I went to college to get that piece of paper even though I had been programming computers since 7th grade. Back then they wanted a degree (late 90's). I didn't learn anything new about software development in college cause I already knew the computer suff.. But had to take history, psychology, speech, economics, etc.... Nothing to do with my career. 2 years in I got an internship at an IT company... few months later they gave me a nice offer to work for them at that time. I took it and quit college. I've been working as a Software Engineer for probably 25+ years. I don't even have education section on my resume. It's nice to have a hobby that turned into a career because I still love doing it and my hobby pays very well... no financial worries.
After 25 years of relevant experience, you don't put your "education" on a resume. Its a moot point, and is a great way to date yourself and open yourself up to the potential for age discrimination.
It's great to have such success and good job....what an awesome journey that is! Securing that degree can open up many paths to upper management roles and executive roles for those interested though, as companies tend to favor degree holders for moving up the ranks. They are certainly not needed to be a "software engineer" though.
For myself, I switched to tech from mortgage banking at age 40. I didn't have. money for a boot camp so I self taught myself on RU-vid. I landed a QA Engineering role and in two years after that got my first software dev role. I went back to QA Engineering and have been consitantly employed for the past 6 years. I think it helps to have a good combo of people skills and some problem-solving/technical acumen. I'd even say behing humble and TEACHABLE is a bigger plus than being able to solve a LeetCode problem.
Im a software engineer and some of the bootcamp people do ok, but it's very focused on web application building and there is a significant gap in the problem solving abilities with more complex and deeper concepts
This is the key. The technical depth is not there. It’s impossible to be there considering the short duration of bootcamps. The value I see is really the guided learning and breaking of the ice. Some folks are terrible autodidacts, and get good value from instructor led training. Learning in depth takes a long time no matter what.
@@ALifeAfterLayoffI’m a network engineer, for our field a lot comes from on the job, but at the same time very little compared to a person putting in 15-25 hours a week in focused training at home. Cost of training is super low for us but you need a lot of self discipline to put yourself through several hundreds of hours to thousands in order to gain skills that really you can’t wait for a job to teach you.
@@ALifeAfterLayoff some of it, they can learn tools/standards, but from what I've seen is that they tend to stay within what they are comfortable with, most bootcamps seem to be heavy on frontend development so networking/server admin/database schema building/memory management considerations/etc are things they seem to avoid
@@ismaeljrp1 yea I think they are given the impression that their bootcamp has taught them computer science and it's really just taught them how to build a website
Knowing the basics was once all you needed to get yourself a good job in tech, and bootcamps were perfect to get you that entry-level skill set for a few thousand dollars. But since the first one opened 13 years ago, there are now way too many bootcamps churning out too many "graduates" that all the available entry-level roles are now being filled with experienced devs, or with those who have superhuman abilities in understanding the incredibly complex concepts required to become a software developer. So for most of us any bootcamp that teaches fundamentals of programming is pretty much a waste of time and money. Get a solid understanding of the fundamentals on your own through free and inexpensive resources, and only if you find you both enjoy and excel at this career path should you consider spending your money on a bootcamp that will take your entry-level skills and provide the education to craft a worthy portfolio of projects to woo prospective employers with.
If you’re looking to get into Cybersecurity and you are under 35 and have no tech job experience the best route is to join the military. There’s no opportunity out there that gives you credentials, professional networking, and experience in a short period of time.
@@iLoveHatingYall Really think about this for a minute compare a job candidate fresh out of a military contract with four years of military experience in a tech or cyber security field vs a job candidate that completed a Boot Camp that offered“work experience”, and you’ll get your answer.
@@Kimyumoto16 depending on the Bootcamp, the candidate has just as good if not even BETTER of a chance than someone out of the military. Why? Because experience is only half of the battle -- the other half is networking AND ... sure the military candidate has access to classified work immediately BUT ... the other fields are just as lucrative and the Bootcamper only spent 6 months. Not 4 whole years.
UK based here. Had a 5 year software engineering career via an apprenticeship. Was laid off, did interviews for mid-big tech companies who had like 5 stages of interviews, didn’t get any of them and decided to go down the project route and finally landed a job as a project coordinator. Apprenticeships are now using these personality tests to see if you’re worthy to work at companies which are bullsh*t imo - humoured myself to do these tests for fun and “failed” them even tho there’s apparently no wrong answer. Right now there are too many people wanting tech jobs but there’s not many out there - they want mid to senior level even if juniors do have a degree…. I mean how can they get the experience if they can’t even get a graduate job? It’s mad. People seem to think it’s easy to be a software engineer but think again before watching “a day in the life of an SE” - maybe you’re super smart and quick at learning but still it’s a heavy job, can be depressing and lonely and can require coding in your spare time. Anyway good luck to whoever wants to make it in tech (as an SE).
I always recommend that people get their first experience volunteering with a non-profit. You get to know people and learn from them so they can give you a recommendation. Sometimes they turn into paid positions, and with enough experience you can go to a company that pays better.
As always, there's exceptions. I worked at a company on a contract basis and later tried to apply for a permanent position. I already proved myself through my previous work, and the team wanted to bring me in, but the pay they offered wasn't competitive enough. The argument from HR was that starting pay is based on my qualifications (2 years - Associates), and paying me higher (based on my previous experience) could be grounds for other employees to claim pay discrimination.
I need help getting into Cybersecurity as I have a Certificate IV in Cybersecurity. Still, I can't get into Cybersecurity because they tell me I need x number of years of experience. I have also gone the internship route, and they tell me I don't have a degree, so they can't hire me. So, what do I do?
I don't take technical assessments because they are not fair and objective You test people fairly in an academic environment because the material is current and timely. You read a book or attend lectures or are assigned research material and discuss this with the professor or instructor and agree what material is subject to testing. A random generator is not assigned the task of selecting the test content because that would generate content outside of the agreed upon scope. Tests have no place in technical professional resource procurement. Boot camps or test trainers or similar are part of the problem because they enable this bad process. This becomes more of an opportunists pursuit. Make people rich who make it more difficult for you to do the job you have been doing for years. No.
Don't go into tech IMO , I've been in it 12 years it will destroy your soul unless you are a total nerd who is in love with it, if you don't love tech just save yourself the pain and do anything else. Also be prepared to be on call.
@@jermainemyrn19 For me, it's mostly been the times when I was made to do something quickly to get it out the door rather than doing it RIGHT, only to have management turn around and blame us for quality issues that were a direct result of them driving the process too quickly so they could claim the revenue this quarter instead of next.
@@jermainemyrn19because the diverse group who can't even 2 sum on barney language messes up everything and competent people take the accountability. That's why we've been getting shiiiitty products since 2005
@@jermainemyrn19 Have you worked in Tech? Give it enough time and if it is not a passion it will drain you. Even if it is the wrong employeer will find a way to make you hate it.
When I interview people, I asked them to share their screen. I ask them to write any kind of code they want. Hello world if they can’t think of anything. If they’re clicking, they don’t get the job. The good geeks will use vi even in an editor. Then I ask them something that’s not on their resume and make sure they’ve never seen it. I tell them to go look at the man page and see if they can figure it out. Geeks can. And I’ve never been wrong in my hiring decisions.
I don't feel like this video adequately answers the question of what someone breaking into tech needs to do. You mention that experience is king, which seems to be the case from what I've seen of the market, but if you're someone that doesn't have the experience, where do you get it? You suggest self-teaching, but that doesn't seem to provide any experience that someone could actually include on a resume. You see how this is a Catch 22 situation yes? I really have minimal experience in Tech and I'm trying to break in with no real experience (technically, I have 4 years of experience in VBA, but it was largely unsupervised due to organizational problems and VBA doesn't seem to be particularly useful), but every job posting, even the so called "entry level" postings want people who already have experience in the field. Again, a Catch 22.
Another thing worth considering is state grant programs through community colleges. In Indiana there are many work force ready programs in the tech field where the state will give you grants to complete associate programs with built in certifications. It is not an end all be all, but it helped me get my foot in the door for my first entry-level tech job without a ton of debt. Studying for certifications also helped me a lot with sharpening my skills/knowledge to be able to talk my way through an interview and prepare for technical assessments.
@@chuckchan4127You'd be better off with a Comptia Network + over the CCNA given that it's an entry-level, vendor agnostic cert that is more general, across the board (and easier) networking cert vs a CCNA which is Cisco specific. Certs matter to a much larger degree when you're just trying to get your foot in the door with no real, actual experience.
After 35 years in Tech and IT, my current healthcare employer is outsourcing much of it's IT workforce, so I'll be seeking new opportunities soon. At 60 years old, I'm actually looking for something outside of tech to round out my career.
As a biology graduate with experience in data, I’m keen on transitioning into IT. I’ve completed a bootcamp, and while it was beneficial, I discovered that working on my portfolio projects provided me with even more valuable learning experiences. I was contemplating pursuing a master’s conversion degree in data science to improve my chances of being noticed by employers in a competitive tech job market. However, after reflecting on the industry’s emphasis on practical experience and skill demonstration, I’ve decided to double down on honing my abilities and expanding and improving my portfolio rather than investing thousands in an additional degree which may not be looked upon as favourably as work experience and proof of skills/competency. But I agree that niche certifications such as AWS, GIS, Cisco cyber security etc remain important to demonstrate competence in specific roles. Thank you for the insightful video!
This is funny, I work in IT and I'm looking at a change. I certainly would not consider getting into Tech given what's been going on in this job market.
Graduating in SE at the age of 32. My senior design project at my university got me my first job in software engineering in defense. Opens up the doorway for a masters later on. But does come with debt if you can't pay up front. On the amazon interview, it is very well known that the technical interviewing process for software engineering is broken. It is more grinding leetcode for months and memorizing solutions/patterns to pass those tests. Unfortunately it does not portray what your work would look like on a regular basis. Definitely more of the "secret handshake".
I would say the chances of landing a normal or even mediocre software engineering job NOW are around 5% and 0.1% in top companies for an current average jack swe hired 5-6 years ago and recently laid off. You need to go through a loop of up to seven interviews spanned over 1-2 months, only to be highly likely rejected at the end. Why? Because even the most mediocre companies are expecting to hire unicorns. So, I would say either you go for a self-employment role, or startup, or better change to another career. There are plenty of engineering fields where the likelihood of landing a job is far more decent.
Real world: experience. Period. Boot camps are nothing more than cram sessions which emphasize testing to get a cert. Theyre FAR from actually learning the material and having it stick with you. If you have zero experience, the helpdesk / tech support is your gateway. Start with the A+ cert, which is both vendor agnostic and gives a very broad overview. Youll also learn a LOT studying for both modules (there are 2 tests) and focusing on, and knowing the exam objectives specifically is almost a gautantee to pass. I wouldnt even consider a 4 year CS etc degree because typically, unless you want to go into management or its a co. that stipulates a degree is required (not common as it is in the businessworkld) it likely wont help you get an entry level job. IT is not a 4 year degree field.
As a federal contractor in IT for the last 20 years.. I call bullshit. Military doesn't require a degree. Military industrial complex jobs, government contractor jobs, etc don't either. The job listings will usually say looking for x degree, OR equal experience. If a degree was required, I probably shouldn't have a job.. since I never completed mine.
@@AlanDike Same here. 35+ years of software development experience, with about half of that in aerospace/defense, and no degree. Then again, our code tends to go through a much more rigorous development and acceptance process than almost anything except medical product certification, especially the stuff that has to be space-rated and/or flight-safety qualified.
@@stevepreskitt283 I'm infrastructure side of IT.. but got to work in a devops shop as the token ops guy a few years ago... those code reviews are impressive
@@rogerbartlet5720 They really dont. Neither do their systems administrators, help desk, or systems engineers (which has been my job title for about the last 15 years). If I needed a degree, I'd be unemployed right now.
Brian you said a mouthful when you stated" Experience is always going to trump credentials". So Sad. I've never heard it put like that before. I have recently learned that getting a degree for myself and going back to school has been a waste of time and when applying for jobs, if I do not have "experience" I will not get the job. However, how am I or anyone going to get the "experience" if no one gives me the opportunity to get experience. Thanks for this information. Also, this says to me that all that money I invested in college to get Bachelors in Business Administration getting a 3.85 GPA means nothing to those hiring managers. Its just a piece of paper. (credentials) with no experience. One day when I asked a hiring manager did she want to see my degree, she replied "No". I was shocked. All I have now is from going to college is a $74,000 debt that now I owe over $50,000 that I will be paying for the rest of my life unless I will the lottery. This college thing is a way for loan companies to have money in their pockets for a lifetime.
I've run into similar issues with my current job search. senior level, 3+ years of experience listed. _if_ you even get to an interview, the questions range from 'basics you learned in school/few min googling' to 'how do you do this specific thing in this internal tool we made a few months ago' or entry level, 8+ years of experience. I'll never know what's asked in those interviews though, as I'm a mid level with 7 years. so I'm not good enough for them to even consider. it's just a headache sometimes. oh, & pay is almost never mentioned until a recruiter tells you, or it randomly pops up in an interview
The technical competency is the bare minimum. Once you are going for senior level roles or above, being able to understand the business and work effectively with cross-functional stakeholders is how you get ahead. But I get it, you need to start somewhere. For that, I highly recommend CS50. There are different flavors of this free online course...I would start with the plain vanilla one, then try those that are tailored to specific areas of interest, like web dev or game dev. Being good at Leetcode does not make you good at software. It makes you good at Leetcode. It's something, for sure, but it's not the whole bag. The skills that one often has to demonstrate in technical interviews are often very different to the skills that make for a brilliant team member day-to-day.
Where I am from, you can't just enter university to get a computer science/engineering degree willy-nilly. You have to have an appropriate set of grades and, most importantly, have passed the math exam after high school. Even though universities may offer testing during the application period, you still need to be able to pass the exam, which is outside of the ability for most people without preparation. Even if you get in, the three-year BA degree will include a lot of useless stuff along the way, which are not related to the desired skill set at all. So unless you are 20, this road is pretty much closed. It will require an insurmountable level of motivation to basically go through high school again to get a degree which may or may not decide your future. If you still want to take the academic route well into your 30s or 40s, your best bet would be to find an adjacent degree, on Master's level, which will allow you to take programming courses and whatnot. That is, assuming that you already have at least a Bachelor's in something useful. The good news is that this nightmare is completely unnecessary to start in tech and for every employer who rejects you based on your academic merit alone, there will be 2 more who would hire you.
You will need certifications or a college degree in computer science to get started in the IT or Tech field!! Bootcamp is not taken serious by big tech companies and most companies, in general!! I know this for a fact, because I've been in IT-Tech for over 8 years, going on 9 years!! Big Tech companies want you to have a degree in CS, CIS and or some other technical or engineering field, as an entry-level requirement. I've worked at Apple, Inc., Samsung Electronics, Google and Nvidia, and they all wanted a 4-year degree in one of the technical or engineering fields I mentioned above!! Lastly, most people don't end up in Software Development after getting the degree!! To be honest, most people aren't cut out for Software Engineering!! Shit is hard!!
I know dudes in google in san antonio that dont have degrees. But then again... they got 20+ years of experience in telecommunications in the google fiber project since they worked for southwestern bell/ATT in the past.
It was awesome meeting you last night in the career chat event with John . I appreciate all the feedbacks and tips you gave me on how to move forward in my career
Yeah, right now you're not going to be able to move into tech. There have been devastating layoffs since last year that are continuing in to this year. You'll be competing with thousands of applicants for each job.
I currently have VS Codium and also I'm going back to College to be a chemical engineer. I mainly know how to code in C# and I'm strengthening my skills.
I agree with this. I decided to self teach my way into smart contract development. It's niche and new, plus i enjoy the crypto field. I see high wages for solidity developers in the crypto space.
A career in tech is far more than simply coding and it is important to distinguish that. There are so many roles within tech that people can secure and many of those pay extremely well. Yes, coding and cybersecurity competencies revolving around development are the highest-paying, but they are not the only roles and are rarely the entry-level roles people get.
@@ALifeAfterLayoff those are rarely entry-level though. Those require substantial skills and understanding. That’s the point I’m making. I hope that clarifies things.
@@ALifeAfterLayoff it seems a bit strange to me that you say that, as a lot of your videos the past few months have mentioned how rough the tech job market is. There is an overall sentiment among the developer community that unless you can get a return offer for an intern or coop position, your likelihood of getting a job is very low. The time of bootcamp grads is also over, because companies are using degrees exclusively as a filter because they are getting so many applicants. From my own experience, 700+ applications over a year I’ve not been able to find anything. I have 4YoE as well. I am in Canada though where the job market is much worse. I hear the states has started recovering, albeit slowly.
@@masteryoda9044 referring to an individual as “diverse” doesn’t make any sense. It’s an adjective to describe groups, not individuals. Just say what you mean - if you aren’t a straight White man, you stand a chance.
Way to read my mind of what I’ve been battling mentally. I have some tech support experience but have been wanting to get more into the sector, even though it’s a cutthroat field to a degree.
if you have the aptitude, be an engineer. I'm going for a master's precisely for this. it's the best career path in software even amongst the different engineering disciplines. Most CEOs are CS or other types of engineers also.
Hi Bryan, love your videos and concepts so much ❤ Sadly, your advice not applicable for MOMS 😢 Just stuck in part time jobs for 10 years and than be happy with any job 😢
If you have the stomach for the medical field, I highly suggest young people consider a career in the hospital system. Nursing, PA, PT, OT, RT.... so many choices.
I have been in the tech field since 2005 (mainly support) and still paying down some loans. Meanwhile, my son is graduating high school in a few weeks. He is graduating in the top ten percent of his class and he will be working in a cybersecurity degree. Due to his class ranking, he will get a full ride to a small university. But if he did not have that, he would be going to a community college here in town. There is no way in hell I will permit him to be saddled with ridiculous student loans for a large part of his life. My goal is to have him graduate debt free. In my IT experience, employers don't care where you got your degree. Some do ask that you have one but none care where from. Hell, I only have an associate's degree.
Unless you are planning on going into the vocational field of Law. Those pieces of paper mean a lot then. (Don’t go into the field of Law - way too many lawyers, and not enough jobs. Warning!)
Question; As a Us citizen who ahs the opportunity to complete a master's degree in in AI or CS in Europe, am I just making it WAY harder to get a job in the US vs. going to a US school? To what degree?
Can you do a video on why companies post the same remote job, but in different parts in the country or even different areas of a city? I find it strange and I curious to know if I should apply to only one or all of them.
First video I wanted on your channel you posted a year ago about looking for a job and wow your videos are so informative and clear and start to the point
I have some IS experience in software testing, but I left several years ago. I'm trying to get back in as a Data Engineer. I like working with databases and data files, and I am currently working toward an IBM certification. I think I have a shot at it since I do have previous experience.
Theres two kinds of tech jobs: You either start as a code monkey and work your way up to relevant jobs. Or you start as tech support in a call center and work your way up sys admin like jobs. Choose relevant AND affordable training based on the chosen route.
Exactly! I worked as a product support specialist for a startup for a year. Got laid off in 2022 but landed a system admin role in 2023 by leveraging my previous experience. I am looking into getting software engineering as my next step.
I worked in tech until 2022 and I regret not going into a trade before going back to school. Had I became an electrician as I had originally intended, I would be laughing right now.
Years and years ago when i started my career in IT my first boss told me "all a college degree tells me is that you're likely at least 2-4 years behind."
none is important eventhough you need someone to explain you certain things, but your success depend on your zeal and determination. watch videos and do the practicals on your own. wasting money on universities and bootcamp won't help you
@luke5100 The tech industry ballooned up into this ludicrous size because of what they called "the googling" before 2001, the "tech" industry was super niche, and not many people had an interest in learning how to code in basic, or even owned an Amiga. even before the 4004, of any other GP CPU, people couldn't even figure out how to operate MS-DOS. but look, Google all of a sudden got a reputation of paying loads of money to even interns (we're talking 70k/yr average) and L3s were getting starting salaries of 160k+/yr, which was the equivalent of a principal engineer in "just another company outside the SV" So the problem now is that it spot-lit the industry as this "money making gold mine" so, what do low-skilled, low-tier people do? they flood the market, so now companies have to make better vetting processes to weed out these web-dev boot campers because apparently, learning HTML+CSS makes you the equivalent of a Rust/Go-Lang programmer (even though HTML+CSS isn't a programming language) but what about IT? many people don't get the correct credentials, and just flood the SQA/DBQ positions, having absolutely no idea what they are doing. They watch one youtube video on "ping" and "iproute" and suddenly they're a cyber-sec expert. What's even sadder, is how at my last company this Pune-educated old lady with an MS in IS clearly had no idea what a pen-test was. She just assumed it was a standard QA testing (which gave absolutely NO INFO on how much damage a leak would cause, other than LOL the device works like we want it) and nobody questioned her because she was brown (also the fact that she missed not one, not two, not three... but real talk, FOUR major deadlines in my 3 years of tenureship) That pissed me off so much, I basically wrecked shop until my manager fired me, and the irony was that he got laid off not even 2 months later. (he was the WORST manager I ever worked with) People like this get promoted into the highest position the company can afford, but let you actually have the correct experience and know what you are doing when it comes to routing, networking, pen testing, homologation, etc.... "you're not brown, you clown" yeah, that was basically my experience in IT, it is literally SOUL-CRUSHING. "bad products since 2005"
@luke5100 tl;dr the IT industry is saturated with incorrectly credentialed people who have absolutely no experience/right to be there other than ne-po-tis-m and immuteable qualities. it's not just IT, it's also IS and cyber-sec
Experience does not count for anything in the tech world. They have a laundry list of software you are required to have used for an arbitrary amount of years, which nobody ever meets. Then you get an irrelevant timed test. Whoever finished the test the fastest is the new employee. Nothing you have ever posted will ever be evaluated. THIS PROCESS IS SIMILAR TO A GAME SHOW.
@@chuckchan4127he’s saying that experience only matters if you’ve worked with a companies exact tech stack already. Companies want new developers to hit the ground running and don’t want to spend any time training them. I have experience in python, Java, JavaScript, typescript, c, c++, and go. I’ve applied for positions that work with rust, something that I could easily learn and build a project in a week, but companies don’t care they want professional work experience only. On top of that, even if you have 5+ years of experience in their stack, if you don’t do well enough on their leetcode assignment in an interview you are rejected. Companies used to care more about how you approach solving the problem, not if you did it well enough. In addition a lot of leetcode solutions are just pure memorization and don’t have anything to do with actual software engineering.
Please don’t do these “how to start a career in IT”, you don’t understand how hard, long and riddled with obstacles it is. Only people who work in tech at least 5-7 years know how hard this field is. I mentor students on college and I tell around 70% of them to get another career, with compasion of course and sensibility.
This isn't good advice. Convincing 70% of people to pursue other careers because of a preconceived notion that it's "too difficult" is affecting people's lives adversely, rather than learning how to approach your career with an ownership mindset. Please rethink your strategy here.
@@ALifeAfterLayoffa lot of these people trying to get into tech don't even deserve to be there. The industry for engineers is a passion driven, and we get bottom tier diversity candidates that can't code themselves a rice cooker trying to make it into a big DB engineering field. The industry is saturated woth incompetence.