I'm A Career Switcher: Am I Starting As A Junior Developer?

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all right folks I'm headed home we're going to YouTube I might even do two videos on the way home I can remember to stop and start um but this one I just lost it like an idiot um is going to be about okay it's from the improve Again on YouTube now that I'm getting out I'm searching for companies with missions that I align with so maybe two questions coming from the military should I expect to aim low initially position-wise like entry level when I'm searching for these companies so they're saying for example I'd love to work at an AI lab like xai open aai or for SpaceX or Tesla doing supercomputing infrastructure should I apply to an entry-level position since I'm coming from a different industry then they wanted to ask about resume reviews uh which I said hey if you're interested in having your

resume reviewed then check out the main Channel Dev leader cuz I have a resume review series there it also explains how to submit your resume so this is a question I don't think it's going to take the whole drive I will give you my perspective on it uh if you want your questions answered leave them Below in the comments if you leave them in the comments it's not anonymous because comments are public uh but if you want to be kept Anonymous and ask a question send it into Dev leader on any social media channel you want it's also my main YouTube channel and what I'm rushing home for now so that I can do my live stream on my main Channel this car won't stop beeping okay so the question is really about if you're coming from a different industry right this person saying from

the military they actually in their comment they kind of uh use strike through and they're like does it really matter like what industry uh you're coming from a different industry trying to get into sort of software development uh should they be aiming for entry level um and then the other thing that they're kind of layering on to this too is they did call out what I would say are probably going to be like absurdly competitive companies and so I think there's a couple elements here um I think like my perspective on this is that uh for career switchers in general I would I would think about your ability to develop software okay so there's there's a lot of other skills and I don't want to minimize this right there's a ton of other skills that you can be getting from other careers uh and you

know some things people I feel like people don't give themselves enough credit whether they're like oh you know I've been doing whatever career it happens to be working on teams for like a decade doing whatever it happens to be and then and then they're not realizing like how beneficial of a skill it is to be be able to successfully work in teams um because software is built in teams and yeah I just feel like this gets overlooked a tremendous amount um but when it comes to your technical skills right this is something where I would say like how much experience do you actually have building software and I understand like obviously if you're coming from a different industry you might say like I you know haven't professionally built software before that's I'm not saying you have to right um but if you've had minimal experience

because I think I've heard some people saying because I've interviewed people on my main Channel Dev leader and uh some people who've switched over careers they're like you know I was working in a marketing job or I was doing something in a different career path and then got exposed to some stuff that was kind of like scripting or was some HTML and then started doing some more front-end work or started building more scripts or whatever and then they go holy crap like this is pretty cool like this is really interesting hm and then they get kind of hooked on it so some people end up building some things in the workplace even though that's not been their career path at all which I think is great if you have that opportunity but not everyone does so I'm not trying to limit you to just that

kind of experience but I would say you know how much time have you spent building software because if you go on to say well well professionally none and then also like I've been looking at programming tutorials for a few weeks I would say well like yeah like expect absolutely entry level absolutely um and that's not to say like you know you're not smart or you're not good or anything like that it's just like you are by definition of a software developer you're going to be entry level and that's okay it's already ridiculously competitive for people that have been you know getting formal education in this space and you know building projects and doing whatever so if it's already difficult for them like to get an entry-level position I would just say like assume you're in the same boat and it's going to be difficult as

well for you to get an entry-level position too but I'm not trying to I realize like guess I'm saying that I don't want that to be discouraging I I think it's awesome that people have been able to switch careers and uh I'm a I strongly advocate for people to kind of follow where their interests are right so if this is an area of interest and software development you're like I want to get into it like I honestly if you enjoy it I I just encourage you to do that because going through some career that you're not you know really enjoying for your whole life no like I not something I would ever recommend to someone but um but entry level I'm got to the sort of tldr of this whole video is probably entry level if you want to stop there you're welcome to but

I would say a probably entry level um and primarily because you have not spent the time building software even hobby projects now if you have if you have I think like yeah if you want to try applying for something midlevel sure but like I just think it's going to be very challenging and it's just because of how much competition there is right the thing that I think can that can help is when we start talking about some of these like why can't I ever think of this word oh adjacent adjacent skills right uh adjacent skills and experiences so if you I I kind of brought up like you know working in teams right like this is a good set of experience that I think is very helpful um there's a lot of entry-level software developers that have never even worked in teams so that's a

a skill that an experience that you might have over them which is which is beneficial um but like beyond that like what are other things that you could be leaning into because again if you're doing this and asking yourself should I be entry level or not I'm going to be telling you probably entry level I think you need to be asking yourself what is going to set me above entry level for software developer as a you know as a position if I don't yet have the experience of being a software developer right because almost by definition like if you haven't done it before in any industry I would say you should expect to be entry-level at that but where you might have some Advantage is especially if you have like I don't know I'm going to call it a bias here for like Engineering in

general um I think if you're coming from a background of engineering depending on where you're applying to this could actually uh be a big benefit because engineering is problem solving it's going to be analysis and weighing out pros and cons right and a lot of software development is truly based on this there's a lot more to it um what I would say like software engineering fundamentally is you're trying to solve problems you have a bunch of different options and different paths you could go down and you need to be in a position where you can do the analysis to make the right decision with the best information you have at hand right so if you have experience in an engineering role then I think that this could definitely set you up for um some adjacent experiences get over one more Lane here actually says it's

going to be like a very quick drive home somehow um this never happens but so yeah I mean like I said this video is probably going to be pretty quick but I would I would definitely recommend um if you're interested in switching into Ries right this person was saying from the military um if you I don't I don't know what this person was doing in the military they might have said and sorry if I missed it in the comments um but if you're coming from a you know not computer-based background in the military and um trying to get into software development I would I would just encourage you to to like be honest with yourself how much software development experience do you have CU it's probably going to be the thing that dictates the most what level you should be coming in at I would

wager it's probably at entry level if you're listening to this and okay so let's say you're not coming from the military pick whatever background you want if you're like okay I've been doing um graphic design or I've been doing accounting I've been whatever it is and you you're able to say yeah but I've been building on the side like hobby programs and I've been you know building software for you know a few years or something like that okay like we might be able to in my opinion we might be able to make a stronger case for something above just entry level right perhaps and that's great right because you have had some experience building software but I would just say think like and not to I want to say this not to discourage you I just want you to think like consider the competition and

if you're like yep I still feel confident in that um then apply for sure apply for mid-level roles nothing wrong with with doing that I would just say don't be discouraged right so if you're like applying for mid-level and you've kind of had your site set on it if you're applying and not getting it then I would say hey look like maybe the reality is based on the job market going for something that is more entry level is not a bad move and then you're at least foot in the door building that experience getting to do what you wanted to do build software and then you can grow from there right like that might be a great strategy so I I personally just wouldn't get caught up on what you're coming in at I think that if you're interested in the space my suggestion would

be get into the space right do what you can to get in and then from there work on building up um you know your experiences a and your career as a software developer so um I think I think I'll wrap it up there and then try to crank out another Vlog video um I just wanted to make a video response for this person yeah it's a short one so thank you so much for watching I will do a friendly reminder that if you like these types of conversations that are one directional and you're like hey I would really like to be able to engage and ask questions and stuff then check out my main Channel Dev leader on Mondays at 700 p.m. Pacific so every Monday unless I'm sick or on vacation I do a live stream at 700 p.m.

Pacific uh stream to every platform so if you're watching this on YouTube you can find me on YouTube uh but it's my main Channel Dev leader and uh the way that I do this is that I usually pick one of the more popular topics from code commute I write a newsletter article on Saturday or I send it out on Saturday and then I use that topic as the basis for my live stream now the live stream is an AMA format though so if people are asking questions I will dedicate the entire time to the chat right that's my goal I would much rather you talk to me in the chat so that I can answer questions for you versus me just kind of regurgitating you know newsletter content and stuff so uh please feel free to join me there I hope to see you there

there's been a bunch of people that have come over from code commute to join the live streams it's really cool to see because they'll leave comments on this channel and then they'll go check me out on on the main Channel and engage in the chat so um hope to see you folks there but I'll wrap this one up and I will start the next one take care