[hanszilla]

I've been thinking of going through with a career change. Currently I'm in sales and I've been doing it for a while, I make decent money and I'm good at what I do. At this point in my career it's hard to take too much of a paycut as my standard of living is pretty high. I would like to get into software engineering or ops but, I don't have the true work experience for those position.

Anyone been through this before ?

Any advice for someone that wants to get into software engineering with no experience ?

[bimmerfrk]

Well I do infrastructure engineering. Your best bet is to learn or obtain some coding skills. Do you know any languages? If not start simple with like html, then go to java, or php, then ajax or ruby. Learn how to build some web apps. There is a huge market for software-as-service and you could definitely get a entry level engineering gig if you were proficient at some core fundamental development languages.

My other advice is that whatever you plan to learn, learn as much of you it as you can. A lot of companies are looking to fill specific skill sets per employee not a broad range. So the more you know about one specific language the greater advantage you have.

Good luck op

[NickyC]

Good luck OP, but whatever you do (and you probably already know this), don't jump ship before you have another ride if you know what I mean.

This economy is awful, 92 million Americans out of work, labor participation rates at 38 year highs, stagnant wages, and absolutely nothing in the future that would lead one to believe things are ever going to get better.

If you have a stable, well paying job now, be happy with what you've got and only jump to something new if you're 100% sure it's what you want to do, and it will pay just as well and be stable. The grass is always, ALWAYS greener on the other side, sometimes we just need to be happy with what he have in life.

I think I read a statistic somewhere that only around 15% of people like what they do for a living. Work sucks, always has, always will for the vast majority of people. I'd just deal with it if I were you. Times have changed, the labor market is not what it used to be, nor will it even be again.

[Whostheboss]

I used to be a sales person for Sprint (Nextel then) while i was in college for Software engineering.

What i like most about SE is that you don't have to deal with humans because they can be very difficult.

If you know absolutely nothing about coding, i will suggest you take a college level program. At minimum 2yrs, this will get you started.
Reading books and watching youtube videos will not help at all.

Now, if you have some knowledge. I suggest you find a field and focus very hard on that area by reading books and watching tons of tutorial videos. Like the guy above me mentioned. Companies are looking for individuals with great skills at a particular field and not an individual with mediocre skills at everything.

What are some of the hottest field you should be looking at?
As 2014. The best fields to be as a Software engineer are:

- Mobile development (Android or iOS)
PROS: Easily get a job, good pay, fun to work with.
CONS: Most jobs are contract jobs and not full time. Company can easily replace you with a younger cheaper individual who is more hip.

- Embedded Software Engineer
- This is probably the hottest field now.
PROS:Very high pay, almost all of them are Full time, fun job.
CONS: Over worked, you may be putting in almost 55hrs a week. Since embedded software relies heavily on hardware. If the hardware does not perform well, you can be out of work (and it's not even your fault).

PM me if you need more details.

[MrPrena]

Sales job can be easiest and also hardest.
I get a super high when I close a huge contract, but when I am in slump, I really do not even wanna go to work.

As a good sales manager, they need to prep talk individually, give spoon deals, and others to motivate people in slump to get back in to top5% again.

Being said, this is why I do not like sales. It is like total bipolar manic -depressant, but I learned a lot from being in a sales.

Going to different area would be a huge adaptation. Salary will be most likely (depends on your percentile) to decrease. Sales management would be a different story, but there will be no bosses kissing sale's people's ass. No huge bonus. No direct contact with srvp, executives.

Originally Posted by Hansiepooh

I've been thinking of going through with a career change. Currently I'm in sales and I've been doing it for a while, I make decent money and I'm good at what I do. At this point in my career it's hard to take too much of a paycut as my standard of living is pretty high. I would like to get into software engineering or ops but, I don't have the true work experience for those position.

Anyone been through this before ?

Any advice for someone that wants to get into software engineering with no experience ?