How I Became a Software Developer

What is it like to change your career to software development?

In a word- hard!

It is a lot of hard work, but the payoff is enormous. To give some context, I previously spent about two years teaching English as. a Second Language (ESL) in Thailand, and then another five years working in the travel industry managing and running programs throughout Southeast Asia. Once the pandemic hit, that cemented my position that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in the travel industry; it didn’t help that I got laid off.

Travel is a tough industry. It sounds sexy, but tour companies work on really tight margins to provide a product that people either cannot plan themselves, or just do not want to. I held a multi-faceted role that held me responsible for managing staff, providing an incredibly high level of customer service, keeping track of fast-moving logistics, putting out fires, and trying to do all of it with a smile. To be fair there is a high and a low season, and the low season is amazing, it just goes by too fast!

Once I was out of a job, it was time to decide what was next. I have some friends who are developers and it seemed like that could be a great career path. It is lucrative, challenging, the landscape is evolving quickly, and technical skills like software development are in high demand. It is also a more recession-proof career than travel, and it was time for a change!

Once I decided this is the path I wanted to follow, I spent a few months trying to teach myself the necessary skills. One of my goals was to do this with as little cost as possible. The internet is filled with amazing free and open-source resources to help people build their skills. Grad school was out of the question, and I wanted to get a job within a year.

My friend who gave me this advice had no experience in Python, and limited frontend development experience, so I showed him the results of Googling something along the lines of “How to make a website with Python”. This led me to learn about Django- a framework built on Python. Perfect! Except now what do I do?

Back to Google. I decided that I wanted a bit of structure. It seemed way too daunting to just “figure it out” with Google. Also, I have a little mistrust of Google since they sell my data at every opportunity they can…but believe me, if you wanted to be a software developer you need to trust Google! Their search is incredible and all of their other products have very well-written documentation.

It came time to decide how serious I was about this field and if I really wanted to jump into this field. And what were my options? I figured I could string together a halfway decent portfolio, and then be ready to job search, but how long would that take? I estimated it would be at least six months, but probably closer to a year, and that would mean being really committed and dedicated.

At this time I was also staying in a villa with 3 friends on a tropical island in the south of Thailand. Believe me, we all felt guilty lounging in paradise as the world was falling apart during the height of the pandemic, but not bad enough to leave the villa. Could I really stay motivated and focused all on my own? For me, probably not.

I decided to go down another rabbit hole- this time about coding boot camps. These boot camps generally pitch themselves as being the fastest and most efficient way for someone to get hired as a junior developer. If the course is well done, I tend to agree with that statement. Overall, my experience was positive, but it was difficult. The 16-week course was based in New York, but operating remotely, and to this day is one of the most challenging things I have ever done academically. I stacked the deck against myself as I was studying from 8:00 pm until 5:00 am so I could be on the same schedule as my peers, but I’m pretty sure my brain would have been fried even if I was on the East Coast.

There are many options for boot camps, and I may write more about that in the future, but for the purposes of this article, just know that this boot camp had a time commitment of at least 60 hours a week, usually more like 80–100 hours. It was all-consuming, trying, frustrating, but ultimately very rewarding. It can be hard to manage relationships with family, friends, and significant others, so I feel so lucky I have a partner who was willing to work with my crazy schedule during this time.

The tail-end of the course focused more on building our portfolio and getting us ready to search for jobs. This was incredibly helpful and it worked! After less than two months of job searching and several interviews, I landed a job as a junior developer in Bangkok. I officially started my job in January of 2021, and I was in Koh Samui pondering my future in March of 2020, so I guess I did it! In less than a year I got hired as a software developer and making the jump into this field is the best decision I have ever made.

I love my work. It’s fascinating, and it allows for endless learning and growth. The road to get here was challenging, but it has given me so much confidence, and at the same time has been so humbling. My coworkers and supervisors have been incredibly helpful and supportive, and it is incredibly satisfying to have your code pushed to production and to contribute to your team's output.

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