How did you make the career pivot?
This is a general ask for those that successfully made pivots in their overall careers. What was your experience like? Why did you make it? Did you feel like when you made the pivot you were...
This is a general ask for those that successfully made pivots in their overall careers. What was your experience like? Why did you make it? Did you feel like when you made the pivot you were starting from the bottom? or did you gradually change roles within a single company to ease yourself into the transition?
I'm currently trying to make a change of career (hence the question). My goal is to pivot out of a market research role into a software engineer focused role. Worry constantly creeps in about feasibility. I make good money in the role I'm in so could I take a possible hit to my salary if I had to start in a junior role? I turn 29 this year, and part of me worries if I'm too far down the path to make such a big change. Now, I've tempered some of the fear as I know I could apply my knowledge of research to create tools I've seen the industry in need of. I've dabbled in common languages like HTML, CSS, Lua, JS, Python, and R during my time in research.
Now, I think I've compiled the 3 hardest questions regarding my specific apprehension of moving into software development:
- Is there like a collectively agreed all-around language that everyone should start with?
- Is there a formal way to learn a coding language?
- Even with such little experience, could I still build a solid career in the field?
I don't expect anyone to answer those last three if they don't want to, but I'd love to hear about any and all experiences with career pivots.