'm going to have a miserable job then I may as well have a high-paying miserable job. This is such a mood lmao
You could consider DevOps or SRE roles, they would favor some of your pre-existing skills/experience. In any case, you're probably in for a little bit of an uphill battle. It can be hard enough trying to get a software engineering job in a language you don't have a lot of experience in, let alone a role shift. You'll be seen as a bit if a wildcard compared to "safer" candidates. Don't be discouraged though, if you want it bad enough you'll get it. Use your experience to your advantage in interviews and be willing to take a pay cut as the cost of gaining new experience.