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Career growth
As a recent career changer (I have a background as a career coach and child therapist) with an interest in robotics I attended and graduated a software engineer bootcamp in hoped that I would find a technical job that blended my experience. I recently started a non-technical role (as a designer) at a robotics company geared to improve the social and emotional skills of children. Although I'm still new, my goal is to become an engineer within my company sooner rather than later. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could make the transition into a more technical role?
I haven’t considered being this direct with my approach, definitely something to consider
100% agree with the advice given. I think if you make your interest known, seek mentorship and you will go far. Something that has worked for me in the past when there was a target role or group I was seeking out was making my interest in their role clear and also asking what skills and experiences they would look for in a candidate or said differently what is the ideal candidate for you in this space. Asking for that clarity and advice of actions you can take will help you in accomplishing that goal. I also find stretch assignments or projects to be a huge benefit. I have facilitated stretch assignments and it really gives a person an opportunity to do a project on the target area without being fully in the position. Gives the leaders exposure to you and what you can do and subsequently can give you an opportunity to be considered or thought of later!
First off, a big congratulations!!! I also did the bootcamp thing, and I think this new role sounds like a fantastic combination of your interests. Definitely don't underestimate how much your technical skills are already coming in handy!
Two suggestions: 1) maintain your initiative on personal projects and tech-related networking. There are always lots of meetups (even virtually) and I love WomenWhoCode! Keep a side project or two going, or just keep track on github of stuff you're studying or coding challenges you solve...(for a while, I kept my notes, with examples, from studying data structures in a repo). Basically, keep practicing and making sure that other people know you're practicing. This comes with a grain of salt--your direction will change as you figure what you're interested in, or what technologies will be most useful for you. It drives me nuts this whole "always have a side project" thing--but I learned your side project can be really minimal, you don't have to deploy a full stack app every few weeks, and that makes it a lot easier.
2) Armed with this personal initiative and evidence of you technical interest and ability, as you settle into your job look for ways to participate and contribute to technical projects. See if you can get mentorship or meetings with people in technical roles. See if you can provide feedback, or sandbox a new feature, or sit in on code review, or just get feedback from someone on your personal work. I would suggest taking this slowly, I don't know the politics or expectations of your workplace. You want this to come off as you trying to grow and add to the team!
Thank you for such amazing advice!! Now that I’m starting to get into a groove, I can start poking around the development team to see how I can contribute.