I was a Full-Time Singer for over 5 years, but now I’m a Software Engineer.
Changing careers — The joys, the woes, the struggles.
Singing was my life. I worked tirelessly for years to build my career in the music industry, performing at multiple bars, pubs, weddings and events 6–7 days a week. It was something I loved doing from the bottom of my heart and never wanted to stop doing.
Of course going into music (and being a female in a superficial industry), I knew my career lifespan was limited by how long I looked young.. So going into Software Engineering was something that I actually thought about exploring prior to Covid-19, but being a freelancer meant that if I didn’t work, I didn’t earn. So I chose to work and my Software Engineering journey was put on the back-burner.
Alas, 2020 came. Along with Covid-19.
My livelihood was cancelled.
Live music was cancelled. Weddings were cancelled. Drinking and dining out were cancelled. My income was cancelled. My music career was cancelled. From having 9+ gigs a week, I was down to 0. 🥲
On the bright side, I finally had all the time in the world to explore my interest in Software Engineering.
Hitting the books after 10 years
After considering the state of my finances, I decided to enrol myself in a 3 months bootcamp — General Assembly’s Software Engineering Immersive. I was lucky enough to qualify for a subsidy and had enough savings on hand which made the choice easier. Also, I’m a hands on learner and tend to remember things better as I’m doing them, which made going for a bootcamp the natural choice for me.
Being surrounded by like-minded people also makes a huge difference when you’re trying to learn something for the first time. The bootcamp was also something that exposed me to collaboration with other coders, which is so important in Software Engineering. We had 4 projects to complete during the span of the bootcamp, of which 2 were group projects. I learnt many things and discovered new perspectives while collaborating with my teammates. As they say,
“Teamwork makes the dream work.”
It was really fantastic watching your product come to life from conception. It was also during these projects that I realised that I really, really enjoyed coding — it was nothing short of refreshing to use my underused left brain after 10 years and to be able to make ideas come to life. That’s when I made the decision to try and do Software Engineering full-time.
The difficulties of being a career switcher
Sending out resumes was something that I had never done as a musician. The gigs sort of just.. came, so finding a job the “traditional” way was something that scared me sh*tless.
Firstly, my previous career had nothing to do with Software Engineering. I had no relevant qualifications and only had a Diploma in Music & Audio Technology to my name (which didn’t help 👀). The kicker was that my CV was irrelevant, and I hadn’t done any formal job interviews before.
I spent a lot of time researching how successful career changers managed to do so, and fine-tuning my resume and interview skills. One thing I learnt, was that it’s important to help your future employer understand why you’d be a good fit for the job even without experience — drawing parallels to previous work and the future role is an important thing to do.
For example, musicians are good at breaking things down into bite-sized pieces. When learning a new piece of music, it’s difficult to learn the whole thing in one sitting, so it’s natural for us to break the song down into sections and learn them section by section. Similarly with software engineering, sometimes problems are too big and need to be broken down into smaller bits. Musicians also tend to have the same obsessive personality that coders have. 😬
Also, I remember asking many friends to review my CV and cover letters over a dozen times and I’m really grateful to them as well. 🙏 Getting a second opinion always helps.
Of course I still faced the challenge of getting responses from employers who didn’t write me off just based off the fact that I don’t have a degree. I remember my savings dwindling and sending out over 100 resumes.. but my persistence paid off eventually!
Starting work at
Expectations: Woohoo! I got a job! I’m a software engineer! 🎉
Reality: All aboard the struggle bus! 🚌 😣
Not gonna lie, it was not an easy transition. There were so many things I had to get used to.. like getting used to waking up early after being a night owl for years, fighting the peak hour crowds and traffic, sitting down for looong stretches. It was a challenge trying to adjust to office life. I wasn’t quite sure how offices were normally run, so I felt out of place for quite awhile to be honest.
Then working from home became a default here in Singapore, and imposter syndrome kicked in. Some days you doubt yourself, and some days you feel good. But it’s all part of the journey, and I’ve decided to enjoy the ride.
Regrets?
No way. I’m really grateful that Healint gave me a chance to do something new with my life. I’m also really lucky to have supportive and helpful colleagues who believe in me, and I’ve got so much to learn and hopefully even more to contribute. 😊
Sure, software engineering is challenging and can be really frustrating at times, but that’s the beauty of it. The struggle to find good and creative solutions to problems is what makes it fulfilling and keeps the work interesting, and every time you solve a problem, you know you’ve grown a little bit more.
So as with everything in life — struggle. When you’re stuck get help. Help when you can. But most importantly, don’t be scared. If you are scared, go for it anyway. You got this. 😉
