Career Rebooting: Sarah Paz, from Digital Marketing to Software Development
Sarah shares her story and provides career insights for aspiring software engineers.
What were you doing previously?
My background is in e-commerce and marketing. I’ve mainly worked on improving the user experience, web optimization, building landing pages, and campaign creative as well as overall website updates and maintenance. Currently, I am still working within these industries as a Digital Marketing Specialist for a fitness startup while I continue my search for a dev job.
What inspired you to change careers?
Ever since my first job out of college I’ve been interested in code. I was first exposed to HTML and CSS when I was tasked with building newsletters and email templates. But with little experience, I asked my employer about potentially covering the costs of a part-time web development program at a local college, and they agreed.
After completing this certificate program, with a more thorough understanding of HTML, CSS and even learning JavaScript I would always vocalize my interests in code and have found a way to integrate it within each company I’ve worked at. Eventually, I reached a point where I knew my passion for code was larger than my passion for marketing, and I no longer wanted code to be a small percentage of my job, I wanted it to be the majority.
3. What are three resources that have eased your career transition?
Although I am still in the middle of my career transition, three resources that continue to help are:
- Twitter / Community — There’s a huge Twitter community of devs who are happy to support and offer help. This career transition is a difficult one, so to have the support of people who understand and have or are going through the same career change themselves is really helpful.
- Meetups / Networking — Being involved within your local dev community is also helpful. I think Meetups are a great resource and a really good way to put yourself out there and connect with potential employers. I have made some great connections through Meetups, and have been referred to apply for jobs as well. Meeting someone who works at a company you’re interested in and connecting with them in person is a great way to get your foot in the door and ensure your application isn’t lost in the crowd.
- Mentorship / Guidance / Accountability Partners — After graduating I felt a bit lost and not sure what to focus on. I’ve since found a few mentors who have been very helpful. I have one mentor who is an accountability partner helping guide me through a side project. Another has been involved in hiring at his company and has offered to pair program with me and help me run through mock interviews. Feeling unsure with this career transition is a common feeling, and I think the guidance a mentor provides can definitely help relieve some of that uncertainty.
4. What is one misconception you’ve debunked during your career transition?
I think one misconception is that you need to have experience in almost everything. Immediately after graduating, and even close to graduating I would hear that I need to learn this, or that and it was truly overwhelming.
I think what’s best is that you’re honest with your skillset, you continue to work on improving an area of interest for you and then learn a library or framework, and build some projects that showcase these skills. Not understanding or knowing everything is completely normal, but having the passion, willingness and overall interests in bettering yourself and continuing to learn is what’s important.
5. What is one piece of advice you would give yourself if you could rewind time to the beginning of your career transition?
One piece of advice I would give myself is to break out of my shell earlier than later. I struggled with understanding some concepts and working through some labs while at Flatiron School when all I had to do was ask questions! I would also tell myself to participate more in pair programming. I would with some friends or in some study groups, but there were tons more opportunities to work on code challenges and pair program that I didn’t take.
Algorithms/coding challenges are a huge part of the interviewing process and I find that I’m spending so much time on code challenges now because I missed out earlier on. I would highly recommend anyone working on their career transition to dedicate some time to this, and pair programming. It not only helps you understand other possible solutions, but it also helps you practice explaining your code.
