My Career Change from Business Psychologist to Web Developer

Why?

Early 2017 I decided I was ready for a career change. I had been a business psychologist and management consultant for a few years. Although I had greatly enjoyed studying an MSc in occupational psychology, the reality of the day-to-day job was not as rewarding, and was extremely demanding. I decided to take an analytical approach to considering what I would need in my ideal career. It would include;

• Challenge — it would keep my mind engaged and ideally involve solving problems
• Enjoyment — I would want to do it in my spare time even if I didn’t get paid for it!
• Work-life Balance — preferably involve less of the following; extensive travel, back-to-back client meetings, high stress levels and extremely long hours, all of which were characteristic of my last career
• Career and Growth Opportunities — ability to progress and grow in my role, building an in-demand skill-set
• Ease of Transition — potential to change careers into this field within a realistic timeframe

Web development ticked all my boxes — I had coded in the past and always enjoyed it. I spoke to a good friend who is a developer and did a lot of research and decided to go for it.

How?

I chose to undertake an immersive web development boot-camp at General Assembly London, due to;

• Positive online reviews — described talented instructors and high course satisfaction
• Global course — well known to employers across the world
• Course material relevance — materials are continuously updated to meet industry expectations, which is not possible for university courses
• More cost effective than university due to more focused syllabus over a shorter time frame
• Career opportunities post course — GA state 99% of graduates who partake in the post-course support secure jobs within six months

On the 25th September 2018, three days before my 29th birthday, I began my three-month full-time boot-camp with General Assembly. I was on a six month sabbatical from my consulting role so I had a safety net if it didn’t work out..

What?

I was based at the General Assembly London offices in Aldgate from September until the end of the year. The course prepared me in technical skills (creating projects in MEAN and MERN stacks, using Github amongst many other tools) and soft skills (presentations, stand-ups etc). I had 25 other classmates, who came from all walks of life. Many had worked in artistic industries, such as art history or music, or non-technical roles in a technical industry, such as my experience of consulting on technical change management programmes. There was a roughly equal intake of women and men, some of whom had been to university, some hadn’t.

Regardless of our previous career history, we could all utilise our previous skills and experience to offer a different perspective. One classmate (who had completed the course to better communicate with developers in his business) created a social media platform for businesses to speak to investors, another classmate (who had previously worked in an artistic field) created the most stunning designs with responsive layouts on her sites.

Each day began with a stand-up, with all classmates and instructors. Throughout the day we had multiple lectures, labs (practical work), and on some weeks we also had time to work on group or individual projects. Class time was from 9–6 each day, with extensive homework every evening, and on weekends. It was truly immersive, with a relentless, fast paced approach, which involved diving headfirst into a concept, language, framework, and just as we would begin to get our heads around it the instructor would announce ‘Now forget that, we’re moving onto something else!’. This could be incredibly frustrating as we would make progress with grasping something then have to drop it before gaining the level of understanding needed. I found however that a lot of what hadn’t clicked for me on the course did make sense at a later stage once I began working. It was best to go with the flow on the course and simply focus on what I had learned by the end of each day which I didn’t know or couldn’t do when I came in that morning.

And now?

Early 2018, a year after I initially began considering a career change, I had completed my course and was ready to apply for roles. I focused in on the industries that most interested me and identified roles where I believed my existing skill-set would be a good fit. I was fortunate enough to land a junior software engineering role from the first interview I attended, with Beamly, part of Coty Inc and based in Covent Garden. My role primarily involves working with beauty industry clients such as Max Factor, Rimmel, Covergirl etc, and focusing on the front-end development of their websites.

In early 2019 I will have been working as a web developer for a year, and I have greatly enjoyed every minute. My favourite part of the job is the ability to fully get your head stuck into a problem and enjoy the satisfaction you feel when you solve it. I have learned so much in such a short space of time, which makes me excited for what the future will bring, as the possibilities and learning opportunities are endless. While becoming a web developer involved sacrifice for me (costs and effort involved in undertaking the course and starting over in a new career), it was completely worth it and I would recommend it to anyone interested in coding who is thinking of a career change. If you aren’t sure, get on Codecademy and give it a go.

If you enjoy it and are determined to work hard at it,

there is nothing stopping you.

If you enjoyed reading this, we’d love to hear from you. And by the way, we’re growing our Product & Engineering team! If you’re passionate about creating cutting-edge consumer experiences and building scalable solutions, come join us by visiting https://www.beamly.com/#section-join-us.