How They Did It | Shawn Wang’s Career Transition From Finance to Tech

The moment we discovered Shawn @swyx on twitter we knew we wanted to interview him. Currently a highly motivated (and visible) software advocate who’s amassed tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, Shawn started his career in finance and made the switch not long ago. We can tell from his active Twitter participation and moderating the r/reactjs subreddit that he is multi-passionate and open to sharing his experiences; his down to earth personality seeps through every trail we found and we knew Shawn would be a great person to interview.

This post is meant to serve as a summary that accompanies the original interview which we published on our podcast Work In Progress Podcast. Here I highlight my favorite parts from this conversation and some useful resources. For the full interview you can find it here.

The conversation can be largely divided into two parts: career change and tech. We started with his journey from finance to tech and dove deep into the topics on Product Manager, bootcamp, then swiveled back to career change.

The part that really moved me

“I think there are a lot of people like me, especially in finance, and I hope that my story can show others it’s possible and it’s not that hard. If you work hard at it, you’ll do fine, the demand for developers is so huge. I’m here to help anyone else who wants to go through that same career transition.”

How did you decide on which bootcamp to join?

Shawn sets his standards high. After completing the self-directed freeCodeCamp tutorials he wanted to get into the most competitive bootcamp because he wanted to work with cohorts who will criticize and give constructive feedback on his work. That happened to be Fullstack Academy in New York.

How long did the career change take you?

Over two years, from nights and weekends doing the freeCode Camp tutorials in 2016 to when he landed a job in tech in 2018

His learning projects

Typescript

How to add value to your career

Besides excelling at the technical…

• Add public speaking to your repertoire
• Bring a solid network with you — employers hire you AND your network
• Focus on your skills, not which companies you have on your resume

Advice for switching from finance to tech

• Data science — similar to the number crunching in finance, but high barrier to entry (PhD required in most cases)
• Machine learning, AI
• Web development
• Georgia Tech Online Master of Science Computer Science (OMS CS)

Advice for navigating the post-bootcamp job search phase

• Besides keeping up with the technical side of things…
• Have coffee chats with people in your network who work at companies you want to work at

How to provide value as a newcomer

The beauty of being a beginner in tech is that you are probably more familiar with the newer languages, so be the expert in these newer fields

Most Unique Philosophy

It’s hard to pick since Shawn has so many, but our favorite is No zero days

Technical Resources

• Fullstack Academy
• freeCodeCamp
• Lambda School
• Georgia Tech Online Master of Science Computer Science (OMS CS)

Shawn’s next career move (Work In Progress)

Ruby on Rails for JavaScript

Photo by True Agency on Unsplash

Work In Progress is a blog hosted by two twin sisters passionate about transitions in career and life. Our series “How They Did It” features interviews of people who successfully changed their careers in all walks of life.

Our belief is simple: if people are able to pursue the careers they like, they can lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives. And we want to show readers that it CAN be done.