I recently decided to go back to school and get a job in the tech industry. I’m looking at cyber security but I’m not looked into that decision.
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What degree would you recommend someone to pursue?
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What field would you recommend after graduating?
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What would you tell someone to avoid at all cost?
Avoid consulting companies that promise you Senior positions while you are a Junior.
They’ll teach you a language and platform then ship you out B2B with a fake resume and social, including references and experience (they even provide support while you’re on the job).
It sounds like a great deal if you don’t have a job, need a job, and have the right skill set but these agencies make a killing off of either inflating desired salaries or skimming more off of yours to recoup.
Shit is so bad they fly people across the country for training who then work at $130k+ jobs straight out of a coding boot camp without a degree.
There are some legit companies that train developers and help them find jobs but there is a lot of immoral activity that takes place.
How does one find one of these 130k+ jobs without having the parasitic relationship that seems to be necessary to acquire it?
Go through the education that is necessary for the jobs you’re looking for. While CS may not be wholly necessary, you’ll have more prospects with a degree than without one.
After that, start at the bottom (or wherever you land) and maybe 5 years later you’ll get lucky enough to find one.
TBH you need to be more knowledgeable while interviewing than you need to be while working.
Part of the reason is because some people get live help during the interviews and so expectations rise.
Code quality doesn’t necessarily follow suit, however.
Oh whoops, I have about 10 years of industry experience with a cs degree. I literally just don’t know how to job search because I was fortunate enough to get hired into my college co-op job. I want the blessed 6 digit salary but I can’t get a call back. It seems like the only way forward is through recruiters who are going to skim more money than moving is worth.
But maybe I’m just too comfortable here. Maybe I just don’t actually want to leave badly enough. Idk (I seem to be rambling at you to process my own thoughts, my apologies if this is annoying).
Don’t worry about it, I know how annoying it can be, especially when seeing people seemingly get lucky on their first try.
From the mobile devs I know I’m hearing the job market isn’t great but there is bound to be some interest for multiplatform devs, probably will always be demand for embedded devs too but I’m not sure how much they make on average.
Almost feels like everyone wants a dev to know everything these days.
Would you say that these coding boot camps are a scam?
Yes. You can’t become competent from a boot camp. 3-5 years is what it takes to get a good baseline and then after a few years of the right experience you might start becoming competent.
No guarantee though. Some people just don’t have it in them.