My Journey from Accounting to Software Development
Tradition dictates that the ideal career route involves receiving a recognized and highly specialized post-secondary education, finding a stable job in the chosen domain of specialization, and sticking with it through thick and thin. It takes a lot of courage to stray from this well-trodden path, especially after having found the aforementioned stable job. My journey started with a Bachelor’s in Accounting, which landed me a job at SSENSE as an Accounts Payable Clerk. This aligned perfectly with the original plan, but after starting at SSENSE, I quickly found myself much more interested in the work that my colleagues in software teams were doing. After researching the possibility of a career transition, I decided to bravely abandon my stable career in accounting and dive deep into software development in the hope of eventually landing a job in tech.
My Motivation
While I did not have a formal academic background in computer science or software development, I have always been fascinated by technology and saw programming as a means for problem solving and creative expression. We interact with programmed interfaces on a daily basis, whether it be an app on your smartphone, the timer on your oven or the traffic lights on the streets. This, coupled with the current rate of technological advancement and the energy in the tech-industry, make the possibilities seem endless. The prospect of constantly learning and growing while solving problems in creative ways piqued my interest and provided me the motivation required to pursue the challenging endeavour of a career transition.
My Plan
People looking to learn software development from scratch now have a dizzying array of options — online and offline courses of varying durations, podcasts, blogs, vlogs etc. In order to fully commit myself to pursuing my career transition, I left my position at SSENSE and decided to pursue a full-time software development bootcamp — a gruelling 8 week long course which affords its students no free time or energy.
Bootcamp was a lot to take in, but I enjoyed the challenges it posed and the learning opportunities it presented. We had a lot to learn in a very limited period of time, which we compensated for by putting in very long hours. By the end of the bootcamp, I had learned a lot of the fundamentals of JavaScript, and developed the ability to solve complex problems by asking the right questions and researching solutions. Upon graduating, I applied back to SSENSE for the role of a Junior Software Developer. Fortunately for me, SSENSE gave me the opportunity to prove myself.
The Learning Curve
Once I started working, it didn’t take me long to realize that what I had learned at bootcamp was just the tip of the iceberg. Enterprise-grade software development involves a lot more than just writing code. Due to my lack of an academic background in software engineering, the initial learning curve seemed exceptionally steep. Concepts such as containerized deployment, orchestration and clustering were completely alien to me. Fortunately for me, SSENSE gave me access to several great mentors who helped me ramp up quickly. I also developed the daily habit of pushing myself to learn outside of work, mostly through online resources. The pressure of being dropped straight into the deep-end was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. It forced me to step out of my comfort zone and challenge my limits. In hindsight, I have come to realize that steep learning curves are par for the course in a developer’s career. Every battle-tested developer has similar stories to tell.
The Outcome
I left SSENSE as an Account Payable Clerk and was welcomed back as a Junior Software Developer. A year has passed since and the journey has been undoubtedly difficult, but I do not regret any of the decisions I made along the way. Abandoning my former, well established career trajectory in finance was probably the hardest decision to make. I had to consider the possibility of not finding employment right after bootcamp. Factoring in the cost of the bootcamp and the monthly expenses of rent and bills, I knew that I could not risk being unemployed for too long. What kept me going was faith in my own abilities and the inspiring stories of other developers who carved out their careers in similarly unconventional ways. If you find yourself contemplating a similar move, I hope my story serves to boost your confidence in taking the leap. It would be naive to think that there are no risks involved but if you are truly passionate about your career, the state of the job market in our industry today might make it a risk worth taking. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Editorial reviews by Deanna Chow, Liela Touré & Prateek Sanyal
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